BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 963
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Date of Hearing: April 26, 2011
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY AND TOXIC MATERIALS
Bob Wieckowski, Chair
AB 963 (Valadao) - As Amended: April 12, 2011
SUBJECT : Safe Drinking Water, Water Quality and Supply, Flood
Control, River and Coastal Protection Act of 2006 (Proposition
84).
SUMMARY : Provides direction to the California Department of
Public Health (DPH) on the expenditure of funds from Proposition
84. Specifically, this bill requires the DPH to establish
guidelines for grants and loans under the provisions of
Proposition 84 to include:
1)Projects for disadvantaged or severely disadvantaged
communities.
2)Projects that consider demonstrated prevention of illness and
adverse public health effects in a community.
3)Projects that provide replacement drinking water systems in
areas with contaminated groundwater that may not be
economically remediated for drinking water purposes.
4)Projects that include the acquisition of public water systems
by local agencies as part of a project to provide clean and
safe water for small communities.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Authorizes, under Proposition 84, approved by the voters in
2006, the State to sell about $5.4 billion in general
obligation bonds for safe drinking water, water quality, and
water supply; flood control; natural resource protection; and
park improvements.
2)Appropriates $180,000,000 of that bond money for grants for
small community drinking water system infrastructure
improvements and related actions to meet safe drinking water
standards.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown.
AB 963
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COMMENTS :
Need for the bill. According to the author, "There are many
small, underprivileged communities throughout the state that are
dealing with bad water. Because these communities have limited
resources they are forced to use this source of water and in
some cases this has posed a risk not only to the environment,
but to public health as well."
This legislation was introduced to assist rural disadvantaged
communities, including Kettleman City, by requiring DPH to
establish guidelines for Proposition 84 grants that include the
need to connect with existing sources of clean water rather than
limiting projects to those that clean-up groundwater sources.
Kettleman City is located near and adjacent to active
agricultural areas and two highways, and is approximately 3.5
miles northeast of the state's principal hazardous waste
landfill. There have been exceedances of the public drinking
water standard for arsenic in the community's drinking water
supply since that standard was lowered several years ago.
Since September 2007, an apparent increase in babies born with
structural defects, some of whom have died, has greatly
increased the concern within the community of Kettleman City
that environmental exposures to contaminants are the cause.
According the California Environmental Protection Agency
(CalEPA), Kettleman City has submitted an application for a
State loan to install a surface water treatment plant that would
provide the community with surface water from the California
Aqueduct as a replacement for its customers and allow it to
abandon the current ground water sources.
Current Related Legislation:
AB 467 (Eng). This bill allows local agencies receiving grants
or loans from Proposition 84 from the DPH, for groundwater
projects that are able to subsequently recover costs from
responsible parties, to keep that money to fund additional
groundwater cleanup activities. AB 467 is currently pending in
the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
AB 963
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Support
None Received.
Opposition
None Received.
Analysis Prepared by : Bob Fredenburg / E.S. & T.M. / (916)
319-3965