BILL ANALYSIS Ó SB 334 Page 1 SENATE THIRD READING SB 334 (Leyva) As Amended September 3, 2015 Majority vote SENATE VOTE: 40-0 -------------------------------------------------------------------- |Committee |Votes|Ayes |Noes | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |----------------+-----+-----------------------+---------------------| |Education |6-0 |O'Donnell, Chávez, | | | | |Kim, McCarty, | | | | |Santiago, Thurmond | | | | | | | |----------------+-----+-----------------------+---------------------| |Environmental |7-0 |Alejo, Dahle, | | |Safety | |Gallagher, Gonzalez, | | | | |Gray, McCarty, Ting | | | | | | | |----------------+-----+-----------------------+---------------------| |Appropriations |17-0 |Gomez, Bigelow, Bloom, | | | | |Bonta, Calderon, | | | | |Chang, Nazarian, | | | | |Eggman, Gallagher, | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |Eduardo Garcia, | | SB 334 Page 2 | | |Holden, Jones, Quirk, | | | | |Rendon, Wagner, Weber, | | | | |Wood | | | | | | | | | | | | -------------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY: Prohibits drinking water that does not meet the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) 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. Specifically, this bill: 1)Requires the California Department of Education (CDE) to make information available to school districts, by posting on its Internet Web site or through any other means for distributing information it deems effective, about the US EPA technical guidance for reducing lead in drinking water in schools. 2)Prohibits drinking water that does not meet the US EPA drinking water standards for lead from being provided at a school facility. 3)Requires a school that has lead-containing plumbing components to flush all drinking water sources at the beginning of each schoolday, consistent with protocols recommended by the US EPA. Specifies that a school is not required to flush drinking water sources that have been shut off or have been certified as meeting the US EPA's drinking water standards for lead. SB 334 Page 3 4)Strikes 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 due to fiscal constraints or health and safety concerns, and instead requires a school district to comply with the requirement through the use of drinking water access points. 5)Defines "drinking water access point" as a station, plumbed or unplumbed, where pupils can access free, fresh, and clean drinking water. Specifies that an unplumbed access point may include water bottles and portable water dispensers. 6)Requires a school district that has drinking water sources with drinking water that does not meet the US EPA drinking water standards for lead or any other contaminant to close access to those drinking water sources immediately upon receipt of test results or notification from the public water system. 7)Specifies that if, as a result of closing access to a drinking water source, a schoolsite within a school district no longer has the minimum number of drinking fountains required pursuant to Chapter 4 (commencing with Section 401.0) of the California Plumbing Code (Part 5 of Title 24 of the California Code of Regulations), the school district shall provide alternative drinking water sources at that schoolsite. 8)Specifies that an alternative drinking water source provided while the source of contamination is being mitigated may be from plumbed or unplumbed sources. Unplumbed sources may include, but are not limited to, portable water sources and bottled water. SB 334 Page 4 9)Requires a school district to notify parents or legal guardians, pupils, teachers, and other school personnel of drinking water test results, immediately upon receipt of those test results, if the school district is required to provide alternative drinking water sources. FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee, unknown state mandated costs to school districts, likely in the millions of dollars, to perform the required daily flushing if a school has lead-containing plumbing components and provide alternative sources of drinking water from plumbed or unplumbed sources. COMMENTS: 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. Current law allows the governing board of a school district to waive the requirement by adopting a resolution stating that it is unable to comply with the requirement due to fiscal constraints or health and safety concerns. This bill removes this authorization and instead requires a school district to offer drinking water through drinking water access points, defined as a station that is plumbed or unplumbed. An unplumbed access point may include water bottles and portable water dispensers. It is unclear how many school districts have passed such resolutions. This bill prohibits a school from providing water that does not meet the US EPA drinking water standards. School districts are required to close access to those drinking water sources immediately upon notification from a public water system. Under state regulations, a schoolsite is required to have specified number of drinking fountains. If, as a result of closing access to the drinking water sources, a schoolsite no longer meets state regulations, a school district is required to provide SB 334 Page 5 alternative drinking water sources, plumbed or unplumbed. This bill also requires a school that has lead-containing plumbing components to flush all drinking water sources at the beginning of each schoolday. Flushing helps reduce lead concentrations in tap water and is already the standard practice at the Los Angeles Unified School District. However, it is unclear how school districts will know whether there are lead-containing plumbing components at a schoolsite. The problem with lead. Lead has been listed under California's Proposition 65 since 1987 as a substance that can cause reproductive damage and birth defects and has been on the list of chemicals known to cause cancer since 1992. According to the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, lead has multiple toxic effects on the human body. In particular, decreased intelligence in children and increased blood pressure in adults are among the more serious non-carcinogenic effects. Lead is a probable carcinogen in humans. Even at low levels, lead may cause a range of health effects including behavioral problems and learning disabilities. Children six years old and under are most at risk because this is when the brain is developing. The US EPA estimates that 10% to 20% of the total lead exposure for young children comes from drinking water. There is no level that has been proven safe, either for children or for adults. Both the United States (U.S.) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the California Department of Health Services (DHS) consider any blood lead level more than 10 g/dl (micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood) to be unsafe for children and for pregnant or nursing women. SB 334 Page 6 The CDC found that approximately 900,000 U.S. children between one and five years old have abnormally high levels of lead in their blood. Prior state efforts. The state has initiated several lead identification and prevention efforts in schools. Enacted in 1992, the Lead-Safe Schools Protection Act required the DHS, now called the Department of Public Health, to conduct a study to determine the prevalence of lead in paint, soil and water in public elementary school and childcare facilities. The study began in 1994 and was completed with a report to the Legislature in April, 1998. The study reported that most elementary schools contain paint with a lead content level above federal recommended level and that six percent of public elementary schools have bare soils with lead levels that exceed the US EPA recommended level for bare soil areas where children play. 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. The report recommended evaluating lead content of drinking water in public schools using US EPA guidelines, including collecting water using standard US EPA sampling technique that should be analyzed only by laboratories certified by DHS. According to the report, water can be contaminated with lead by the source water system or by corrosion of lead plumbing or fixtures. Plumbing installed prior to 1930 is considered most likely to contain lead. However, lead could also leak from lead plumbing solder, which was commonly used until banned in 1984. SB 334 Page 7 Analysis Prepared by: Sophia Kwong Kim / ED. / (916) 319-2087 FN: 0002023