BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 2124
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Date of Hearing: April 20, 2016
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
Patrick O'Donnell, Chair
AB 2124
(Eduardo Garcia) - As Amended April 13, 2016
[Note: This bill was doubled referred to the Assembly
Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials Committee and was heard
as it relates to issues under its jurisdiction.]
SUBJECT: State Water Resources Control Board: grant program
for school drinking water
SUMMARY: Appropriates $10 million from the General Fund to the
State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board) for
allocation to local educational agencies (LEAs) to improve
access to, and the quality of, drinking water at public
elementary and secondary schools. Specifically, this bill:
1)Authorizes the State Water Board to award grants for projects
that will provide students and school staff with access to
safe drinking water, including, but not necessarily limited
to, any of the following:
a) Installation of water bottle filling stations;
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b) Installation or replacement of drinking water fountains
with devices that are capable of removing any contaminants
that are present in the school's water supply;
c) Installation of point-of-entry or point-of-use treatment
devices; and,
d) Plumbing repairs that improve drinking water quality.
2)Requires the State Water Board to implement the grant program
by taking actions, including, but not necessarily limited to,
the development of procedures for the submission of
applications for grants by LEAs and criteria for the
evaluation of these applications. Exempts these actions from
statutory rulemaking requirements.
3)Requires the State Water Board, in developing the procedure
for awarding grants, to do each of the following:
a) Set requirements for grant recipients to adopt a program
for inspecting and maintaining any water treatment device
funded by the grant;
b) Establish a maximum grant amount; and,
c) Give priority to each the following:
i) Applicants that serve very small disadvantaged
community; and,
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ii) Applicants that are served by public water systems
that the State Water Board finds consistently fail to
provide an adequate supply of safe drinking water.
4)Authorizes the State Water Board, in developing the procedure
for awarding grants, to encourage applicants to commit
additional resources to the project, except that the State
Water Board shall not require matching funds for LEAs serving
very small disadvantaged communities or interfere with the
prioritization of grant funding to very small disadvantaged
communities.
5)Defines "very small disadvantaged community" as a municipality
with a population of 10,000 persons or less, or a reasonably
isolated and divisible segment of a larger municipality
encompassing 10,000 persons or less, with an annual median
household income that is less than 80 percent of the statewide
annual median household income.
6)Appropriates $10 million without regard to fiscal years, from
the General Fund to the State Water Board for allocation to
LEAs as grants to improve access to, and the quality of,
drinking water at public elementary and secondary schools.
7)Provides that the funds allocated to LEAs as part of the grant
program shall supplement, and not supplant, the other state
funds apportioned to these LEAs for their support.
EXISTING LAW:
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1)Requires a school district to provide access to free, fresh
drinking water during meal times in the food service areas of
the schools under its jurisdiction, including, but not
necessarily limited to, areas where reimbursable meals under
the National School Lunch Program or the federal School
Breakfast Program are served or consumed. Authorizes a school
district to comply with this requirement by, among other
means, providing cups and containers of water or soliciting or
receiving donated bottled water. (EC Section 38086)
2)Authorizes the governing board of a school district to adopt a
resolution stating that it is unable to comply with the
requirement to provide access to free, fresh drinking water
during meal times and demonstrating the reasons why it is
unable to comply due to fiscal constraints or health and
safety concerns. Requires the resolution to be publicly
noticed on at least two consecutive meeting agendas, first as
an information item and second as an action item, and approved
by at least a majority of the governing board. (EC Section
38086)
3)Establishes the Lead-Safe Schools Protection Act, enacted in
1992, as follows:
a) Requires the Department of Health Services (DHS) to
conduct a sampling survey of schools throughout the state
for the purpose of developing risk factors to predict lead
contamination in public schools;
b) Requires the survey to determine the likely extent and
distribution of lead exposure to children from paint on the
school, soil in play areas, drinking water at the tap, and
other potential sources identified by DHS;
c) Requires DHS to notify principals of schools or director
of schoolsites of the survey results. Upon receipt of the
results, requires principals or directors to notify
teachers and other school personnel and parents of the
survey results;
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d) Requires DHS to make recommendations to the Legislature
and the California Department of Education (CDE) on the
feasibility and necessity of conducting statewide lead
testing and any additional action needed relating to lead
contamination in the schools; and,
e) Requires DHS to work with CDE to develop voluntary
guidelines for distribution to requesting schools to ensure
that lead hazards are minimized in the course of school
repair and maintenance programs and abatement procedures.
(EC Sections 32240-32243)
4)Requires the governing board of a school district to adopt a
local control and accountability plan (LCAP) and specifies
state priorities, including the priority for school facilities
to be maintained in good repair. (EC Section 52060)
5)Defines "good repair" as a facility that is maintained in a
manner that assures that it is clean, safe, and functional as
determined by school facility inspection and evaluation
instrument approved by the State Allocation Board or a local
evaluation instrument. Requires the school facility
inspection and evaluation instrument and local evaluation
instruments to include criteria as specified, including: 1)
interior and exterior drinking fountains that are functional,
accessible, and free of leaks; 2) drinking fountain water
pressure is adequate; and 3) foundation water is clear and
without unusual taste or odor, and moss, mold, or excessive
staining is not evident. (EC Section 17002)
FISCAL EFFECT: Unknown
COMMENTS: Access to free, fresh water. Current law requires
school districts to provide free, fresh drinking water during
meal times in the food service areas. A school district may
provide cups and containers of water or bottled water to comply
with this requirement. According to a 2012 study on the water
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access law conducted by researchers at the University of
California, San Francisco, in conjunction with the California
Food Policy Advocates and ChangeLab Solutions, one in four
schools had not complied with the law in 2011. Of those that
did comply, drinking fountains were cited as the most common
source of free drinking water in schools. One of the reasons
cited by schools for not complying was concerns about water
safety and quality. Among others, the report recommended
facilitating and supporting the development of good models for
purchase, installation, and maintenance of a range of water
delivery systems, from short-term solutions to permanent
solutions, and requiring annual water-quality testing at the tap
of every school's drinking water.
Maintenance requirements. School districts are required to
maintain school facilities pursuant to several parts of the
Education Code. School districts that receive state bond funds
are required to set aside three percent of their general funds
in a routine restricted account to be used for the maintenance
of schools. During the state's budget fiscal crisis, school
districts were allowed to lower the required percentage to one
percent or none if their schools are kept in "good repair." The
three percent requirement will be fully restored in 2021.
School districts are required to adopt a LCAP to determine the
use of local control funding formula dollars. Under the LCAP,
school districts are required to meet eight state priorities,
including the priority for school facilities to be maintained in
"good repair." The standard for "good repair" was developed as
a result of the Williams v. State of California settlement in
2004, in which the state agreed to allocate funds to provide
students in low performing schools equal access to instructional
materials, safe and decent school facilities, and qualified
teachers. As part of the $800 million allocation for school
facilities, county offices of education were required to inspect
deciles 1-3 schools using a "good repair" standard. The
standard developed includes a lengthy list of components at a
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school to be evaluated, including whether drinking fountain
water is clear and without unusual taste of odor. Good repair
does not include whether drinking fountain water is free of lead
or other contaminants.
State regulations for water fountains. Under regulations
adopted pursuant to the California Plumbing Code, schools are
required to have one drinking fountain for every 150 people on a
school campus. Districts can use available local bond funds if
the projects were identified in a bond initiative, but state
bond funds for modernization projects have been exhausted since
2012. Absent state or local bond funds, school districts would
be required to use general funds for mitigation purposes.
Testing of water in schools. The state has initiated several
efforts to assess water quality in schools. In 1998, as part of
the Budget Act, SB 1564 (Schiff), Chapter 330, Statutes of 1998,
the education trailer bill, provided $1.053 million to fund lead
testing in drinking water in public elementary and secondary
schools. The budget allocated $120 to each elementary
schoolsite and $230 to each junior high, middle and high school
for this purpose. A water collection guideline developed for
the test recommended prioritizing testing of school buildings
constructed prior to 1986, when lead plumbing solder was banned
for use in drinking water plumbing systems.
Enacted in 1992, the Lead-Safe Schools Protection Act required
the Department of Health Services to conduct a study to
determine the prevalence of lead in paint, soil and water in
public elementary school and childcare facilities. Using
weighted sample analysis, the study estimated that 18.1% of
schools may have water outlets with lead content that exceeds
federal recommended level. While lead content was highest in
schools built before 1940, schools in all ages had water samples
with lead content above the federal recommended levels.
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The Community Water Center, in partnership with researchers at
Stanford University and California State University, Stanislaus,
is currently assessing the prevalence of unsafe water in
California public schools. Preliminary results of their
assessment suggest that an estimated 813 - 1,522 schools in
California experienced at least one maximum contaminant levels
(MCL) violation between 2003-2014, with an estimated 336-534
schools experiencing at least one MCL violation in two or more
years during the same time period. The assessment suggests that
arsenic, dibromochloropropanes, trihalomethanes, haloacetic
acids, and nitrates were the most commonly occurring school
water contaminants during 2003 - 2014, excluding bacterial
contaminants. The study found that schools on their own
nontransient, noncommunity water systems appear to be impacted
by unsafe drinking water at a higher rate than schools on larger
public community water systems. The study suggests that 42% -
48% of schools that have experienced a MCL violation are in
disadvantaged communities (as determined by the top 25% of
census tracts identified using the California Communities
Environmental Health Screening Tool (CalEnviroScreen 2.0).
Private efforts. Last year, the California Endowment launched
Agua4All, a pilot project in partnership with the nonprofit
organizations Rural Community Assistance Corporation (RCAC),
Community Water Center and Pueblo Unido CDC. One of the goals
of Agua4All is to install water taps in communities, including
schools, which lack access to safe drinking water. Agua4All has
installed 75 water stations in the eastern Coachella Valley, and
71 water stations and 86 point-of-use filters in South Kern
County. According to RCAC, now more than 25,000 students have
access to safe drinking water that didn't before. RCAC notes
that the point-of-use filtration systems installed on water taps
through the Agua4All program were funded by funds allocated from
the State Water Board's Clean Up and Abatement Account.
This bill appropriates $10 million to establish a grant program
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administered by the State Water Board to improve the access to,
and the quality of, drinking water at schools. The grant
amounts would be determined by the State Water Board and funds
can be used to install water bottle filling stations,
installation or replacement of drinking water fountains with
filters, installation of point-of-entry or point-of-use
treatment devices or plumbing repairs. The bill requires
priority for funding to applicants that serve very small
disadvantaged communities and applicants served by public water
systems that consistently fail to provide an adequate supply of
safe drinking water. If funding requests are oversubscribed,
the authors may also wish to consider prioritizing funds for
older school facilities and schools with higher percentages of
students eligible for free and reduced-price meal programs.
Based on the experience in implementing Agua4All, RCAC explains
that each tap, such as a water bottle filling station or other
place where people can access safe drinking water, costs about
$5000 per tap, including point-of-use filtration. Each tap
serves an average of 200 students. Taking into account those
costs and the number of students served per tap, supporters
estimate that the $10 million appropriation in this bill,
adjusting for the costs of the administration of the program,
could provide safe drinking water at schools for a little less
than 400,000 students. There are 6.2 million students across in
1,000 school districts.
Committee amendment. Staff recommends requiring the State Water
Resources Control Board to submit information to the appropriate
policy and fiscal Committees of the Legislature within six
months after funds are allocated summarizing the types of
projects funded, the average amount of funds per project, and
the geographical distribution of funds.
The author states, "State and federal laws require that schools
provide access to drinking water at school during meal times.
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But schools that are just beginning to recover from the
recession don't have the resources to deliver reliable water to
students. Instead many are struggling to meet this important
mandate by providing stopgap measures such as bottled water to
students only during lunch time. Students drink less water,
schools spend more and it adds to our overburdened waste
streams. A $10 million funding commitment administered by the
State Water Resources Control Board to fund point-of-use
filtration and water bottle filling stations will help provide
immediate safe drinking water to an estimated 200,000 school
children in California who lack safe, clean drinking water.
Often these schools are located in high poverty, high needs
communities."
Related legislation. AB 1694 (Lackey), pending in the Assembly
Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials Committee, is
substantially similar to this bill.
AB 496 (Rendon), Chapter 664, Statutes of 2015, requires the CDE
to consult with the State Department of Public Health, the
Department of Water Resources, and the State Water Resources
Control Board to identify available sources of funding to fund
school water quality and infrastructure.
SB 334 (Leyva) prohibits drinking water that does not meet the
United States Environmental Protection Agency drinking water
standards for lead from being provided at a school facility and
deletes the authority of a governing board of a school district
to adopt a resolution stating that it is unable to comply with
the requirement to provide access to free, fresh drinking water
during meal times in the food service areas. The bill was
vetoed by the Governor in 2015.
Prior related legislation. AB 629 (Krekorian), held in the
Assembly Appropriations Committee suspense file in 2009, would
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have required a school district, by January 1, 2012, to conduct
a one-time analysis of the level of lead in water in schools
that were constructed before January 1, 1993.
AB 2965 (Krekorian), held in the Assembly Appropriations
Committee suspense file in 2008, would have required a school
district to conduct a one-time assessment of water toxicity
levels at point of entry and delivery in schools 40 years of age
or older.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support
None on file
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by:Sophia Kwong Kim / ED. / (916) 319-2087
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