BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 119|
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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.
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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
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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
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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."
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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
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