BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
Senator Wieckowski, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular
Bill No: SB 1398
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|Author: |Leyva |
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|Version: |3/28/2016 |Hearing |4/20/2016 |
| | |Date: | |
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|Urgency: |No |Fiscal: |Yes |
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|Consultant:|Rachel Machi Wagoner |
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SUBJECT: Public water systems: lead pipes
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
1) Requires public water systems to take specified actions to
test for and remediate certain contaminants in drinking
water, including lead and copper.
2) Prohibits the use of any pipe, pipe or plumbing fitting or
fixture, solder, or flux that is not "lead free" in the
installation or repair of any public water system or any
plumbing in a facility providing water for human consumption,
except as specified.
3) Prohibits any person engaged in the business of selling
plumbing supplies, except manufacturers, from selling solder
or flux that is not "lead free" as defined in statute.
4) Prohibits the introduction into commerce of any solder or
flux that is not "lead free" unless the solder or flux bears
a label stating that it is illegal to use the solder or flux
in the installation or repair of any plumbing providing water
for human consumption.
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5) Prohibits the introduction into commerce of any pipe, pipe or
plumbing fitting, or fixture intended to convey or dispense
water for human consumption that is not "lead free" as
defined in statute.
This bill:
1) Requires a public water system to compile an inventory of
lead pipes in use by July 1, 2018.
2) Requires, after completing the inventory, the public water
systems provide a timeline for replacement of lead pipes in
the system to the State Water Resources Control Board
(SWRCB).
3) Requires the board to establish best practices to ensure that
chemicals introduced into public water systems do not create
corrosion or contamination within the system.
Background
1) Lead in Plumbing.
Lead is a common additive in plumbing materials such as lead
solder, brass, bronze, and other alloys. Any plumbing product
containing lead that is in contact with water is a potential
source of drinking water contamination.
Lead primarily enters drinking water from the corrosion of
plumbing materials that contain lead and are in contact with
the water. Lead that leaches from household pipes and faucets
into drinking water cannot be easily detected nor removed.
Exposure to lead in drinking water can cause a variety of
adverse health effects, especially in children and infants.
Their exposure to high levels of lead in drinking water can
result in delays in physical or mental development, reduced
intelligence, learning disabilities, attention deficit
disorder, behavioral problems, stunted growth, impaired
hearing and kidney damage.
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For adults, high levels of exposure to lead in drinking water
can result in kidney problems, high blood pressure, nerve
disorders, fertility problems, muscle and joint pain,
irritability, memory and concentration problems. Furthermore,
pregnant women can pass lead contained in their bodies to
their fetuses.
Lead exposure across the United States has fallen
dramatically since the 1980s; however, no blood-lead level is
considered completely safe. Children under age five, and
especially infants and fetuses, bear the greatest risk of
deleterious and irreversible health outcomes. From 2012 to
the present (2016), the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention set a "reference level" of 5 micrograms per
deciliter (?g/dL), in order to target for case management the
2.5% of young American children with the highest blood-lead
levels. At 45 ?g/dL, chelation therapy is considered.
Among the many ways lead can enter a modern American's
bloodstream is through lead plumbing. Acidic water makes it
easier for the lead found in pipes, leaded solder, and brass
faucets to be dissolved and to enter a home's drinking water.
Therefore, public water treatment systems are legally
required to use control measures to make water less acidic.
Plumbing that contains lead is often found in buildings built
in the 1980s and earlier.
Beginning January 1, 2010, California law prohibits the
introduction into commerce of any pipe, pipe or plumbing
fitting, or fixture intended to convey or dispense water for
human consumption through drinking or cooking that is not
"lead free" as defined in statute. This includes kitchen
faucets, bathroom faucets, and any other end-use devices
intended to convey or dispense water for human consumption
through drinking or cooking. However, service saddles,
backflow preventers for non-potable services such as
irrigation and industrial, and water distribution main gate
valves that are two inches in diameter and above are
excluded.
2) Flint, Michigan.
The Flint, Michigan drinking water crisis started in April
2014. After Flint changed its water source from treated
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Detroit Water and Sewerage Department water (which was
sourced from Lake Huron as well as the Detroit River) to the
Flint River (to which officials had failed to apply corrosion
inhibitors), its drinking water had a series of problems that
culminated with lead contamination, creating a serious public
health danger. The corrosive Flint River water caused lead
from aging pipes to leach into the water supply, causing
extremely elevated levels of the heavy metal. In Flint,
between 6,000 and 12,000 children have been exposed to
drinking water with high levels of lead and they may
experience a range of serious health problems. Due to the
change in water source, the percentage of Flint children with
elevated blood-lead levels may have risen from about 2.5% in
2013 to as much as 5% in 2015. The water change is also a
possible cause of an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease in the
county that has killed 10 people and affected another 77.
Several lawsuits have been filed against government officials
on the issue, and several investigations have been opened. On
January 5, 2016, the city was declared to be in a state of
emergency by the Governor of Michigan, Rick Snyder, before
President Barack Obama declared it as a federal state of
emergency, authorizing additional help from the Federal
Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Homeland
Security less than two weeks later.
Four government officials-one from the City of Flint, two
from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ),
and one from the United States Environmental Protection
Agency (US EPA)-resigned over the mishandling of the crisis,
and one additional MDEQ staff member was fired and another
has a termination hearing pending. Governor Snyder issued an
apology to citizens and promised to fix the problem, and then
sent $28 million to Flint for supplies, medical care and
infrastructure upgrades, and later budgeted an additional $30
million to Flint that will give water bill credits of 65% for
residents and 20% for businesses.
The water disaster called attention to the problem of aging
and seriously neglected water infrastructure nationwide.
The Flint crisis recalled recent lead contamination crises in
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the tap water in various cities, such as the lead
contamination in Washington, D.C. drinking water (2001),
Columbia, South Carolina (2005); Durham and Greenville, North
Carolina (2006); Jackson, Mississippi (2015), and Sebring,
Ohio (2015).
The New York Times notes in an article on February 8, 2016,
written by Michael Wines & John Schwartz, entitled, "Unsafe
Lead Levels in Tap Water Not Limited to Flint," that
"Although Congress banned lead water pipes 30 years ago,
between 3.3 million and 10 million older ones remain, primed
to leach lead into tap water by forces as simple as jostling
during repairs or a change in water chemistry." Inadequate
regulation was cited as one reason for unsafe lead levels in
tap water and "efforts to address shortcomings often
encounter push-back from industries like agriculture and
mining that fear cost increases, and from politicians
ideologically opposed to regulation." The crisis called
attention to a "resource gap" for water regulators. The
annual budget of the US EPA's drinking water office declined
15% from 2006 to 2015, with the office losing over 10% of
employees, and the Association of State Drinking Water
Administrators reported in 2013 that "federal officials had
slashed drinking-water grants, 17 states had cut
drinking-water budgets by more than a fifth, and 27 had cut
spending on full-time employees, with serious implications
for states' ability to protect public health."
3) Why Flint is not California.
In the April 6, 2016 oversight hearing of the Senate
Environmental Quality Committee regarding the transfer of the
Drinking Water Program from the Department of Public Health
to the State Water Resources Control Board, testimony was
given by the Deputy Director of the Division of Drinking
Water that California has stringent testing and monitoring
protocols in place that ensure that drinking water supplies
meet California's Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCLs) and that
appropriate chemistry is maintained to inhibit corrosion of
the pipes delivering drinking water that prevents a Flint,
Michigan type incident from happening in California.
However, like Michigan and most other states, California's
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water system is aging, and that infrastructure poses a risk
to public health, especially because the extent of old
infrastructure is not known.
4) Indication for Concern for California.
While California is not Michigan, there are concerns that
have been noted in California public water systems.
An Associated Press article published April 6, 2016, by Scott
Smith outlined an analysis done by the Associated Press on US
EPA data that found that nearly 1,400 water systems
nationwide, including dozens in California, reported lead
levels exceeding the government's allowable level of 15 parts
per billion at least once between January 1, 2013, and
September 30, 2015.
The AP article states that in California, the federal data
show that roughly 57 water systems, including schools, parks,
prisons and neighborhoods, reported being over the allowable
lead content within the last three years.
According to the article some of the readings, however, were
recorded in error when the state manually input data
collected from local water systems, said Cindy Forbes, Deputy
Director of the State Water Resources Control Board's
Division of Drinking Water. State water officials said they
are closely monitoring 19 water systems. Some are included in
the analysis of the federal data as exceeding the allowable
limits for lead.
Comments
1) Purpose of Bill. According the author:
In recent decades, California has been a leader in reducing
lead exposure in drinking water. In 1986, the use of
lead-pipes and solder were banned. By 2010, all plumbing
part and water fixtures sold in California were required to
be lead-free". Given the detrimental health impacts of lead,
even in very low levels, it is critical that California
continues to take every step necessary to eliminate lead in
drinking water.
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Recognizing that there is "no safe blood lead level" the
National Drinking Water Advisory Council's (NDWAC) 2015
comprehensive recommendations for the long-term revisions of
the LCR called for publicly accessible inventories of all
lead service line connections and a strategy for proactively
replacing all lead pipes from contact with drinking water.
Many communities throughout the nation, most notably Flint,
Michigan, are suffering from severe lead contamination in
drinking water systems which have caused a public health
crisis. Like much of the nation's public water systems,
California is suffering the negative impacts of an aging
water infrastructure.
Given the age of many of the underground pipes utilized
within PWSs, it is not commonly known where lead pipes
disproportionately threaten the public health of local
communities. In fact, current federal or state law does not
require water districts to report locations of lead service
pipes.
While lead pipes may be less common in California, it is
vital that we know where these pipes are and eliminate them.
From 2012-2015, 98 public water systems in the state recorded
high level lead readings - impacting families, children and
pregnant mothers throughout the state.
SB 1398 enhances public knowledge of remaining lead pipes in
use and implements a plan for their complete removal from
water for human consumption. By setting in motion a plan to
remove all lead from public water system pipes, SB 1398 helps
to reduce public health risks and the costs of corrosion
control treatment from lead in public water system pipes.
Related/Prior Legislation
SB 334 (Leyva, 2015) would have prohibited 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, requires schools that have lead-containing
plumbing components to flush all drinking water sources at the
beginning of each school day, and deletes the authority for
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school district governing boards 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. SB 334 was vetoed by the Governor. In his
veto message, Governor Brown states:
"I am returning Senate Bill 334 without my signature.
This bill requires a school district that has a drinking water
source that does not meet the Environmental Protection Agency's
drinking water standards to provide alternative drinking water
to their students.
I agree that all California students should have access to safe
drinking water but this bill creates a state mandate of
uncertain but possibly very large magnitude.
As our first order of business, local schools should understand
the nature of their water quality problem, if there is one.
Accordingly, I am directing the State Water Resources Control
Board to work with school districts and local public water
systems to incorporate water quality testing in schools as part
of their lead and copper rule. School districts should utilize
this information to ensure all students are provided safe
water."
AB 1953 (Chan, Chapter 853 Statutes of 2006) enacted the Lead
Free Plumbing Act, which reduced the permitted lead level in
plumbing fixtures used for drinking water, as specified.
SOURCE: Author
SUPPORT:
California Association of Environmental Health Administrators
California League of Conservation Voters
California Public Interest Group
Center for Food Safety
Clean Water Action
Community Water Center
Consumer Attorneys of California
Environment California
Environmental Justice Coalition for Water
Environmental Working Group
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Food and Water Watch
Rural Community Assistance Corporation
Sierra Club California
OPPOSITION:
None received
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