BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 1395
SENATE COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
Senator Jerry Hill, Chair
2013-2014 Regular Session
BILL NO: SB 1395
AUTHOR: Block
AMENDED: March 25, 2014
FISCAL: Yes HEARING DATE: April 30, 2014
URGENCY: No CONSULTANT: Rachel Machi
Wagoner
SUBJECT : PUBLIC BEACHES: INSPECTION FOR CONTAMINANTS
SUMMARY :
Existing Federal Law :
Pursuant to the Clean Water Act, requires all municipal,
industrial, and commercial facilities that discharge wastewater
or stormwater directly from a point source into waters of the
United States (such as a lake, river or ocean) to obtain a
National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit.
Existing California law :
1) Requires the California Department of Public Health (DPH)
to adopt regulations establishing minimum standards for the
sanitation of public beaches for the protection of the
public's health and safety including requirements for
testing, monitoring, inspection, notification, posting and
beach closures.
2) Requires the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB)
to implement beach water quality monitoring and reporting
statute.
3) Allows SWRCB to determine options for modifying
wastewater and stormwater discharge monitoring requirements.
4) Authorizes SWRCB and the regional water quality control
boards to establish waste discharge requirements for the
discharge of stormwater by municipalities and industries in
accordance with the federal Clean Water Act.
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5) Requires local environmental health agencies to implement
and enforce the beach monitoring program when funding is
provided by the state and to report to SWRCB prescribed
information regarding beach posting and closures.
6) Requires SWRCB to post beach closure information on its
website.
This bill :
1) Authorizes DPH to develop regulations for alternative beach
water quality tests that produce faster results. The
alternative test methods must be as protective of public
health as tests currently performed.
2) Authorizes DPH to allow local health agencies to use a rapid
single indicator test if the jurisdiction performs the test
with the current culture based tests over an entire beach
season and determines that the rapid single indicator test is
a reliable indicator of public health standards.
COMMENTS :
1) Purpose of Bill . Current law requires beach water quality
sampling and signage warning of contaminated water when
monitoring indicates bacteria levels exceed state standards,
or during events that may pose a threat to public health. To
meet this requirement, local agencies perform culture based
tests, which utilize a multiple sample standard and include
three indicators: total coliform, fecal coliform, and
enterococcus. The current culture-based tests typically
require at least 24 to 48 hours for results.
According to the author, the United States Environmental
Protection Agency, in an attempt to address the slow response
time for culture-based testing methods, certified qualitative
polymerase chain reaction as a rapid measurement method. This
alternative method can return results in about four hours.
However, the current state statute does not authorize the use
of a single indicator test. The author asserts that utilizing
rapid test methods shortens the amount of time that
California's 238 million beach-goers may unknowingly be at
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risk. The author states that it would also allow
jurisdictions to more rapidly reopen closed beaches when the
threat of contamination is no longer present. Instead of
waiting one to two days for test results, they can be received
in four hours and acted upon quickly. The author states that
during the summer months quick results are critical. The
author believes this is good for beachgoers, tourists and the
economy.
2) Background . California has some of the most popular beaches
in the country. Over 150 million day visits are generated
annually by tourists and residents who use them to swim, wade,
surf, and dive. Beach visitors spend over $10 billion each
year in California. Beach water quality monitoring and strong
pollution prevention measures are critical for protecting
beach goers from waterborne diseases.
California has the most extensive and comprehensive monitoring
and regulatory program for beaches in the nation.
Monitoring is performed by county health agencies in 17
different coastal and San Francisco Bay Area counties,
publicly owned sewage treatment plants, other dischargers
along the coastal zone, environmental groups and numerous
citizen-monitoring groups.
3) Bifurcated responsibilities . Current statute requires DPH to
develop the regulations for establishing minimum standards for
the sanitation of public beaches in order to protect the
public's health and safety, including requirements for
testing, monitoring, inspection, notification, posting and
beach closures. SWRCB then has the responsibility for
implementing the program.
Does it make sense to have two state agencies overseeing this
responsibility, bifurcating the oversight of beach safety? Or
does it make more sense to transfer the regulation
responsibility to SWRCB since the board implements the
program?
4) Previous legislation .
SB 482 (Kehoe), Chapter 592, Statutes of 2011, transferred
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primary jurisdiction of the Beach Water Quality Monitoring
Program to SWRCB.
AB 411 (Wayne), Chapter 765, Statutes of 1997, required local
health officers to test waters adjacent to public beaches
within their jurisdiction and to take related action in the
event of a known sewage release and required the local health
officer to post conspicuous warning signs and establish a
telephone hotline to inform the public about a beach that
fails to meet standards developed by DPH.
SOURCE : County of San Diego
SUPPORT : California Coastkeeper Alliance
Surfrider Foundation
Wildcoast
OPPOSITION : None on file