BILL ANALYSIS Ó
`SENATE COMMITTEE ON HEALTH
Senator Ed Hernandez, O.D., Chair
BILL NO: AB 119
AUTHOR: Committee on Environmental Safety and Toxic
Materials
AMENDED: April 16, 2013
HEARING DATE: June 26, 2013
CONSULTANT: Moreno
SUBJECT : Water treatment devices.
SUMMARY : Deletes the requirement in existing law that water
treatment devices be certified by the Department of Public
Health and instead, requires device manufacturers be certified
by an independent accrediting organization and provide the
Department of Public Health with documentation to that fact.
Requires the Department of Public Health to post, on its
website, a list of certified devices.
Existing law:
1.Requires, under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA),
the federal Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) to set
standards for drinking water quality and oversee the states,
localities, and water suppliers who implement those standards.
2.Establishes the Drinking Water Program within the Department
of Public Health (DPH) to regulate public drinking water
systems under delegated authority from the US EPA.
3.Requires a water treatment device manufacturer who claims that
a drinking water treatment device will reduce contaminants or
makes other health related performance claims, to be certified
by DPH as to that effect.
4.Requires water treatment device manufacturers to pay a fee to
DPH for each treatment device application for certification.
This bill:
1.Deletes the requirement in existing law that water treatment
devices be certified by DPH.
2.Repeals all regulations adopted pursuant to existing law
related to water treatment devices prior to January 1, 2014.
Continued---
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3.Requires, commencing January 1, 2014, water treatment device
manufacturers making a health or safety claim to submit the
following information to DPH along with an annual fee, as
specified, by March 1 of each calendar year, for the purposes
of posting on the DPH website:
a. The name, address, telephone number, and Internet Web
site address, if any, of the manufacturer;
b. The name, address, and telephone number of a contact
person for the manufacturer;
c. The name and model number of the water treatment device,
and any other product identification used by the
manufacturer to describe the water treatment device or
treatment component; and,
d. Each specific contaminant claimed to be removed or
reduced by the device and the name of the organization that
certified the device to verify its removal or reduction
performance for that contaminant, the name of the testing
protocol or standard used to test the device, a statement
from the testing laboratory giving the date of the test, a
summary of the results, and the date, if any, by which the
device must be retested for verification of the removal or
reduction performance to remain effective.
4.Repeals existing law related to the prohibition of the sale or
distribution of un-certified water treatment devices and
instead prohibits the sale or distribution of a water
treatment device for which a health or safety claim is made
unless it has a valid certificate issued on or before December
31, 2013 or it:
a. Has been certified by an independent certification
organization that has been accredited by the American
National Standards Institute;
b. Has been tested and the test results verify the health
or safety claim; or,
c. Is included on the list of water treatment devices
published on the DPH website.
5.Requires, before July 1, 2015, the exterior packaging of a
water treatment device for which a health or safety claim is
made, and that is offered for sale in a retail establishment
in California, to clearly identify the contaminant or
contaminants that the device has been certified pursuant to 4)
above to remove or reduce. Requires, if a device has been
certified to remove or reduce more than five contaminants, at
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least five contaminants to be listed on the exterior packaging
followed by a statement directing consumers to visit the
manufacturer's web site to obtain information regarding
additional contaminants that the device is certified to remove
or reduce.
6.Requires, before July 1, 2015, the manufacturer of a water
treatment device for which it makes a health or safety claim
to include with each water treatment device sold in California
a decal that may be affixed to the device by the consumer that
states, at a minimum:
"Please refer to the owner's manual for proper maintenance and
operation. If this device is not maintained and operated as
specified in the owner's manual, there is a risk of exposure
to contaminants. For more information, visit the
manufacturer's Internet Web site at Manufacturer's Internet
Web Site or the California Department of Public Health's
Internet Web site at www.cdph.ca.gov."
7.Prohibits a certificate issued by DPH from being valid unless
the application for certification was filed on or before
November 1, 2013. Makes a currently valid certificate issued
on or before December 31, 2013 valid for five years following
the date of initial issuance, except that any certification
that was renewed on or before January 1, 2014, is valid only
for the remaining period of that certification.
8.Permits DPH, rather than suspend, revoke, or deny a
certificate, to remove a water treatment device from, or
determine not to include a water treatment device on, the list
of water treatment devices on its website upon its
determination that the devices was not certified pursuant to
4) above, the manufacturer has violated specified existing
law, any of the information submitted pursuant to 3) above is
not true, or a certificate issued by DPH prior to December 31,
2013, has expired.
9.Deletes the requirement in existing law that DPH publish a
list of water treatment devices certified, as specified, and
instead requires DPH to post on its website:
a. A list of water treatment devices for which a valid
certification was issued on or before December 31, 2013;
b. A list of water treatment devices for which a
manufacturer has submitted information pursuant to 3)
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above, except for those water treatment devices that DPH
has determined to remove from, or not include on, the list
pursuant to 8) above;
c. A product worksheet for each water treatment device;
and,
d. Consumer information, in English and Spanish, regarding
the appropriate use of water treatment devices.
10.Repeals existing law that requires DPH to charge and collect
a fee for each certificate for an amount reasonably necessary
to produce sufficient revenue and instead requires DPH to
collect an annual fee of up to $4,000 per manufacturer.
Prohibits the fee from exceeding the amount necessary to
recoup the reasonable regulatory costs incurred in publishing
and maintaining the information on its website and in
conducting enforcement actions, including, but not limited to,
referring matters for enforcement to other agencies, as
specified.
11.Permits DPH to establish and periodically adjust the fee by
publishing it on its website. Exempts this action from the
rulemaking procedure of the Administrative Procedure Act.
12.Exempts residential self-regenerating water softeners, as
specified, from the provisions of this bill and existing law
related to water treatment devices.
13.Defines "health or safety claim" as a claim that the water
treatment device will remove or reduce a contaminant, as
specified.
14.Defines "manufacturer" as a person that:
a. Makes, converts, constructs, or produces water treatment
devices for the purposes of sale, lease, or rental to
individuals, corporations, associations, or other entities;
b. Assembles water treatment devices or treatment
components from components manufactured by another entity;
or
c. Adds its own product name or product identification to
water treatment devices or treatment components that
have been manufactured or assembled by another entity.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, the proposed $4,000 fee on manufacturers is
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sufficient to fund the administrative costs to DPH. An
estimated 35 manufacturers will pay the $4,000 fee annually
resulting in $140,000 revenue collected by DPH. The current fee
is $1,200 for the initial approval, with a $400 renewal each
year for up to four years per device (rather than manufacturer).
The new fee will result in reduced revenues offset by a
corresponding decrease in workload.
PRIOR VOTES :
Assembly Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials:7- 0
Assembly Health: 19- 0
Assembly Appropriations:17- 0
Assembly Floor: 73- 0
COMMENTS :
1.Author's statement. AB 119 would modify existing law to
require "approval" rather than "certification" of water
treatment devices offered for sale in California that make
health claims. That approval would be provided by an
independent testing organization that has been accredited by
American National Standards Institute (ANSI) or by the federal
government.
2.Point of Use (POU)/ Point of Entry Treatment (POE). A POU
treatment device is any unit installed on a single water
faucet or bubbler that changes the water quality. A POE
treatment device is any unit installed that changes the water
quality of all potable water entering a building. POE and POU
treatment devices such as carbon filters are sometimes
installed to enhance the aesthetic quality (taste and odor) of
potable water supplied by a local water system. In other
cases, POE and POU treatment devices have been authorized to
be installed to meet drinking water standards in place of
centralized treatment.
3.Household water treatment devices. According to DPH, there
are hundreds of California-certified drinking water treatment
devices. Certified devices include POU and POE systems, which
range from pour-through pitchers and faucet-mount,
carbon-filter systems to reverse osmosis, ultraviolet
disinfection and household water softeners. Contaminants
removed by certified devices include organic chemicals such as
MTBE, pesticides, herbicides and solvents; inorganics such as
lead, mercury, and perchlorate; and waterborne pathogens, such
as bacteria, virus and protozoan cysts, such as Giardia and
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Cryptosporidium.
4.Limitations of POU/POE treatment. While POU/POE treatment has
advanced in recent years it does not provide treatment
equivalent to centralized treatment. POU/POE treatment
technologies can provide sufficient treatment for one specific
contaminant. However, they are not designed to treat the
complex myriad of contaminants that may be in drinking water.
Additionally, contaminants in water affect the water quality
individually and cumulatively and POU/POE treatment systems
are not designed to address the cumulative impacts to water
quality.
Water quality levels are not static. Centralized treatment
systems are regularly monitored and the treatment is adjusted
as changes in the water quality and levels of the range of
contaminants change. POU/POE treatment systems cannot be
adjusted as the water quality changes, so their efficacy may
vary.
Because POU treatment systems attach to the faucet, their
treatment is limited to water that comes through that faucet.
Showers, washing machines and other faucets, such as those in
bathrooms, are not treated. POU treatment devices are not
appropriate in households where the treated contaminant
presents health risks when inhaled, such as volatile organic
compounds or hexavalent chromium, which may be released into
the air, especially in warm water. With many contaminants
that could pose an additional risk, especially in homes with
children, these systems are meant as a very temporary stopgap
measure until centralized water treatment can be provided.
Finally, centralized treatment facilities are regularly
inspected and monitored to ensure sufficient maintenance by
either DPH or the county environmental health jurisdictions.
There is no built in inspection, monitoring or maintenance
when water systems use POU/POE treatment. Ensuring proper
working order of POU/POE systems is crucial. If filters are
not changed when needed, some systems can build up
contaminants in the system and release them into the water in
high concentrations.
5.Double referral. This bill was heard in the Senate
Environmental Quality Committee on June 12, 2013, and passed
with a 9-0 vote.
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6.Support. A number of manufacturers write that the current
certification system is unduly interrupting product innovation
cycles constructed around consumer demands, and that in many
cases these are products that have already been rigorously
examined by accredited certification agencies and they are
being delayed for months and even year from consumers.
Culligan writes that the current certification process
provides no additional value to California consumers and has
prevented Californians, particularly those living in areas
where centralized water treatment plans are cost-prohibitive,
from being able to purchase state-of-the-art at-home water
treatment devices. Clean Water Action contends that while the
purpose of the current certification program was laudable, in
fact it provides no added value, as it simply duplicates
testing already performed by third party accrediting entities
and services to delay the availability of new devices in the
state. The Association of Water Agencies states that this
bill deletes current redundant certification requirements for
water treatment devices and would streamline the regulatory
requirements that currently apply to those devices.
7.Amendments.
a. On page 4 delete lines 10-19 and instead amend existing
law as follows:
(c) Notwithstanding subdivision (a), make product
performance claims or product benefit claims that the device
affects the health or the safety of drinking water, unless
the device has been certified approved by the State
Department of Health Services pursuant Article 3 (commencing
with Section 116825) of Chapter 5 of Part 12 of Division 104
of the Health and Safety Code to make that claim . This
subdivision does not apply to the making of truthful and
nonmisleading claims regarding the removal or reduction of
contaminants for which certification is not available
associated with a health or safety claim pursuant to Article
3 (commencing with Section 116825) of Chapter 5 of Part 12
of Division 104 of the Health and Safety Code.
b. On page 6, line 1, after "March 1" insert "and September
1"
c. On page 7, lines 1 and 12, delete "Before" and insert
"After"
d. On page 8, delete lines 5-7
SUPPORT AND OPPOSITION :
Support: Clean Water Action (sponsor)
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Culligan (sponsor)
Association of California Water Agencies
Barrier North America, LLC
Brondell
Dow Chemical Company
Ecowater Systems
OKO H2O Div. -Worldway Industrial Corp.
Pacific Water Quality Association
Pentair Water Purification
The Clorox Company
TST Water, LLC - Temecula
Water Quality Association
3M Purification, Inc.
Oppose: None received
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