BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 2071
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 8, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON WATER, PARKS AND WILDLIFE
Anthony Rendon, Chair
AB 2071 (Levine) - As Introduced: February 20, 2014
SUBJECT : Recycled water: pasture animals
SUMMARY : Requires, prior to January 1, 2016, that the State
Department of Public Health (DPH) approve the use of tertiary
treated recycled water for watering pasture animals unless it
determines that such use would harm public health. In the
latter event, DPH is required to establish uniform statewide
recycling criteria for that use.
EXISTING LAW:
1)Requires that the water supply for a milk house or room and
dairy barn shall be of a safe and sanity quality and that the
bacterial quality shall conform to public drinking water
standards.
2)Requires that for dairy farms the water supply for drinking by
livestock shall not be stagnant, polluted with manure, urine
drainage, decaying vegetable or animal matter, or pathogenic
bacteria of any source.
3)Specifies that tertiary-treated recycled water is wastewater
that has been filtered and subsequently disinfected and meets
stringent requirements for bacterial content.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : This bill would allow tertiary-treated recycled
water to be used to water pasture animals unless DPH finds it is
unsafe. Currently, there do not appear to be regulations
pertaining to its use for this purpose. So, some water provider
have interpreted that to mean the practice is allowed and in
fact it has been used in some parts of California. Recycled
water is also used to water pasture animals in Arizona and
Australia.
In response to water shortages due to the drought emergency, the
WateReuse Association facilitated a convening of experts on
pathogens in manure and wastewater and contaminants in recycled
AB 2071
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water to consider tertiary-treated recycled water as an
alternate source of drinking water for pasture animals. In an
opinion paper entitled Risks and Benefits of Tertiary Sewage
Effluent as Drinking Water for Livestock in California those
experts considered whether tertiary-treated recycled water
presented an elevated or unacceptable level of risk relative to
other available livestock watering sources. Their conclusion was
that using tertiary-treated recycled water as a temporary water
source during a drought emergency was a minimal risk in almost
all cases and certainly a better alternative than losing animals
due to lack of water. As a permanent water source they opined
tertiary-treated recycled water might warrant additional
monitoring and concluded that advanced means of mitigation such
as activated carbon filters or implementing reverse osmosis or
advanced oxidation would be ideal but might be expensive and
labor intensive. The experts also recognized that animals may
have potentially similar or higher exposures to estrogens and
other contaminants from drinking water in streams and ponds
where animals have defecated and urinated.
Supporting arguments : The author states this bill is needed
because unprecedented drought conditions are creating enormous
pressure on limited water resources and because there is
uncertainty about the use of, and possibly a challenging
regulatory process to use, tertiary treated recycled water for
livestock watering. The author maintains that this bill will
ensure that there is a health standard for the use tertiary
recycled water for livestock watering and that, moreover, the
steps necessary to use this resource will be made clear.
Supporters state that this bill is welcome legislation that
should clarify many ambiguities associated with the safe use of
tertiary-treated recycled water for livestock. Other supporters
state that as California attempts to grapple with the worst
drought in modern history, the Legislature needs to encourage
additional avenues for the use of recycled water, particularly
where such use might displace the use of potable water supplies.
Moving forward the author may wish to consider prohibiting the
use of tertiary-treated recycled water for dairy cattle unless
such water has been treated with advanced mitigation techniques
except in cases of drought emergency. Current law creates a
higher standard for water provided to dairy cattle because of
the potential for contaminants to move more directly between the
environment and the product for human consumption created by the
animal. At the very least additional scientific inquiry may be
AB 2071
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warranted.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
California Association of Sanitation Agencies
Sonoma County Farm Bureau
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Tina Cannon Leahy / W., P. & W. / (916)
319-2096