AB 2737, as introduced, Committee on Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials. Safe drinking water.
Existing law, the California Safe Drinking Water Act, enacts provisions governing drinking water quality, and requires the State Department of Public Health ensure that all public water systems, as defined, are operated in compliance with the act. Among other things, the act requires the department to adopt primary drinking water standards for contaminants in drinking water, as specified. Existing law also authorizes the department to fund improvements and expansions of small community water systems and to give priority to funding projects in disadvantaged communities.
This bill would require the department to develop and implement a pilot project in the Counties of Fresno, Imperial, and Monterey to collect data to determine the schools and communities in each county, particularly those located in economically disadvantaged areas, in which high levels of arsenic or nitrate contamination have been detected in the drinking water, and any other data or information necessary to develop regulations to implement effective solutions to contamination of the drinking water, including regulations governing water treatment devices. The bill would also require the department to work cooperatively with community-based nonprofit organizations to develop and implement effective interim and long-term solutions designed to ensure safe drinking water in those communities, and to provide technical assistance to those organizations to improve drinking water.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: no.
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
Section 116327 is added to the Health and Safety
2Code, to read:
The department shall develop and implement a pilot
4project in the Counties of Fresno, Imperial, and Monterey to do
5all of the following:
6(a) Collect data to determine the schools and communities in
7each county, particularly those located in economically
8disadvantaged areas, in which high levels of arsenic or nitrate
9contamination have been detected in the drinking water, and any
10other data or information necessary to develop regulations to
11implement effective solutions to contamination of the drinking
12water, including regulations governing water treatment devices.
13(b) Work cooperatively with community-based nonprofit
14organizations to develop and implement effective interim and
15long-term solutions
designed to ensure safe drinking water in those
16communities.
17(c) Provide technical assistance to community-based nonprofit
18organizations to improve drinking water.
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