BILL NUMBER: AB 2409	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Wagner

                        FEBRUARY 19, 2016

   An act to add Section 13170.6 to the Water Code, relating to the
State Water Resources Control Board.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 2409, as introduced, Wagner. Water quality standards: trash:
single-use carryout bags.
   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.
   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.

   This bill would suspend the operation of certain amendments to
water quality control plans relating to the total maximum daily load
for trash unless 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.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  Section 13170.6 is added to the Water Code, to read:
   13170.6.  (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 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.