BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 1630
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 1630 (Alejo)
As Amended May 27, 2014
2/3 vote
ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY 5-0
APPROPRIATIONS 12-0
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|Ayes:|Alejo, Dahle, Bloom, |Ayes:|Gatto, Bocanegra, |
| |Gomez, Ting | |Bradford, |
| | | |Ian Calderon, Campos, |
| | | |Eggman, Gomez, Holden, |
| | | |Linder, Pan, Quirk, |
| | | |Ridley-Thomas, Weber |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Appropriates $500,000 from the Waste Discharge Permit
Fund (WDPF) to the State Water Resources Control Board (State
Water Board) 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 the disadvantaged
communities in the Salinas Valley. Specifically, this bill :
1)Appropriates to the State Water Board $500,000 from the fines
and penalties moneys deposited into the WDPF 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 in the Salinas
Valley whose waters have been affected by waste discharges.
2)Requires that the appropriated funds be available for
assessment and feasibility studies necessary to develop the
plan.
3)Requires the Greater Monterey County Regional Water Management
Group to develop the plan in consultation with appropriate
stakeholders, including the State Water Board, the State
Department of Public Health (DPH), and representatives of
disadvantaged communities.
4)Requires that the plan include identification of disadvantaged
communities without safe drinking water and recommendations
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for planning, infrastructure, and other water management
actions that achieve affordable, sustainable solutions for
disadvantaged communities, including communities without
public water systems.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee:
1)Result in a $500,000 appropriation from the WDPF.
2)Unknown, likely minor, costs to the State Water Board and the
DPH for participation in the development of the plan.
3)Revenues from regulatory fees, fines, and penalties for water
quality and underground storage tank violations are deposited
in the WDPF to be used for waste clean-up or abatement.
According to the State Water Board, there is currently a balance
of approximately $2.9 million in the WDPF. The Governor's May
revision to the state budget proposed a specific $500,000
allocation for the Greater Monterey County Regional Water
Management Group to develop the integrated water quality plan.
COMMENTS :
Need for the bill: According to the author's office, "The
Salinas Valley is one of the regions in the country with the
largest agricultural production. However, years of intensive
fertilizer and pesticide use have left a legacy of water
pollution in the region's surface and groundwater. Nitrate
groundwater contamination not only imposes serious health risks
but it also results in major costs for small rural communities
like the ones in the Salinas Valley. The purpose of this bill
is to identify affordable and efficient ways in which Salinas
Valley water quality can be improved and communities can have
access to safe drinking water."
Nitrate contamination in California: Senate Bill SB 1 X2
(Perata), Chapter 1, Statutes of 2007-08 Second Extraordinary
Session, required the State Water Board, in consultation with
other agencies, to prepare a report to the Legislature focusing
on nitrate groundwater contamination in the state and potential
remediation solutions. In response, the State Water Board
contracted with the University of California, Davis (UCD) to
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gather information for the report, which was released in January
2012. The study showed that nitrate loading to groundwater in
the four-county Tulare Lake Basin and the Monterey County
portion of the Salinas Valley is widespread and chronic, and is
overwhelmingly the result of crop and animal agricultural
activities. Due to long transit times, the impact of nitrates
on groundwater resources will likely worsen in scope and
concentration for several decades.
According to the UCD study, infants who drink water containing
nitrate in excess of the maximum contaminant level (MCL) for
drinking water may quickly become seriously ill and, if
untreated, may die because high nitrate levels can decrease the
capacity of an infant's blood to carry oxygen
(methemoglobinemia, or "blue baby syndrome"). High nitrate
levels may also affect pregnant women and susceptible adults.
In addition, nitrate and nitrite ingestion in humans has been
linked to goitrogenic (anti-thyroid) actions on the thyroid
gland, fatigue, reduced cognitive functioning, maternal
reproductive complications, including spontaneous abortion, and
a variety of carcinogenic outcomes.
The UCD study proposed a range of actions that could be taken to
address groundwater and drinking water contamination, including
policy and regulatory changes and funding options. To examine
these proposed actions and to "identify specific, creative,
viable solutions," in June 2012, Governor Edmund G. Brown
convened a Drinking Water Stakeholder Group. The 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, proposed three "urgent legislative
concepts," which were discussed and agreed upon at the August 1,
2012, meeting of the full Drinking Water Stakeholder Group. The
Drinking Water Stakeholder Group subsequently submitted an
eight-page Report of the Drinking Water Stakeholder Group, dated
August 20, 2012, of which one of the proposed concepts was:
Directly target funding for IRWMs (or other entity
where appropriate) to develop an inventory of need and
a plan for local solutions (including shared
solutions) for disadvantaged communities in
unincorporated areas in each hydrologic region of the
state as is being used in the Tulare Lake Basin
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Disadvantaged Community Water Study (SB 1 X2 (Perata,
2008)). Begin with the Salinas Valley.
This bill is based on this recommendation from the Drinking
Water Stakeholder Group.
Prior legislation: This bill is a reintroduction of AB 1
(Alejo) of 2013. AB 1 passed out of the Assembly Environmental
Safety and Toxic Materials Committee on a 6-0 vote, but was held
in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. Similar legislation
proposed in 2012, AB 403 (Alejo), passed out of the Senate
Environmental Quality Committee on a 6-0 vote, but was held in
the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Analysis Prepared by : Bob Fredenburg / E.S. & T.M. / (916)
319-3965
FN: 0003621