BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
Senator Wieckowski, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular
Bill No: AB 1531
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|Author: |Committee on Environmental Safety and Toxic |
| |Materials |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|-----------+-----------------------+-------------+----------------|
|Version: |6/19/2015 |Hearing |7/1/2015 |
| | |Date: | |
|-----------+-----------------------+-------------+----------------|
|Urgency: |No |Fiscal: |Yes |
------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|Consultant:|Rachel Machi Wagoner |
| | |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
SUBJECT: State Water Resources Control Board.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
1) Establishes the California Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) to
govern the state's drinking water program and to be the
delegated authority by the United States Environmental
Protection Agency (US EPA) for enforcement of the federal
SDWA.
2) Establishes the Drinking Water Program (DWP) within the State
Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) to regulate public
drinking water systems and enforce federal and state drinking
water acts.
3) Transferred the State DWP from the California Department of
Public Health (DPH) to SWRCB.
4) Establishes the Safe Drinking Water Small Community Emergency
Grant Fund and authorizes the SWRCB to assess an annual
charge to be deposited in this fund in lieu of interest that
would otherwise be charged on Safe Drinking Water State
Revolving Fund (SDWSRF) loans.
5) Establishes the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Act, which
provides for:
AB 1531 (Committee on Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials)
Page 2 of ?
a) Establishment of water quality policy;
b)Enforcement of water quality standards for both surface and
ground
water; and
c) Regulating of discharges of pollutants from point and
non-point
sources.
1) Provides that the SWRCB and nine Regional Water Quality
Control Boards are the principal state agencies with the
responsibility for controlling water quality in California.
This bill: Makes numerous changes and corrections to the SDWA
and the Clean Water Act carried out by the SWRCB. Specifically,
this bill:
1)Consolidates into one section provisions of existing law that
require state and local agencies that are subject to
regulation by the SWRCB to pay water quality and/or drinking
water regulatory fees.
2)Conforms SDWSRF requirements to Clean Water State Revolving
Fund requirements by providing express authority to municipal
borrowers to take loans from the SDWSRF.
3)Corrects outdated references to DPH that should instead
reference SWRCB for the DWP.
4)Authorizes the SWRCB to adopt emergency regulations for
regulatory changes necessary to conform state regulations to
federal requirements in order to maintain program authority
under the federal SDWA.
5)Authorize SWRCB to adopt regulations on the use of
point-of-entry (POE) and point-of-use (POU) treatment devices
by public water systems.
6)Provides procedures for appealing SDWA regulatory actions to
the SWRCB. The Legislature transferred the SDWA program from
the DPH to the State Water Board in 2014.
AB 1531 (Committee on Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials)
Page 3 of ?
7)Provides consistency between SWRCB's authority to require
documents and test results from water providers regulated
under the SDWA with dischargers to waters of the state under
the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act.
8)Requires public water systems to provide to SWRCB drinking
water test results, reports, and other information necessary
to carry out its responsibilities under the state SDWA within
15 days of receiving a request from an authorized
representative of SWRCB.
9)Corrects outdated references to the Department of Fish and
Wildlife.
10) Allows SWRCB increased flexibility to set interest rates in
the SDWSRF program.
11) Establishes the "Safe Drinking Water State Revolving Fund
Administration Fund" in order to provide a place for SWRCB to
deposit the funds that it is already allowed to collect on
safe drinking water loans in lieu of interest to pay for
administrative costs.
12) Makes technical modifications to the Clean Water State
Revolving Fund statute to be consistent with the recently
enacted federal Water Resources Reform and Development Act of
2014.
Comments
1) Purpose of Bill. According to author, "This proposal would
make a variety of technical changes to provisions in the
Water Code and Health and Safety Code, including eliminating
outdated provisions of law, correcting erroneous cross
references, and providing statutory and regulatory authority
to conform state drinking water and water quality
requirements with federal requirements. Additionally, as
follow up to recent legislation that transferred the Safe
Drinking Water Program from the Department of Public Health
to the State Water Resources Control Board, this proposal
would make several statutory changes to improve the
efficiency and effectiveness of the Safe Drinking Water
Regulatory Program."
AB 1531 (Committee on Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials)
Page 4 of ?
The proposed technical cleanup was the result of finding
"provisions of the Water Code and Health and Safety Code
administered by the State Water Board that have erroneous
cross-references, are inconsistent with subsequently enacted
legislation or with corresponding federal legislation, or are
otherwise in need of technical correction. These outdated
provisions restrict the State Water Board's abilities to
effectively implement the laws as intended and result in
ambiguities in the law that can result in increased
litigation. Additionally, as a result of the transfer of the
Safe Drinking Water Program from the California Department of
Public Health to the State Water Board pursuant to SB 861
(Budget Committee), (Chapter 35, Statutes of 2014), the State
Water Board has identified several statutory changes that are
needed to help improve the efficiency and effectiveness of
administering the drinking water program."
2) Amendments needed.
a) The provisions of AB 1531 dealing with POE and POU
water treatment devices are similar to those contained in
AB 434 (Eduardo Garcia). The bill should be amended to
either remove this section from the bill or to reflect the
changes made to AB 434 by this committee to ensure that
this technology is used as a temporary solution for a
maximum of three years while the water system is working
with SWRCB to install centralized treatment.
b) AB 1531 repeals Sections 116293 and 116365.5 (Sections
5 and 7 of the legislation) which statutorily required the
adoption of Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCLs) for
perchlorate and hexavalent chromium respectively. While
the MCLs have been adopted, making the statute outdated,
it is prudent to keep these sections in law in order to
maintain the policy directive in statute. The bill should
be amended to delete these sections of the bill.
c) Legislative Counsel notes that AB 1531 has chaptering
conflicts with AB 110, AB 434, AB 977 and SB 83.
Amendments are needed prior to consideration of this
measure on the Senate Floor to avoid inadvertent
chaptering issues among these bills.
Related/Prior Legislation
AB 1531 (Committee on Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials)
Page 5 of ?
AB 434 (Eduardo Garcia) repeals the sunset date on emergency
regulations governing the permitted use of point-of-entry (POE)
and point-of-use (POU) treatment by public water systems in lieu
of centralized treatment. This bill was approved by the Senate
Environmental Quality Committee on June 17, 2015, and is
currently awaiting action by the Senate Appropriations
Committee.
SOURCE: Committee on Environmental Safety and Toxic
Materials
SUPPORT:
None received
OPPOSITION:
None received
-- END --