Section Requests Amendment to California’s AB 145
By Jacques DeBra
12 SOURCE summer 2013
heads up
News and Views on Issues, Legislation and Regulations
2013 has been a year of legislative
and regulatory activity. In April CANV
participated in the annual “Water
Matters” D.C. Fly-In highlighting the need
for federal water infrastructure financing
for large capital projects. Again organized
by AWWA and the Water Environment
Federation (WEF) working together,
three delegates from Nevada and 10 from
California met with 48 congressional
representatives from the two states. The
Section’s Technical Advisory Group has
been preparing for the draft Maximum
Contaminant Level (MCL) for hexavalent
chromium, which is expected to be released
this month (July).
And on April 30 I testified as Section
Chair at the California State Legislature’s
Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials
Committee hearings on AB 145, which
would transfer regulatory authority for the
State’s Drinking Water Program, including
the Safe Drinking Water Act State Revolving
Fund (SDWA SRF) funding program, to the
State Water Resources Control Board.
CA-NV opposed the bill as written and
requested it be amended to include
changes that would strengthen the state’s
oversight structure to improve water system
compliance with drinking water regulations
through effective allocation of SRF funds
on an annual basis. The Section believes
that transferring the regulatory authority
of the Drinking Water Program to another
department or agency will not necessarily
address the deficiencies sought in this
legislation.
Our recommendation is that AB 145 be
amended to consider the following issues:
1. Fix the Drinking Water State Revolving
Fund (SRF). While CA-NV AWWA recognizes
the urgency of providing all the state’s
drinking water systems with the appropriate
mechanisms to meet all the state and federal
drinking water standards, the current underutilization
of federal funds, as documented in
a critical letter from the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, should first be addressed
and corrected.
2. California’s Drinking Water Program
isn’t broken. The regulatory programs,
laboratory function and the field offices