BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                            



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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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