BILL NUMBER: AB 1223	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Stone

                        FEBRUARY 22, 2013

   An act to amend Section 116270 of the Health and Safety Code,
relating to drinking water.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 1223, as introduced, Stone. Safe drinking water act.
   Existing law, the California Safe Drinking Water Act, provides for
the operation of public water systems, and imposes on the State
Department of Health Services various responsibilities and duties.
Under existing law, the State Department of Public Health succeeds
to, and is vested with, the duties, purposes, responsibilities, and
jurisdiction exercised by the former State Department of Health
Services with respect to drinking water, among other things. Existing
law also finds and declares, among other things, that over 95% of
all large public water systems in California are in compliance with
health-based action levels established by the department for various
contaminants, and that it is the intent of the legislature to
establish a drinking water regulatory program to provide for the
orderly and efficient delivery of safe drinking water within the
state and to give the establishment of drinking water standards and
public health goals greater emphasis and visibility.
   This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to the
latter provisions.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  Section 116270 of the Health and Safety Code is amended
to read:
   116270.  The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
   (a)  Every citizen of California has the right to pure and safe
drinking water.
   (b)  Feasible and affordable technologies are available and shall
be used to remove toxic contaminants from public water supplies.
   (c)  According to the State Department of  Health
Services,   Public Health,  over 95 percent of all
large public water systems in California are in compliance with
health-based action levels established by the department for various
contaminants.
   (d)  It is the policy of the state to reduce to the lowest level
feasible all concentrations of toxic chemicals that when present in
drinking water may cause cancer, birth defects, and other chronic
diseases.
   (e)  This chapter is intended to ensure that the water delivered
by public water systems of this state shall at all times be pure,
wholesome, and potable. This chapter provides the means to accomplish
this objective.
   (f)  It is the intent of the Legislature to improve laws governing
drinking water quality, to improve upon the minimum requirements of
the federal Safe Drinking Water Act Amendments of 1996, to establish
primary drinking water standards that are at least as stringent as
those established under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, and to
establish a program under this chapter that is more protective of
public health than the minimum federal requirements.
   (g)  It is the further intent of the Legislature to establish a
drinking water regulatory program within the State Department of 
Public  Health  Services  in order to provide
for the orderly and efficient delivery of safe drinking water within
the state and to give the establishment of drinking water standards
and public health goals greater emphasis and visibility within the
 state  department.