BILL ANALYSIS �
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 2238|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 2238
Author: Perea (D)
Amended: 6/25/12 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY COMMITTEE : 7-0, 7/2/12
AYES: Simitian, Strickland, Blakeslee, Hancock, Kehoe,
Lowenthal, Pavley
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : 7-0, 8/6/12
AYES: Kehoe, Walters, Alquist, Dutton, Lieu, Price,
Steinberg
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 48-25, 5/31/12 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Drinking water: Safe Drinking Water State
Revolving Fund
SOURCE : California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation
Clean Water Action
Community Water Center
Environmental Justice Coalition for Water
PolicyLink
DIGEST : This bill requires the Department of Public
Health (DPH) to review and consider specified local
planning documents when considering applications for grant
and loan funding for public water systems.
ANALYSIS : Existing law, pursuant to the Safe Drinking
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Water State Revolving Fund Law of 1997:
1. Provides funding for public water systems through the
Safe Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (SDWSRF) to
correct deficiencies and problems that pose public
health risks and meet safe drinking water standards.
(Health and Safety Code (HSC) Section 116760.10)
2. Establishes SDWSRF and requires the DPH to administer
SDWSRF. (HSC Section 116760.30)
3. Declares that in order to address water contamination
problems in small water systems, it is in the best
interest of the state to encourage the consolidation of
these systems. (HSC Section 116760.10(g))
4. Requires DPH to establish a priority list of proposed
projects to be considered for SDWSRF funding and
requires priority be given to projects that meet
specified criteria. (HSC Section 116760.70)
5. Authorizes DPH to enter into contracts with applicants
for grants or loans in accordance with SDWSRF. (HSC
Section 116761.50)
6. Authorizes up to 100% grant funding to a small community
water system or nontransient noncommunity water system
that serves severely disadvantaged communities for
project costs to the extent the system cannot afford a
loan. (HSC Section 116761.23)
This bill requires DPH to do all of the following when
considering an application for SDWSRF funding:
1. Review and consider applicable local agency formation
commission (LAFCO) studies or municipal service review,
and other pertinent information identifying regional
solutions to meeting the safe drinking water goals.
2. Consult with the appropriate LAFCO executive officer to
determine whether any additional information exists that
would assist DPH in evaluating the application.
3. Report to the applicant regarding the review and
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consultation required in #1 and #2.
Comments
Congress established the federal Drinking Water State
Revolving Fund (DWSRF) as part of the 1996 Safe Drinking
Water Act Amendments to better enable public water systems
to comply with national primary drinking water standards
and to protect public health. DWSRF provides financial
assistance in the form of capitalization grants to states
to provide low-interest loans and other assistance to
public water systems. In order to receive these funds,
states must provide a state match equal to 20% of the
federal capitalization grants and must create a drinking
water state revolving fund program for public water system
infrastructure needs and other drinking water-related
activities. In response, California established SDWSRF
through SB 1307 (Costa), Chapter 734, Statutes of 1997, to
help fund the state's drinking water needs. The SDWSRF
provides public water systems the opportunity to use
subsidized funding to correct infrastructure problems,
assess and protect source water, and improve technical,
managerial, and financial capability.
Consideration of Local/Regional Impacts . Each county has a
LAFCO which is responsible for seeing that services in the
area are provided efficiently and economically and that
agricultural and open-space lands are protected.
LAFCOs control how local officials alter the boundaries of
cities and special districts. LAFCO boundary decisions
must be consistent with "spheres of influence" which a
LAFCO adopts to show the future boundaries and service
areas of cities and special districts within the LAFCO
purview. Before a LAFCO may adopt their sphere of
influence, it must prepare a "municipal service review"
which analyzes population growth, public facilities, and
service demands. LAFCOs control annexations of cities and
special districts, city incorporations, consolidations, and
disincorporations as well as special district formations,
consolidations, and dissolutions.
In order to ensure that DPH considers local and regional
factors when processing SDWSRF grant and loan funding for
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community water systems, this bill requires DPH to take
into account applicable local studies and review as well as
consult with the appropriate LAFCO executive officer.
Prior Legislation
AB 983 (Perea), Chapter 515, Statutes of 2011, made several
changes to the laws governing the state program providing
grants and loans for safe drinking water projects,
including allowing certain disadvantaged communities to be
eligible for grants up to 100% of project costs. The bill
passed the Senate Floor (39-0) on 9/9/11.
AB 2515 (V.M. Perez), Chapter 601, Statutes of 2010,
authorized DPH to provide a grant from SDWSRF for
point-of-entry and point-of-use water treatment systems.
AB 2356 (Arambula), Chapter 607, Statutes of 2008, required
the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) to take
specified actions when allocating funds to small,
disadvantaged communities for wastewater collection,
treatment or disposal projects and establishing a payment
process pursuant to which the recipient of financial
assistance receives funds within 30 days of the date on
which SWRCB receives a project payment request.
AB 783 (Arambula), Chapter 614, Statutes of 2007, directed
DPH to prioritize funding of water projects in
disadvantaged communities; and directs DPH to promote,
provide funds for studies on, and prioritize funding for
projects which consolidate small public water systems in
certain situations.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: No
The Senate Appropriations Committee staff estimates that
the additional workload to collect and review the specified
documents will impose costs of about $75,000 per year
(SDWSRF).
SUPPORT : (Verified 8/8/12)
California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation (co-source)
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Clean Water Action (co-source)
Community Water Center (co-source)
Environmental Justice Coalition for Water (co-source)
PolicyLink (co-source)
California Association of Local Agency Formation
Commissions
County of Tuolumne Local Agency Formation Commission
Unitarian Universalist Service Committee
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : The author states, "Hundreds of
thousands of Californians do not have access to safe and
affordable drinking water. Many of these Californians
cannot access funding to address their drinking water
problems because they (a) rely on private wells, (b) rely
on a water system that has fewer than 15 connections, (c)
live in disadvantaged communities that simply do not have
the technical and managerial capacity or economy of scale
to support its own drinking water improvement project?More
and more, local agencies and actors, including the local
agency formation commission and local pilot programs, are
identifying how and where consolidation and service
extension may offer the best solution to drinking water
concerns, especially in disadvantaged communities. �DPH]
is the principal funding agency for safe drinking water.
Unfortunately, the Department does not have a policy or
practice of identifying how their funding programs can
address drinking water problems on more than a community by
community basis?"
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 48-25, 5/31/12
AYES: Alejo, Allen, Atkins, Beall, Block, Blumenfield,
Bonilla, Bradford, Brownley, Buchanan, Butler, Campos,
Cedillo, Chesbro, Davis, Dickinson, Eng, Feuer, Fong,
Fuentes, Furutani, Galgiani, Gatto, Gordon, Hall,
Hayashi, Roger Hern�ndez, Hill, Huber, Hueso, Huffman,
Lara, Bonnie Lowenthal, Ma, Mitchell, Monning, Pan,
Perea, V. Manuel P�rez, Portantino, Skinner, Solorio,
Swanson, Torres, Wieckowski, Williams, Yamada, John A.
P�rez
NOES: Achadjian, Ammiano, Carter, Conway, Cook, Donnelly,
Beth Gaines, Garrick, Gorell, Grove, Hagman, Halderman,
Harkey, Jeffries, Jones, Knight, Logue, Miller, Morrell,
Nestande, Nielsen, Olsen, Silva, Smyth, Wagner
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NO VOTE RECORDED: Bill Berryhill, Charles Calderon,
Fletcher, Mansoor, Mendoza, Norby, Valadao
DLW:k 8/8/12 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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