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 --