BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 2737
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Date of Hearing: April 29, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY AND TOXIC MATERIALS
Luis Alejo, Chair
AB 2737 (Environmental Safety Committee) - As Amended: April
21, 2014
SUBJECT : Safe Drinking Water: Pilot Projects.
SUMMARY : Requires the California Department of Public Health
(CDPH) to establish multiple pilot projects to improve drinking
water. Specifically, this bill :
1)Requires CDPH to develop and implement drinking water pilot
projects in the Salinas Valley, Tulare Lake Basin, and
Coachella Valley in economically disadvantaged areas in which
high levels of arsenic or nitrate contamination have been
detected in the drinking water.
2)Requires the drinking water pilot projects to do the
following:
a) Collect data to determine the drinking water needs of
schools and communities in economically disadvantaged areas
with high levels of arsenic or nitrate contamination;
b) Collect data or information necessary to develop
regulations to implement effective solutions to
contamination of the drinking water, including regulations
governing water treatment devices;
c) Authorize community-based nonprofit organizations to
develop and implement effective interim and long-term
solutions designed to ensure safe drinking water in those
communities;
d) Provide technical assistance to community-based
nonprofit organizations to improve drinking water;
e) Include installation water treatment costs including
operations and maintenance costs for a minimum of three
years; and,
f) Consider the use of point-of-use or point-of-entry water
treatment systems based on cost and system effectiveness.
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3)Requires, upon completion of the pilot projects, CDPH shall
submit a report to the Legislature on the results of the pilot
projects.
EXISTING FEDERAL LAW :
Pursuant to the federal Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA),
authorizes the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US
EPA) to set standards for drinking water quality and to oversee
the states, localities, and water suppliers who implement those
standards. The SDWA makes funds available to drinking water
systems to finance infrastructure improvements.
EXISTING STATE LAW :
1)Pursuant to the California SDWA, requires CDPH to regulate
drinking water and to enforce the federal and state SDWA and
provides funding to correct public water system deficiencies.
2)Under the Safe Drinking Water, Water Quality and Supply, Flood
Control, River and Coastal Protection Bond Act of 2006
(Proposition 84), as passed by the voters, allocates $10
million to CDPH for grants and direct expenditures to fund
emergency and urgent actions to ensure that safe drinking
water supplies are available to all Californians.
3)Requires CDPH to allocate $2 million of Proposition 84 funds
to Tulare County for the development of an integrated water
quality and wastewater treatment program plan to address the
drinking water and wastewater needs of disadvantaged
communities in the Tulare Lake Basin. Requires the Department
of Water Resources (DWR), in consultation with CDPH, to submit
the plan to the Legislature by January 1, 2011.
FISCAL EFFECT : Not known.
COMMENTS :
Need for the bill : According to the author, "This bill
addresses the immediate drinking water needs of small
disadvantaged communities facing arsenic or nitrate
contamination. The goal is to empower community-based
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non-profit organizations to assist small disadvantaged
communities by providing immediate access to clean drinking
water. Long-term solutions to drinking water challenges can
take many years to achieve. Community-based non-profit
organizations are helping to create community-driven pilot
filtration projects with communities, schools, and public spaces
in areas, such as the San Joaquin Valley, that have high levels
of nitrate and arsenic. In this way, people have access to
interim sources of safe drinking water while long-term solutions
are being developed. The bill requires the State Department of
Public Health to establish community-based safe drinking water
projects in the most impacted areas of the State."
Drinking water contamination in California : In 2008, the State
Water Board contracted with the University of California at
Davis (UCD) to 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. 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.
In addition to the UCD report, AB 2222 (Caballero), Chapter 670,
Statutes of 2008, requires the 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 SWRCB report was released in January 2013, and
identified 682 communities (excluding systems not regulated by
the state), serving more than 21 million people, which rely on
groundwater contaminated with one or more principal
contaminants.
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Drinking water projects for disadvantaged communities : CDPH
performs the activities included in the proposed pilot program
on a statewide basis as it relates to CDPH's public water system
supervision (PWSS) activities. These activities are funded in
part through the federal PWSS grant and the federal set-aside
from US EPA. CDPH already collects data on primary drinking
water contaminants of public water systems, including nitrates
and arsenic. CDPH also provides technical assistance and
consults with public water systems on long-term and interim
solution development, on a statewide basis, for public water
systems owned by schools or that serve schools, as well as
community and non-community public water systems, including
non-profit public water systems.
The federal SDWA provides states with a financing mechanism for
drinking water projects and programs. In addition to financing
infrastructure through loans, states have the flexibility to set
aside and award funds for targeted activities that can help
states implement and expand their drinking water programs.
California currently uses their "set-aside" for inspections and
surveys of water systems to evaluate treatment and
infrastructure improvement needs with particular emphasis on
disadvantaged and small water systems. This set-aside is used
to fund specialized contractors with small water system
expertise to assist small systems in developing management
capacity.
Related Legislation :
AB 1630 (Alejo). This bill appropriates $2 million to the State
Water Resources Control 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. This bill is
currently pending in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Water Quality Association
Pacific Water Quality Association
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Opposition
None recieved.
Analysis Prepared by : Bob Fredenburg / E.S. & T.M. / (916)
319-3965