BILL ANALYSIS Ó
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de León, Chair
AB 2071 (Levine) - Recycled water: pasture animals.
Amended: June 30, 2014 Policy Vote: EQ 6-0
Urgency: No Mandate: No
Hearing Date: August 4, 2014 Consultant:
Marie Liu
This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill Summary: AB 2071 would require the State Water Resources
Control Board (board) to determine whether it is safe for public
and animal health to use disinfected tertiary treated recycled
water for the purpose of providing water to pasture animals,
excluding certain dairy animals, and to establish uniform
statewide recycling criteria for this use to mitigate any safety
concerns.
Fiscal Impact:
One-time costs of up to $300,000 from the General Fund for
an expert panel
Ongoing costs of $260,000 to the General Fund to the board
to either establish uniform state wide recycling criteria or
to develop then administer a permit to approve the use of
recycled water for pasture animals.
Unknown potential research costs from the General Fund if
the board has insufficient existing information to make the
determination on whether the use of recycled water for
pasture animals is safe or not.
Background: Water Code §13521 requires the board to establish
uniform statewide recycling criteria for each varying type of
use of recycled water where the use involves the protection of
public health.
Food and Agriculture Code §§33515 and 33516 establishes criteria
for the drinking water supply for livestock, and requires that
the water supply for dairy areas must meet the drinking water
standards.
Proposed Law: This bill would require, by December 31, 2016, the
board, in consultation with impacted state agencies, to
AB 2071 (Levine)
Page 1
determine whether the use of disinfected tertiary treated
recycled water for pasture animals is safe for public and animal
health. In making this determination, the board would be
required to consider recommendations from the existing Advisory
Panel on Constituents of Emerging Concerns in Recycled Water,
state-funded research on water-recycling, and research by the
state board relating to unregulated pollutants.
If the board determines that there would be harm to public or
animal health, the board would be required to establish uniform
statewide recycling criteria for the use of disinfected tertiary
recycled water for pasture animals. If the board determines that
there will be no harm to public or animal health, it would be
authorized to approve the use of disinfected tertiary treated
recycled water for the purpose of providing water to pasture
animals.
This bill would prohibit the use of disinfected tertiary treated
recycled water as a water supply for dairy animals that are
currently producing dairy products for human consumption.
Staff Comments: This bill would necessitate the establishment of
a new expert panel to make the determination regarding the use
of recycled water for pasture animals as required by this bill.
The expert panel would be necessary as the board has no existing
expertise on animal health. Also, the scope of the panel may
need to be rather large as "pasture animals" are not defined and
could include a large range of animals with differing needs.
Staff notes that the panel needs to consider threats to animal
health as well as human health - considerations which will
likely require two different sets of experts. The expert panel
will have anticipated costs of $200,000 to $300,000 to pay
participants, travel, and general meeting costs. Additionally,
the board would likely need two PYs at a cost of approximately
$260,000 to manage and staff the expert panel. These costs are
in line with other expert panels that the board and the
Department of Public Health (the agency who previously was
responsible for the Safe Drinking Water Program) have
established on other matters.
Once the panel makes its determination, the board would then
likely transfer the two PYs that were managing the expert panel
to develop the uniform statewide recycling criteria or to
develop and issue permits for the use of disinfected tertiary
AB 2071 (Levine)
Page 2
treated water for pasture animals, depending on the
determination. Therefore the staff costs of $260,000 would be
ongoing and may potentially be partially offset by future permit
fees. Staff notes that the board currently does not issue any
permits for the use of recycled water, only the discharge of
recycled water.
This bill would require the board to make a determination on
whether recycled water can be used for pasture animals or not.
The board would not have the option of making an inconclusive
decision because of the lack of data and information. As such,
if the expert panel finds that there is insufficient existing
data to make a determination, the board would be presumably be
required to conduct research at an unknown cost to fill in the
information gaps so that the board can make a determination.