Amended in Assembly April 20, 2015

Amended in Assembly March 26, 2015

California Legislature—2015–16 Regular Session

Assembly Bill No. 1454

Introduced by Assembly Member Wagner

February 27, 2015

An act to begin delete amend Section 13170.2 of end delete begin insert add Section 13170.6 to end insert the Water Code, relating to the State Water Resources Control Board.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

AB 1454, as amended, Wagner. begin delete State policy for water quality control: California Ocean Plan. end delete begin insert Water quality standards: trash: single-use carryout bags. end insert

begin insert

Under the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act, the State Water Resources Control Board and the California regional water quality control boards are the principal state agencies with regulatory authority over water quality. Under the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, each state is required to identify those waters for which prescribed effluent limitations are not stringent enough to implement applicable water quality standards and to establish, with regard to those waters, total maximum daily loads, subject to the approval of the United States Environmental Protection Agency, for certain pollutants at a level necessary to implement those water quality standards.

end insert begin insert

Existing law, inoperative due to a pending referendum election, would prohibit certain stores from providing a single-use carryout bag to a customer and prohibit those stores from selling or distributing a recycled paper bag to a customer at the point of sale unless the store makes that bag available for purchase, as specified.

end insert begin insert

This bill would suspend the operation of certain amendments to water quality control plans relating to the total maximum daily load for trash unless and until the provisions inoperative due to a pending referendum election become effective. This bill would require the state board to revisit and revise water quality control plans to address impaired water quality due to trash if the law pending referendum is defeated at the November 8, 2016, statewide general election.

end insert begin delete

Under existing law, the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act, the state policy for water quality control is required to consist of water quality principles and guidelines for long-range resource planning, water quality objectives, and other principles and guidelines deemed essential by the State Water Resources Control Board for water quality control. The act requires the state board to formulate and adopt a water quality control plan for ocean waters of the state, which is known as the California Ocean Plan, and requires the plan to be reviewed at least every 3 years.

end delete begin delete

This bill would instead require the plan to be reviewed at least every 4 years.

end delete

Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: no.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

begin insert

begin insert SECTION 1. end insert   

Section 13170.6 is added to the Water Code, to
read:

begin insert 13170.6. end insert   

(a) The amendments to the Water Quality Control
Plan for the Ocean Waters of California to Control Trash and
Part 1 Trash Provisions of the Water Quality Control Plan for
Inland Surface Waters, Enclosed Bays, and Estuaries of California,
adopted by the state board on April 7, 2014, are inoperative unless
and until Chapter 850 of the Statutes of 2014 becomes effective.

(b) If Chapter 850 of the Statutes of 2014 is defeated at the
November 8, 2016, statewide general election, the state board
shall revisit and revise water quality control plans to address
impaired water quality due to trash.

end insert

begin delete

SECTION 1.  

Section 13170.2 of the Water Code is amended
to read:

13170.2.  

(a) The state board shall formulate and adopt a water
quality control plan for ocean waters of the state, which shall be
known as the California Ocean Plan.

(b) The plan shall be reviewed at least every four years to
guarantee that the current standards are adequate and are not
allowing degradation to indigenous marine species or posing a
threat to human health.

(c) In formulating the plan, the state board shall develop
bioassay protocols to evaluate the effect of municipal and industrial
waste discharges on the marine environment.

(d) The state board shall adopt the bioassay protocols and
complementary chemical testing methods and shall require their
use in the monitoring of complex effluent ocean discharges. For
purposes of this section, “complex effluent” means an effluent in
which all chemical constituents are not known or monitored. The
state board shall adopt bioassay protocols and complementary
chemical testing methods for complex effluent ocean monitoring
by January 1, 1990, and shall require their use in monitoring
complex effluent ocean discharges by entities discharging 100
million gallons per day or more by January 1, 1991. The state
board shall also adopt a schedule for requiring the use of these
protocols for complex effluent ocean discharges of under 100
million gallons per day by January 1, 1992.

end delete