BILL NUMBER: SB 962 INTRODUCED
BILL TEXT
INTRODUCED BY Senator Anderson
JANUARY 11, 2012
An act to amend Section 116380 of the Health and Safety Code,
relating to drinking water.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 962, as introduced, Anderson. Public water systems:
point-of-use treatment.
Existing law, the California Safe Drinking Water Act, provides for
the operation of public water systems, and requires the State
Department of Public Health to adopt regulations for these purposes.
Under existing law, regulations adopted by the department are
required to include requirements governing the use of point-of-entry
and point-of-use treatment by public water systems in lieu of
centralized treatment, where feasible. Existing law requires the
department to adopt emergency regulations governing the permitted use
of point-of-entry and point-of-use treatment by public water systems
in lieu of centralized treatment and requires that these emergency
regulations remain in effect until the earlier of January 1, 2014, or
the effective date of the required nonemergency regulations.
Existing law limits these regulations to public water systems with
less than 200 service connections.
This bill would, instead, limit these regulations to public water
systems with less than 2,500 service connections, and would require
the emergency regulations to remain in effect until the earlier of
January 1, 2016, or the effective date of the required nonemergency
regulations.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:
(a) California's public water systems are required to provide
clean water to their residents.
(b) For the smallest of these water systems, especially in small
isolated communities, such as those in the central valley, the Sierra
Nevada Mountains, and the desert areas, the question of
affordability of new central treatment is foremost, especially for
systems serving customers of modest means.
(c) Many small public water systems are faced with the prospect of
heavy or insurmountable capital costs to comply with the new rules
and the need to provide safe and clean drinking water to their
customers.
(d) Many of these small systems are challenged by having to
provide clean water to widely dispersed rural residents, often in
areas with a population of 2,500 or less.
(e) Even though the federal and state environmental regulators
give extensions for compliance with maximum contaminant level
mandates, and some grant or loan money if available, some small
systems struggle to move forward and meet the ever-changing maximum
contaminant level mandates.
(f) Recently, the Australian Cooperative Research Center for Water
Quality and Treatment published a report that concluded that
"commercially available equipment can produce safe drinking water
generally at a lower cost per household than centralized treatment if
a distribution per household network is in place."
(g) The report identified a significant cost savings for small
towns and showed that point-of-use or point-of-entry treatment
devices were highly effective at producing safe and clean water, even
with poor quality source waters.
(h) Point-of-use and point-of-entry water treatment devices can
help bridge the compliance gap for these small systems and are a
cost-effective way to provide safe and clean drinking water.
(i) Point-of-use or point-of-entry treatment devices may be
employed where the drinking water enters the house or building, for
the purpose of reducing contaminants in the drinking water
distributed throughout the house or building.
(j) Point-of-use or point-of-entry treatment devices may be
employed at a single faucet or tap and used for the purpose of
reducing contaminants in drinking water at that one outlet. They are
typically installed at the kitchen faucet.
(k) These devices must be certified according to product standards
of the American National Standards Institute and other third-party
testing organizations.
(l) According to United States Environmental Protection Agency and
California health regulations, point-of-use or point-of-entry
devices shall be owned, controlled, or maintained by the public water
system or by a person or company under contract with the public
water system in order to ensure proper operation and maintenance and
to ensure compliance with the maximum contaminant levels or treatment
techniques.
(m) The State Department of Public Health adopted emergency
regulations that became effective on December 21, 2010, in response
to the passage of Assembly Bill 2515 (Chapter 601 of the Statutes of
2010), which govern the permitted use of point-of-use or
point-of-entry treatment devices by public water systems in lieu of
centralized treatment if certain conditions are met.
(n) These emergency regulations limit the use of point-of-use or
point-of-entry treatment devices to public water systems with fewer
than 200 service connections in lieu of centralized treatment for
compliance with one or more maximum contaminant levels or treatment
techniques, other than for microbial contaminants, volatile organic
chemicals, or radon.
(o) The California Rural Water Association considers communities
of 2,500 residents or less to be rural.
(p) This leaves many small, rural communities containing 201 to
2,500 residents, inclusive, who suffer from poor water quality in the
predicament of having too many residents to qualify to operate under
the emergency regulations, but having too few residents to provide
the financial base needed to construct state-of-the-art, centralized
treatment.
(q) It is estimated that only 1 percent or less of the water
distributed from a water treatment plant and treated to federal
standards is actually consumed by the public as drinking water. The
remaining 99 percent of this expensively treated water is used for
irrigation, fighting fires, and other household uses, and does not
need to be treated to the same standard as drinking water.
(r) Community water systems would not incur huge capital
expenditures for new water treatment plants, equipment, and operation
costs if they were allowed to use point-of-use or point-of-entry
water systems.
(s) The water treatment industry has available trained,
professional experts who are properly licensed by the state and
certified to install, operate, and maintain point-of-use or
point-of-entry water systems for these small communities.
(t) Compliant and safe drinking water treatment approaches using
point-of-use or point-of-entry treatment devices can be implemented
in a few months, while years are required to design, obtain plan
approvals for, finance, and construct central water treatment plants
under California's complicated permitting process.
SEC. 2. Section 116380 of the Health and Safety Code is amended to
read:
116380. (a) In addition to the requirements set forth in Section
116375, the regulations adopted by the department pursuant to Section
116375 shall include requirements governing the use of
point-of-entry and point-of-use treatment by public water systems in
lieu of centralized treatment where it can be demonstrated that
centralized treatment is not immediately economically feasible,
limited to the following:
(1) Water systems with less than 200 2,500
service connections.
(2) Usage allowed under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act
(42 U.S.C. Sec. 300f et seq.) and its implementing regulations
and guidance.
(3) Water systems that have submitted preapplications with the
State Department of Public Health for funding to correct the
violations for which the point-of-entry and point-of-use treatment is
provided.
(b) (1) The department shall adopt emergency
regulations governing the permitted use of point-of-entry and
point-of-use treatment by public water systems in lieu of centralized
treatment.
(1)
(2) The emergency regulations shall comply with Section
116552, and shall comply with all of the requirements set forth in
subdivision (a) applicable to nonemergency regulations, but shall not
be subject to the rulemaking provisions of the Administrative
Procedure Act (Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 11340) of Part 1
of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government Code). The emergency
regulations shall take effect when filed with the Secretary of State,
and shall be published in the California Code of Regulations.
(2)
(3) The emergency regulations adopted pursuant to this
subdivision shall remain in effect until the earlier of January 1,
2014 2016 , or the effective date of
nonemergency regulations adopted pursuant to subdivision
(a).