BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 2334
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Date of Hearing: April 24, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY AND TOXIC MATERIALS
Bob Wieckowski, Chair
AB 2334 (Fong) - As Amended: April 9, 2012
SUBJECT : California Water Plan: Affordable drinking water
analysis.
SUMMARY : Requires the Department of Water Resources (DWR), as
part of the California Water Plan, to analyze how drinking water
and wastewater services could be made more affordable for
low-income residents. Specifically, this bill :
1) Finds that reliable and potable drinking water and
wastewater services are not affordable or accessible for
hundreds of thousands of low-income residents in California and
that it is in the public interest to meet these basic needs.
2) Finds that while California has adopted programs to assure
that low-income households have access to affordable and
dependable basic energy and telecommunications services, there
is no similar program for water and wastewater.
3) Requires DWR to include an analysis in the California Water
Plan which:
a) Identifies which systems are struggling or failing to meet
affordability benchmarks;
b) Determines the factors contributing to high costs in these
systems;
c) Assesses existing low-income affordability programs; and,
d) Proposes appropriate programs to help make water
affordable to high-cost communities.
4) Defines, for the purpose of this bill, a high-cost community
as disadvantaged communities where water rates are more than 2
percent of median household income (MHI) or communities where
more than 10 percent of the population spends more than 2
percent of their income on water.
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EXISTING LAW :
1)Specifies that the California Water Plan is the master plan
which guides the orderly and coordinated control, protection,
conservation, development, management and efficient
utilization of California's water resources.
2)Requires that DWR update the California Water Plan every five
years and include a determination of the amount of water
needed to meet the state's future needs and to recommend
programs, policies, and facilities to meet those needs.
3)Includes, among other requirements, that DWR include a
discussion in the California Water Plan of the potential for
alternative water pricing policies to change current and
projected urban, commercial, industrial, agricultural and open
space water uses.
4)Requires the Department of Public Health (DPH) to update the
Drinking Water Plan every five years. The Drinking Water Plan
must include, among other subjects, an analysis of overall
quality of California's drinking water; identification of
specific water quality problems and the types and levels of
contaminants found in public drinking water systems; an
analysis of the known and potential health risks that may be
associated with drinking water contamination; an evaluation of
how existing water quality information systems currently
maintained by local or state agencies can be more effectively
used to protect drinking water; and an analysis of the current
cost of drinking water paid by residential, business, and
industrial consumers based on statewide survey of large,
medium, and small public water systems.
FISCAL EFFECT : Not Known.
COMMENTS :
1)Need for the bill: According to the author, "unlike many
other goods and services, drinking water is a basic necessity
that every person requires and because it is consumed,
low-quality drinking water has profound public health impacts.
Despite this, across California there are water districts
that struggle to provide safe, affordable drinking water to
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their consumers." The affordability of water and water service
is a growing concern for water customers across the state.
2)California Water Plan: DWR is legally required to update the
California Water Plan every five years. The plan presents
basic data and information on California's water resources,
including water supply evaluations and assessments of
agricultural, urban, and environmental water uses to quantify
the gap between water supplies and uses. The plan also
identifies and evaluates existing and proposed statewide
demand management and water supply augmentation programs and
projects to address the State's water needs. DWR last updated
the plan in 2009 and plans its next update for 2013.
3)CRLA Lawsuit : In 2010, DPH had not updated the plan since
1993 because, according to DPH, it has not received funding to
update the plan. California Rural Legal Assistance (CRLA)
sued on behalf of residents of the San Joaquin Valley and a
grassroots organization, La Asociaci�n de Gente Unida por el
Agua (the AGUA Coalition), asking the court to order the CDPH
to prepare the required plan. After an appellate court
reversed a dismissal of the suit (Newton-Enloe v. Horton) in
April, the parties settled the case in November. The
department will submit a Safe Drinking Water Plan-a detailed
five-year implementation plan-within three years of the
settlement. And, most important to CRLA, DPH must comply with
the state statute and investigate the water quality and
service of water systems throughout the state with fewer than
10,000 service connections<1>. The settlement also allows
CRLA and its clients to submit their own data as part of the
state's plan.
4)Quality vs Affordability? This bill directs DWR to address
issues of affordability of drinking water, focusing on
disadvantaged low-income communities. The Drinking Water Plan
being prepared by DPH may have some overlap, but the main
focus is to address quality, but not affordability. Is
affordability something that DPH should be looking at in the
Drinking Water Plan, along with quality? If DPH already has
some information on affordability of struggling systems, would
it be duplicative to require DWR to include the same analysis?
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<1>http://www.theshriverbrief.org/2011/12/articles/economic-sec
urity-and-opportun/ensuring-access-to-safe-drinking-water-for-a
ll/
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5)Prior Legislation : AB 2222 (Caballero, Chapter 670, Statutes
of 2008) requires the State Water Resources Control Board
(SWRCB) to submit a report to the Legislature that identifies:
communities in California that rely on contaminated
groundwater as a primary source of drinking water; the
principal contaminants and constituents of concern; and
potential solutions and funding sources to clean up or treat
groundwater, or provide alternative water supplies. The SWRCB
draft report has identified 682 communities, serving more than
21 million people that rely on groundwater contaminated with
one or more principal contaminants.
AB 1187 (Fong, 2011) would have required DWR to include the
Safe Drinking Water Plan in updates of the California Water
Plan, and would have required DWR to contract with DPH to
incorporate the Drinking Water Plan in updates of the Water
Plan. Failed passage in the Assembly Committee on
Appropriations February, 2011.
6)Related Current Legislation:
AB 1669 (Perea), Drinking Water Nitrate Contamination -
Establishes the Nitrate at Risk Area Fund for the purposes of
developing and implementing sustainable and affordable
solutions for disadvantaged communities in areas reliant on
nitrate-contaminated groundwater as their source of drinking
water. AB 1669 is scheduled for hearing in the Environmental
Safety and Toxic Materials (ESTM) Committee on April 24, 2012.
AB 2208 (Perea), Consolidated drinking water systems
authorization. Authorizes the CDPH, when implementing the
Safe Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (SDWSRF), to
consolidate multiple community projects to meet safe drinking
water stands. AB 2208 is scheduled for hearing in the ESTM
Committee on April 24, 2012.
AB 2238 (Perea), Requires the CDPH to promote the
consolidation and merger of small community water systems that
serve disadvantaged communities. Requires local agency
formation commissions LAFCO to examine drinking water and
waste treatment service consolidation as part of a LAFCO local
agency service review. AB 2238 is scheduled for hearing in
the ESTM Committee on April 24, 2012.
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AB 2529 (Wieckowski), Streamlines the Safe Drinking Waste Act
regulations and criteria for revolving funds. Authorizes the
CDPH to adopt interim regulations and take other actions to
expedite the process of providing funds for drinking water
projects, especially to severely disadvantaged communities.
AB 2529 is scheduled for hearing in the ESTM Committee on
April 24, 2012.
7)This bill was heard in the Assembly Committee on Water, Parks
& Wildlife on April 10th, 2012 and passed Ayes 8, Noes 3.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
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California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation (Sponsor)
PolicyLink (Sponsor)
Clean Water Action (Sponsor)
Community Water Center (Sponsor)
ACCESS/Women's Health Rights Coalition
ACT for Women and Girls
Alliance of Californians for Community
Empowerment
Asian Health Services
Asian Pacific American Legal Center
Black Women for Wellness
California Immigrant Policy Center
California Latinas for Reproductive Justice
California Pan-Ethnic Health Network
California Partnership
California Public Utilities Commission
Division of Ratepayer Advocates
Cal-Islanders Humanitarian Association
Central Valley Partnership
Centro Binacional Para el Desarrollo
Ind�gena Oaxaque�o, Inc.
Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of
Los Angeles
Communities for a New California Education Fund
Earth Mama Healing
Frente Ind�gena de Orbanizaciones Binacionales
Great Beginnings for Black Babies
Guam Communications Network
Korean Community Center of East Bay
Korean Resource Center
Latino Coalition for a Health California
Libreria del Pueblo, Inc.
Low-Income Families' Empowerment through Education
Madera Coalition for Community Justice
Nana's Wish
Pacific Islander Cancer Survivors Network
San Jerardo Cooperative Inc.
Sierra Club
Services, Immigrant Rights, and Education Network
South Asian Network
SSG - PALS for Health
Street Level Health
The Council of Mexican Federations
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Opposition
None on File
Analysis Prepared by : Dharia McGrew / E.S. & T.M. / (916)
319-3965