BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 115
Page 1
Date of Hearing: March 12, 2013
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY AND TOXIC MATERIALS
Luis A. Alejo, Chair
AB 115 (Perea) - As Introduced: January 14, 2013
SUBJECT : Drinking water.
SUMMARY : This bill expands the eligibility for grants and
loans from the Safe Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (SDWSRF)
administered by the Department of Public Health (DPH).
Specifically, this bill :
1)Allows the submission of multi-agency SRWSRF applications when
at least one of the communities served by the construction
projects will meet safe drinking water standards.
2)Allows SDWSRF projects to include funding for projects for
upgrading existing drinking water systems that will serve
disadvantaged communities which are distinct from the agency
that is requesting the funds.
3)Requires DPH to allow multiple water systems to apply for
funding as a single application for the purpose of
consolidating drinking water systems, or for extending
existing services to households relying on private wells.
4)Requires that, to be considered eligible the consolidated
applications include at least one disadvantaged or severely
disadvantaged community with drinking water violations and
that at least 50% of the proposed project funds will be
directed to that community.
EXISTING FEDERAL LAW :
1)The federal Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) establishes the
Safe Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (SDWSRF), which
provides states with a financing mechanism to ensure safe
drinking water to the public.
EXISTING STATE LAW :
1)Requires DPH, in administering SDWA programs, to fund
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improvements and expansions of small community water systems,
and to do the following:
a) Give priority to funding projects in disadvantaged
communities;
b) Encourage the consolidation of small community water
systems that serve disadvantaged communities in instances
where consolidation will help the affected agencies and the
State to improve the quality and reliability of water
delivered and reduce the cost of drinking water;
c) Allow funding for feasibility studies performed prior to
a construction project to include studies of the
feasibility of consolidating two or more community water
systems, at least one of which is a small community water
system that serves a disadvantaged community; and,
d) In instances where it is shown that small community
water system consolidation will further specified goals,
give priority to funding construction projects that involve
the physical restructuring of two or more community water
systems, at least one of which is a small community water
system that serves a disadvantaged community, into a
single, consolidated system.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS :
Need for the bill. According to the author this bill is
designed to address the need for regional solutions for
communities with unsafe drinking water, specifically he states:
"Often times within a given region, there are water systems
representing different communities in close proximity to each
other. In these instances the consolidation of a water system
with another nearby system has been an alternative solution that
has worked in areas throughout the state and is recommended by
state agencies (the State Water Resources Control Board, Nitrate
Report) because it helps increase the amount of residents paying
into one treatment facility rather than residents of multiple
communities paying for multiple facilities. This long-term
solution that increases the economy of scale through
consolidation or regionalization is very difficult and
uncertain. Unfortunately under current law, there is no
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effective mechanism for two or more communities to apply
together for funding excluding many communities from funding
and/or creating inefficiencies at the local and state level".
Prevalence of groundwater contamination in disadvantaged
communities. In 2008, AB 2222 (Caballero), Chapter 670,Statutes
of 2008, required the StateWater Resources Control Board
(SWRCB)to submit a report to the Legislature to identify the
following: communities that rely on contaminated groundwater as
a primary source of drinking water, the principal contaminants
in groundwater, and potential solutions and funding sources to
clean up groundwater.
The resultant SWRCB draft report "Communities that Rely on
Contaminated Groundwater" identified 2,584 community Public
Water Systems (PWS) in California that rely on groundwater as
their primarily source of drinking water. Out of those, 682
community PWS were reported to rely on contaminated groundwater
as a primary source of drinking water. The SWRCB report also
compared the list of 682 community PWS with a list of PWS that
had received a drinking water quality violation within the most
recent compliance cycle (2002-2010). This comparison revealed
that a total of 265 community PWS that rely on contaminated
groundwater and serve a little over two million people had
received at least one drinking water quality violation within
the last CDPH compliance cycle. According to this report, most
of the community PWS with violations of drinking water standards
are located in the Southern California Inland Empire, the east
side of San Joaquin Valley, the Salinas Valley and the Santa
Maria Valley. The findings from this report and the UC Davis
study suggest that drinking water contamination in California
disproportionally affects small, rural and low-income
communities that depend mostly on groundwater as their drinking
water source.
Communities that rely on contaminated groundwater typically
treat their water before it is delivered and consumed. However,
disadvantaged communities generally get their water from small
PWS that often lack the infrastructure and the financial
resources to remove the contaminants from the groundwater prior
to the water being delivered. By contrast, communities that
receive their water supply from large PWS are better able to
cope with groundwater contamination. Large PWS have the
economic means to absorb the cost associated with treatment and
the technical capacity to address water contamination.
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In addition, approximately two million Californians rely on
groundwater from either a private domestic well or a smaller
groundwater-reliant system that is not regulated by the State.
A large portion of these California residents lack an assessment
of how clean their water is because they are not required to
test the quality of their well water.
The Governor's Drinking Water Stakeholder Group Recommendations.
In June 2012, Governor Brown convened a Drinking Water
Stakeholder Group, comprised of representatives from, among
others, California State and local agencies, the agricultural
community, the environmental justice community, academia, and
other water related entities which considered options to address
drinking water threats and the problems of nitrate
contamination.
In August 2012, the Governor's Drinking Water Stakeholder Group
submitted the Final Report to the Governor's Office which
included a series of recommendations for legislative action.
One of the proposed concepts was:
Support and fund project planning to foster local, sustainable
solutions (including, but not limited to, shared solutions,
inter-community planning facilitation, engineering, legal,
financial or managerial analysis, environmental documentation,
and other project development activities).
State Water Resources Control Board - Recommendations for
Addressing Nitrate in Groundwater. In compliance with the
requirements of SB X2 1 (Perata) Chapter 1, Statutes of 2007-08
Second Extraordinary Session, in February of 2013, the SWRCB
issued a series of 15 recommendations for addressing nitrate
contamination in groundwater. Among the suggested legislative
proposals, the SWRCB recommended providing greater access for
regional drinking water strategies, specifically:
The Legislature should enact legislation to establish a
framework of statutory authorities for CDPH, regional
organizations, and county agencies to have the regulatory
responsibility to assess alternatives for providing safe
drinking water and to develop, design, implement, operate, and
manage these systems for small DACs impacted by nitrate.
Related current legislation :
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1)AB 1 (Alejo). Appropriates $2 million to SWRCB for use by the
Greater Monterey County Regional Water Management Group to
develop an integrated plan to address the drinking water and
wastewater needs of disadvantaged communities suffering from
wastewater discharges into the region's groundwater in the
Salinas Valley. This bill passed the Assembly ESTM Committee
on February 12, 2013, and was referred to the Assembly
Appropriations Committee.
2)AB 21 (Alejo). Creates the Safe Drinking Water Small
Community Emergency Grant Fund to address contaminated water
in small communities. Authorizes DPH to assess a specified
annual charge in connection with loans (in lieu of interest)
for certain drinking water projects funded by the SDWSRF.
This bill passed the Assembly ESTM Committee on February 12,
2013, and was referred to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee.
3)AB 30 (Perea). Eliminates the sunset on the charge in lieu of
interest provision for the State Water Pollution Control
Revolving Fund. This bill passed the Assembly ESTM Committee
on February 12, 2013, and was referred to the Assembly
Appropriations Committee.
4)AB 69 (Perea). Establishes the Nitrate at Risk Area Fund, to
be administered by the SWRCB, for developing and implementing
sustainable and affordable solutions for disadvantaged
communities. This bill is scheduled for hearing in the
Assembly ESTM Committee on March 12, 2013.
5)AB 118 (ESTM). Authorizes DPH to adopt interim regulations
for the purposes of implementing the SDWSRF, and amends other
statutory provisions relating to the drinking water program.
This bill is scheduled for hearing in the Assembly ESTM
Committee on March 12, 2013.
6)AB 145 (Perea - Rendon). Transfers the State drinking water
program under the California Safe Drinking Water Act,
including the SDWSRF, from DPH to the SWRCB. Makes findings
regarding the need for consolidation of programs for safe
drinking water and clean water. This bill has been double
referred to the Assembly Committees on Water, Parks and
Wildlife Committee and on ESTM.
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7)SB 117 (Rubio). Transfers the various duties and
responsibilities imposed on DPH by the California Safe
Drinking Water Act to the SWRCB, and makes conforming changes.
This bill has been double referred to Senate Committees on
Health and on Environmental Quality.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Association of California Water Agencies
California Municipal Utilities Association
California Special Districts Association
California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation
Clean Water Action
Community Water Center
Environmental Justice Coalition for Water
PolicyLink
Rural County Representatives of California
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Bob Fredenburg/ E.S. & T.M. / (916)
319-3965