BILL ANALYSIS Ó ----------------------------------------------------------------- |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 119| |Office of Senate Floor Analyses | | |1020 N Street, Suite 524 | | |(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | | |327-4478 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- THIRD READING Bill No: AB 119 Author: Assembly Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials Committee Amended: 8/30/13 in Senate Vote: 21 SENATE ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY COMMITTEE : 9-0, 6/12/13 AYES: Hill, Gaines, Calderon, Corbett, Fuller, Hancock, Jackson, Leno, Pavley SENATE HEALTH COMMITTEE : 9-0, 6/26/13 AYES: Hernandez, Anderson, Beall, De León, DeSaulnier, Monning, Nielsen, Pavley, Wolk SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : 7-0, 8/19/13 AYES: De León, Walters, Gaines, Hill, Lara, Padilla, Steinberg ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 73-0, 5/13/13 - See last page for vote SUBJECT : Water treatment devices SOURCE : Clean Water Action Culligan DIGEST : This bill revises the criteria and procedure for certification of water treatment devices for which a health or safety claim, as defined, is made and requires each manufacturer that offers for sale in California one of those water treatment devices to submit specified information. CONTINUED AB 119 Page 2 Senate Floor Amendments of 8/30/13 make a technical change. ANALYSIS : Existing law: 1.Establishes the Drinking Water Program within DPH to regulate public drinking water systems. 2.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 the efficacy of the device. 3.Requires water treatment device manufacturers to pay a fee to DPH for each treatment device application for certification. This bill: 1.Repeals the existing requirements for the Department of Health (DPH) to certify all water treatment devices that make health related performance claims and instead requires DPH to approve that the device has been certified by an independent certification organization, after December 31, 2013, that has been accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) to verify the health or safety claim. 2.Requires submittal of the following information to DPH along with an annual fee: A. Manufacturer's name, contact information and website; B. Name and model of each water treatment device, and any other product identification, used by the manufacture to describe the water treatment device or treatment component; C. The specific contaminant to be removed or reduced by the device; and D. For each specific contaminant identified, the name of the organization that meets the accreditation standards of ANSI and that has 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 CONTINUED AB 119 Page 3 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. E. A product information worksheet that includes specified information. 1.Requires the DPH to publish that information on its Internet Web site by April 1, if it received the information between September 2 and March 1, and by October 1, if it received the information between March 2 and September 1. 2.Allows DPH to charge an annual fee up to $4,000 per water treatment device manufactured to be used to maintain the information about water treatment devices on its Internet Web site and to provide funding to environmental health officers to enforce this Chapter. 3.Requires DPH to collect an annual fee of up to $500 per water treatment device. Certificates issued under the current system, would continue to pay an annual fee of up to $500, until that certificate expires. 4.Provides that the fees collected by DPH may be used to maintain an Internet Web site of water treatment devices and for the enforcement of the approval requirements by state or local health officials. 5.Prohibits a water treatment device, for which a health or safety claim is made, from being sold or otherwise distributed unless the device is included on the list of water treatment devices published on DPH's Internet Web site, and has been certified by an independent certified organization that has been accredited by the ANSI. 6.Requires after July 1, 2015, the exterior packaging of certain water treatment devices to clearly identify the contaminant or contaminants that the device has been certified to remove or reduce, as specified. 7. Requires the manufacturer of certain water treatment devices, after July 1, 2015, to include a specified decal CONTINUED AB 119 Page 4 with each water treatment device offered for sale in California. FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes Local: No According to the Senate Appropriations Committee: Ongoing annual savings of $234,000 to the Water Device Certification Special Account (special) as a result of reducing administrative costs from $404,000 to $170,000 by removing the requirement for DPH to certify water treatment devices. Ongoing annual costs of approximately $34,000 to the Water Device Certification Special Account as a result of reducing fee revenues from approximately $200,000 to $166,000. SUPPORT : (Verified 8/30/13) Clean Water Action (co-source) Culligan (co-source) 3M Purification, Inc. 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 Pionetics The Clorox Company TST Water, LLC - Temecula Water Quality Association ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author, "This bill is intended to streamline DPH's existing water treatment device certification program, as the current certification program provides no additional value to California consumers and has prevented many residents, particularly those living in areas where centralized water treatment plants are cost-prohibitive, from being able to purchase state-of-the-art at-home water treatment devices." CONTINUED AB 119 Page 5 According to Clean Water Action, a proponent of the bill, "The current program requires DPH to independently certify each point-of-use water treatment device before it can be sold in retail outlets in the state. While the purpose of this program was laudable, in fact the certification program provides no added value, as it simply duplicates testing already performed by third party accrediting entities and serves to delay the availability of new devices in the state. The list of certified devices maintained by DPH on its Internet Web site is of value, but is out of date almost as soon as it is posted." ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 73-0, 5/13/13 AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Atkins, Bigelow, Bloom, Blumenfield, Bocanegra, Bonilla, Bonta, Bradford, Brown, Buchanan, Ian Calderon, Campos, Chau, Chávez, Chesbro, Conway, Cooley, Dahle, Daly, Dickinson, Donnelly, Eggman, Fong, Fox, Frazier, Beth Gaines, Garcia, Gatto, Gomez, Gordon, Gorell, Gray, Grove, Hagman, Hall, Harkey, Roger Hernández, Jones, Jones-Sawyer, Levine, Linder, Logue, Maienschein, Mansoor, Medina, Melendez, Mitchell, Morrell, Mullin, Muratsuchi, Nazarian, Olsen, Pan, Perea, V. Manuel Pérez, Quirk, Quirk-Silva, Rendon, Salas, Skinner, Stone, Ting, Torres, Wagner, Waldron, Weber, Wieckowski, Wilk, Williams, Yamada, John A. Pérez NO VOTE RECORDED: Allen, Ammiano, Holden, Lowenthal, Nestande, Patterson, Vacancy RM:nl 8/31/13 Senate Floor Analyses SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE **** END **** CONTINUED