BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 2099 Page 1 Date of Hearing: April 12, 2016 ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY AND TOXIC MATERIALS Luis Alejo, Chair AB 2099 (Mark Stone) - As Amended March 31, 2016 SUBJECT: Safe drinking water assistance SUMMARY: Requires, on or before February 1, 2017, the State Department of Social Services (DSS) to convene a workgroup to develop recommendations for delivering a water benefit to supplement the purchase of drinking water for low-income households with inadequate access to safe drinking water. Specifically, this bill: 1)Makes legislative findings about the effectiveness of the electronic benefits transfer (EBT) system and the lack of accessible, safe drinking water for many Californians. 2)Requires, on or before February 1, 2017, DSS to convene a workgroup to develop recommendations for delivering a water benefit to supplement the purchase of drinking water for low-income households with inadequate access to safe drinking water. 3)Requires the water benefit to do all of the following: AB 2099 Page 2 a) Be made available to low-income households with inadequate access to safe drinking water, including, but not limited to all of the following: i) Households served by noncompliant small water systems in disadvantaged communities; ii) Households located in communities deemed eligible for interim emergency drinking water benefits by the State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board); and, iii) Households whose private wells have active outages or water supply problems, as determined by the Department of Water Resources; b) Be provided, to the extent possible, through the EBT system; and, c) Be funded, to the extent possible, from existing emergency drought response resources allocated for interim water assistance. 4)Requires the workgroup to consist of representatives from all of the following entities: DSS; the State Water Board; the Department of Water Resources; the Office of Emergency AB 2099 Page 3 Services; the County Welfare Directors Association of California; food policy advocates; and, other applicable community advocates. 5)Requires the workgroup to develop recommendations that include all of the following: a) The design of the benefit; b) An implementation plan for identification of eligible households and delivery of the benefit to those households; and, c) Possibilities for interim or permanent adoption and implementation of the benefit through regulations, all-county letters, or similar instruction. 6)Requires DSS to submit a report with the recommendations to the Legislature and the California Health and Human Services Agency by July 1, 2017. 7)Sunsets the provisions of this bill on July 1, 2021, and on January 1, 2022, repeals those provisions. EXISTING LAW: AB 2099 Page 4 1)Establishes the Water Quality, Supply, and Infrastructure Improvement Act of 2014 (Proposition 1), which was approved by the voters on November 4, 2014. (Water Code (WC) §79700 et seq.) 2)Allocates, pursuant to Proposition 1, two hundred sixty million dollars ($260,000,000) for grants and loans for public water system infrastructure improvements and related actions to meet safe drinking water standards, ensure affordable drinking water, or both. Requires that priority is given to projects that provide treatment for contamination or access to an alternate drinking water source or sources for small community water systems or state small water systems in disadvantaged communities whose drinking water source is impaired by chemical and nitrate contaminants and other health hazards identified by the State Water Board. (WC § 79724. (a)(1)) 3)Defines "disadvantaged community" as a community with an annual median household income that is less than 80% of the statewide annual median household income. (WC §79505.5) 4)Establishes the EBT Act, and defines the EBT system as the program designed to provide benefits to those eligible to receive public assistance benefits such as California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) and CalFresh. (Welfare and Institutions Code (WIC) §10065 et seq.) 5)Requires the Office of Systems Integration within the AB 2099 Page 5 Department of Social Services (DSS) to implement a statewide automated welfare system (SAWS) for specified public assistance programs. (WIC §10823) FISCAL EFFECT: Unknown. COMMENTS: Need for the bill: According to the author, "AB 2099 provides temporary relief to struggling families who live in homes with inadequate drinking water supplies by offsetting the cost of bottled water during the interim wait for long-term water supply infrastructure upgrades. The measure allows impoverished families and who live in a community or home with insufficient, contaminated, or otherwise unsafe drinking water supplies to access a small supplemental cash benefit for purchasing water. Ultimately, the best way to address the crisis of inadequate drinking water supplies across the state is by investing in several expensive, long-term solutions, including upgrading existing infrastructure, improving water use efficiency and conservation, improving water treatment, and carefully monitoring and minimizing the use of contaminated water supplies. In the meantime, though, poor people need and deserve to access clean and safe drinking water." Drinking water contamination in disadvantaged communities. AB 2099 Page 6 According to the State Water Board report, "Communities that Rely on Contaminated Groundwater," released in January 2013, 682 community public water systems, which serve nearly 21 million people, rely on contaminated groundwater as a primary source of drinking water. The report points out that an additional two million Californians rely on groundwater from either a private domestic well or a smaller groundwater-reliant system that is not regulated by the state, the water quality of which is uncertain. The findings from State Water Board report, and a 2012 UC Davis study, "Addressing Nitrate in California's Drinking Water," suggest that drinking water contamination in California disproportionally affects small, rural and low-income communities that depend mostly on groundwater as their drinking water source. The recent drought has further compromised the state's drinking water supplies. Since many rural households rely on shallow domestic wells or small, poorly funded community water supply systems, these communities have been the hardest hit. According to the Public Policy Institute of California, as of early July 2015, more than 2,000 dry domestic wells were reported, mostly in the Central Valley and Sierras, with more than half in Tulare County. Emergency water supply needs have also been identified for more than 100 small water community water systems around the state Recent action to address drinking water needs: In December 2013, Governor Brown established an interagency drought response team to coordinate drought relief efforts, and in January 2014, he declared a statewide drought emergency. According to the PPIC, the state has recently significantly improved its emergency response for communities lacking drinking water. The multiple agencies involved have strengthened coordination to identify needs and deliver help. In light of increasing drinking water system failures exasperated by the drought, both the Legislature and the Governor have taken many steps to provide funding for drought relief, including the provision of safe drinking water. For AB 2099 Page 7 example, Proposition 1 (Assembly Bill (AB) 1471, Rendon, Chapter 188, Statutes of 2014), approved by the voters on November 4, 2014, authorized $7.545 billion in general obligation bonds for water projects, including surface and groundwater storage; ecosystem and watershed protection and restoration; and, drinking water protection. Proposition 1 allocates $260 million for drinking water grants and loans for public water system infrastructure improvements and related actions to meet safe drinking water standards, ensure affordable drinking water, or both. As of February 1, 2016, about $9 million of this allocation was awarded. Additionally, on March 27, 2015, Governor Brown approved a $1 billion emergency drought relief package when he signed AB 91 (Committee on Budget, Chapter 1, Statutes of 2015) and AB 92 (Committee on Budget, Chapter 2, Statutes of 2015). As a result of the Governor's action, the State Water Board approved $19 million in funding from the Cleanup and Abatement Account to meet interim emergency drinking water needs for those communities with a contaminated water supply or which suffer drought related water outages or threatened emergencies. In an effort to distribute funds as quickly and efficiently as possible, the State Water Board is coordinating with the Regional Water Quality Control Boards, the State Water Board's Division of Drinking Water district offices, the Governor's Office of Emergency Services, the Department of Water Resources, and other stakeholders (e.g., environmental justice groups, community assistance groups) to identify those communities that are most at risk and require financial assistance. Approximately $11 million of this funding allocation has been committed or spent. Additional drinking water needs: The author argues that while the Legislature has taken several necessary steps to make long-term improvements to water delivery and water infrastructure, "over a million Californians continue to live in households where their tap water is so contaminated that no one can drink it, and thousands of Californians live in homes where there simply is no water to use - their wells dried up during AB 2099 Page 8 the drought." The Orange County Food Access Coalition argues, "The drought continues to exacerbate water quality issues for disadvantaged communities who disproportionately bear the health and financial impacts of unsafe drinking water? Families should not be spending scarce resources to pay for clean water. Californians should not be forced to choose between drinking contaminated water and expending scarce household resources to pay for clean water. In the Central Valley, some households devote approximately 20 percent of their annual median income of $14,000 to pay for water and sanitation services and to purchase bottled water." Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) Program: The EBT Project is the system used in California for the delivery, redemption, and reconciliation of issued public assistance benefits, such as CalFresh benefits (formerly known as Food Stamps and currently known federally as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP benefits), California Food Assistance Program benefits, and cash aid benefits. EBT is used is all 50 states, as well as the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Guam. Recipients of public assistance in California access their issued benefits with the Golden State Advantage EBT card. California EBT cards can be used at more than 15,000 businesses and over 54,000 ATMs in California and are used similarly to a bank ATM or debit card to receive and use food stamp and/or cash benefits. Food stamp benefits can only be used for food and for plants and seeds to grow food for household consumption. Bottled drinking water is an eligible food item under the California EBT program; however, of course, purchasing water with EBT credit reduces the amount of the benefit that the recipient can use for other nutritional needs. This bill seeks to develop another tool by which to provide communities in need with immediate access to drinking water assistance. Double referral: This bill was double referred to the Assembly Committees on Human Services and on Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials. It passed the Committee on Human Services on AB 2099 Page 9 March 29, 2016 on a 6 - 0 vote. Committee amendments: The Committee may wish to amend the bill as follows. 1)Authorize the workgroup to consider the listed criteria for eligibility for the water benefit, instead of requiring them to include all of the criteria. 2)Ensure that all potential households served by dry wells are included for consideration for eligibility by amending the bill as follows: On page 5, line 34 and 35, strike "as determined by the Department of Water Resources." 3)Ensure that the appropriate communities are targeted by the provisions of the bill by amending the bill as follows: On page 5, delete lines 27 - 29, and instead insert: "Households in disadvantaged communities served by noncompliant small community water systems, as defined in HSC 116275." REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION: Support CA4Health AB 2099 Page 10 California Academy of Family Physicians California Association of Food Banks California Center for Public Health Advocacy (CCPHA) California Food Policy Advocates (CFPA) - sponsor California Health Councils California Pan-Ethnic Health Network California Primary Care Association (CPCA) California Retailers Association California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation (CRLAF) California State Alliance of YMCAs Coalition of California Welfare Rights Organizations (CCWRO) Community Health Councils Community Water Center AB 2099 Page 11 Environmental Justice Coalition for Water Food Access Coalition Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability Orange County Food Access Coalition Rural Community Assistance Corporation Sacramento Hunger Coalition (SHC) Sierra Club California St. Anthony Foundation The Environmental Justice Coalition for Water Opposition None on file. Analysis Prepared by:Shannon McKinney / E.S. & T.M. / (916) 319-3965 AB 2099 Page 12