BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 14
SENATE COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
Senator Jerry Hill, Chair
2013-2014 Regular Session
BILL NO: SB 14
AUTHOR: Gaines
AMENDED: February 19, 2013
FISCAL: Yes HEARING DATE: April 3, 2013
URGENCY: Yes CONSULTANT: Joanne Roy
SUBJECT : BEAR LAKE RESERVOIR: RECREATIONAL USE
SUMMARY :
Existing law :
1) Declares state policy that multiple uses should be made of
all public water in the state consistent with public health
and safety and prohibits recreational use in which there is
bodily contact with water in a reservoir in which water is
stored for domestic use. Statutory exceptions to this
prohibition have been granted for specified reservoirs (San
Diego County reservoirs, Modesto Reservoir, Nacimiento
Reservoir, Sly Park Reservoir and Canyon Lake Reservoir).
These reservoirs must meet specific standards and criteria
set in statute. (Health and Safety Code §115825 et seq.).
2) Under the federal Long Term 2 Enhanced Surface Water
Treatment Rule (LT2 rule), supplements existing regulations
by targeting additional Cryptosporidium treatment
requirements to higher risk systems. This rule also
contains provisions to reduce risks from uncovered finished
water reservoirs and to ensure that systems maintain
microbial protection when they take steps to decrease the
formation of disinfection byproducts that result from
chemical water treatment.
This bill :
1) Exempts from the prohibition of recreational use the Bear
Lake Reservoir in Alpine County until January 1, 2017, if
specified requirements are met:
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a) Water treatment and disinfection;
b) Monitoring program for cryptosporidium, giardia, and
total coliform bacteria at the reservoir intake and at
post-treatment at least three times during the period
when bodily contact is allowed;
c) Operation of the reservoir is in compliance with
Department of Public Health (DPH) regulations; and,
d) Maximum of four months per year allowed for bodily
contact.
2) Requires Lake Alpine Water Company to file a report on
recreational uses and the water treatment program at Bear
Lake Reservoir with the Legislature and the Department of
Public Health by January 1, 2016.
3) Requires DPH to annually review monitoring and reporting
data from the reservoir.
4) Provides that if DPH finds a failure to comply, then:
a) Terminates the exemption pursuant to this section if
DPH finds a failure to comply;
b) Authorizes DPH to suspend or revoke any permit issued
pursuant to the California Safe Drinking Water Act (Act);
and,
c) Deems the failure to comply a violation of the Act and
subject to penalties.
5) Provides an urgency clause.
COMMENTS :
1) Purpose of Bill . According to the author, SB 14 "would
re-authorize Bear Lake Reservoir Reservoir's exemption to be
used for drinking water while still allowing bodily contact,
with appropriate measures in place to ensure safety of the
drinking water?Bear Lake Reservoir has been operated by the
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Lake Alpine Water Company under this dual usage and seeks to
continue the ability to swim in the water, while benefitting
from that reservoir as a source of drinking water. There
are water standards in place which are overseen and approved
by the Department of Public Health (DPH)."
2) Bodily Contact in Drinking Water . Over 65% of the
population of the United States receives drinking water from
surface water sources. Many of these surface water systems
rely on protected sources, off limits for human activity to
ensure safe water supply. California law prohibits bodily
contact in drinking water reservoirs because human activity
on and near water adds an element of risk to the consumers
of the water. Short of sewage discharge, human body contact
with the water is the most threatening such human activity
for several reasons:
a) Enteric pathogens, including bacteria, viruses
and protozoa may be shed into water during recreation
from residual fecal material and from accidental fecal
release. Inputs resulting from human contact will
increase pathogen concentrations in the reservoir and
thus may increase health risks to downstream consumers
receiving this water.
b) A single person sheds billions of fecal
bacteria in a single day and water treatment plants
are engineered to remove 99 to 99.99 percent of
pathogenic organisms, not 100%;
c) Unlike chemical contaminants, pathogenic
organisms that survive the treatment process can
multiply in the water distribution system and, more
importantly, in the bodies of water, leading to
infection, illness and death of water consumers;
d) Birds and wild animals also introduce potential
pathogens to the water but pathogens from humans are
more likely to ultimately be infectious to other
humans than are pathogens originating from birds or
animals.
1) Pathogens of particular concern with bodily contact .
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Microorganisms such as viruses, giardia and cryptosporidium
are of special concern when there is bodily contact with
drinking water supplies because traditional disinfection
methods are not as effective at treating or inactivating
organisms.
The Metropolitan Water District (MWD) studied water quality
issues associated with body contact recreation at its
Diamond Valley Lake. MWD information indicates that
"Cryptosporidium is the pathogenic organism of greatest
concern mainly because it is extremely resistant to
conventional methods of disinfection such as chlorination,
is difficult to detect through monitoring, and causes
cryptosporidiosis." Cryptosporidiosis is a disease of the
intestinal tract and has been known to cause disease in
humans since 1976. Cryptosporidium lives in a protective
shell that is referred to as an oocyst, and allows it to
survive various environmental conditions and be resistant to
disinfection. Sources of contamination at recreational
waters are the individuals using those waters for recreation
when constituents of residual fecal matter may be washed off
the body on contact with water. Infants, young children,
and others may also contribute more significantly to
contamination by accidental fecal releases.
MWD studies have shown an increased risk to consumers with
body contact recreation, ranging from 20 to 140 times higher
than the current cryptosporidium risk of 1 infection per
about 28,000 people.
Waterborne cryptosporidium outbreaks have occurred in both
large and small communities. A large outbreak occurred in
Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1993, affecting an estimated 403,000
people. According to the CDC, infection with
cryptosporidium may have contributed to premature deaths of
immunosuppressed individuals in these outbreaks.
2) Bear Lake Reservoir . Bear Lake Reservoir is a private 13
acre lake surrounded by lodge pole and white fir forest and
residential homes in the unincorporated community of Bear
Valley in Alpine County. Access to the lake is provided by
three small sandy beaches. All other shoreline is private
property or earthen dam. The weather allows for
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recreational use of the lake from June through September.
The lake is posted as private and is used by members and
guests of Bear Valley Residents Incorporated (BVRI). Uses
of the lake include wading, swimming, sailing, windsurfing,
paddling and fishing. Dogs and other pets are not allowed
in the lake or at any of the access points. The number of
visitors averages 10 per day with a maximum day of 50
throughout the summer (based on information provided by the
Lake Alpine Water Company report noting that it was
collected through interviews with BVRI residents).
AB 1934 (Leslie) Chapter 374, Statutes of 2004, exempted
Bear Lake Reservoir from the bodily contact prohibition,
allowing bodily contact under conditions that were similar
to SB 1063 from last year.
The above exemption granted by AB 1934 to the Bear Lake
Reservoir sunsetted January 1, 2007.
SB 577 (Gaines) of 2011 reinstated the statutory exemption
without a sunset date. A May 2, 2011, Senate Environmental
Quality Committee hearing on this bill was canceled at the
request of the author. In reviewing the previous exemption
granted, it was found that the Lake Alpine Water Company had
not complied with AB 1934 by failing to compile and submit
the required report to the Legislature or DPH and by
continuing to allow bodily contact in the reservoir through
2010 without statutory authorization.
In June 2011, DPH issued a letter to Lake Alpine Water
Company notifying them that they were in violation of Health
and Safety Code §115825(b), prohibiting bodily contact.
Lake Alpine Water Company responded to the letter by
prohibiting bodily contact in 2011 and submitting the
requisite report to the Legislature.
The submitted report provided the requisite monitoring and
planning information except for information specific to
monitoring for giardia and cryptosporidium. According to
Lake Alpine Water Company's report, pursuant to the LT2
federal regulation, the Company monitored for total fecal
coliform and E. coli. Because the annual average for E.
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coli is below federal levels for monitoring requirements
they did not pursue the monitoring for cryptosporidium
required by AB 1934. There was no mention of monitoring
data for giardia. Lake Alpine Water Company conducts
biweekly testing of fecal coliform and E. coli, which are
indicators for cryptosporidium and giardia and provided the
annual reports to DPH outlining that data.
The report notes that in 2005 a new microfiltration membrane
water treatment facility was completed. Lake Alpine Water
Company also chlorinates the water prior to distribution.
While the new water treatment facility does disinfect for
giardia and cryptosporidium to levels higher than required
by the DPH permit, the new plant did not comply with AB 1934
requirements to provide a secondary form of either
ultraviolet or ozonation disinfection. This requirement was
added to AB 1934 because cryptosporidium is resistant to
traditional treatments using chlorination. Lake Alpine
Water Company makes no mention in its report of conducting
the above specified disinfection methods and according to
DPH, Lake Alpine Water Company does not conduct either
ultraviolet or ozonation disinfection.
According to the report, Bear Lake Reservoir has such a
small concentration of bodily contact visitors and has not
had levels of E. coli or fecal coliform to warrant
monitoring for cryptosporidium under federal regulation and
the DPH permit. Based on this data, the additional
disinfection may not be deemed necessary by DPH. However,
should there be an outbreak of cryptosporidium, the current
filtration system may not be sufficient to inactivate a
significant outbreak of the pathogen, especially if
recreational activities on the Bear Lake Reservoir increase
in the future. As this community is looking to increase
development, it is very possible that recreational
activities would increase in the future.
3) Recent Legislation . Last year, SB 1063 (Gaines) exempted
Bear Lake Reservoir (Alpine County) from the state
prohibition on bodily contact recreation use in a reservoir
used for domestic water uses and establishes standards to be
met, including water treatment, monitoring, and reporting
requirements.
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Governor Brown vetoed SB 1063 stating, "Unfortunately, the
Department of Public Health believes that the water
treatment requirements in this bill are not feasible and
ineffective, and therefore the operation of the reservoir as
a means to provide safe drinking water would be put at risk.
I urge the author and sponsors to work with the Department
to find a solution that allows for recreational swimming
alongside effectively treated safe drinking water."
SB 14 (Gaines) addresses the Governor's concerns regarding the
feasibility and effectiveness of water treatment
requirements in SB 1063 (Gaines) of 2012.
SOURCE : Bear Valley Residents, Inc.
Lake Alpine Water Company
SUPPORT : Association of California Water Agencies
County of Alpine
California Water Association
OPPOSITION : None on file