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AB-838 California Water Affordability and Infrastructure Transparency Act of 2023.(2023-2024)

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Date Published: 03/21/2023 09:00 PM
AB838:v98#DOCUMENT

Amended  IN  Assembly  March 21, 2023

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2023–2024 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill
No. 838

Introduced by Assembly Member Connolly

February 14, 2023

An act to amend Section 116530 of the Health and Safety Code, relating to drinking water.


LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


AB 838, as amended, Connolly. California Water Affordability and Infrastructure Transparency Act of 2023.
Existing law, the California Safe Drinking Water Act, requires the State Water Resources Control Board to administer provisions relating to the regulation of drinking water to protect public health. Existing law declares it to be the established policy of the state that every human being has the right to safe, clean, affordable, and accessible water adequate for human consumption, cooking, and sanitary purposes. The act prohibits a person from operating a public water system unless the person first submits an application to the state board and receives a permit to operate the system, as specified. The act requires a public water system to submit a technical report to the state board as a part of the permit application or when otherwise required by the state board, as specified, and to submit the report in the form and format and at intervals specified by the state board. Existing law provides that a specified violation of the act is a crime.
This bill would require, on beginning January 1, 2025, and annually thereafter, thereafter at intervals determined by the state board, public water systems to provide specified information and data related to customer water bills and efforts to replace aging infrastructure to the state board. By requiring information and data to be provided to the state board, this bill would expand the scope of a crime and create a state-mandated local program.
The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.
This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: YES   Local Program: YES  

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:


SECTION 1.

 This bill shall be known as the California Water Affordability and Infrastructure Transparency Act of 2023.
SEC. 2.

The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:

(a)In 2022, approximately 150,000 residents of the City of Jackson, Mississippi, were forced to go without potable drinking water as a result of the catastrophic failure of the city’s water system.

(b)The failure of the City of Jackson’s water system was the result of decades of neglect, deferred maintenance, and underinvestment, leaving the city’s water infrastructure in a state of crisis.

(c)The disaster in the City of Jackson is the most recent example of underinvestment in critical water infrastructure. Similar scenarios have played out in the City of Flint, Michigan, and the City of Newark, New Jersey.

(d)Even in California, the State Water Resources Control Board has identified approximately 345 water systems that fail to meet the goals of the state’s human right to safe, clean, affordable, and accessible water, established by Assembly Bill 685 (Chapter 524 of the Statutes of 2012).

(e)The State Water Resources Control Board has estimated that 21 percent of water systems in California have water rates that are unaffordable, even for basic needs.

(f)Proper analysis of affordability issues is hampered, however, by the lack of adequate data about actual water bills paid by customers, as opposed to hypothetical amounts calculated using arbitrarily selected amounts of water consumption.

(g)The public has a right to know how well water suppliers are maintaining the infrastructure in their communities and how their water bills compare to those in other communities.

(h)Transparency regarding water affordability and infrastructure not only helps to keep the public informed, but also keeps water suppliers accountable. Recent research concludes that there is a correlation between increased transparency on the part of water suppliers and the reduced incidence of violations of the Safe Drinking Water Act.

SEC. 3.SEC. 2.

 Section 116530 of the Health and Safety Code is amended to read:

116530.
 (a) A public water system shall submit a technical report to the state board as part of the permit application or when otherwise required by the state board. This report may include, but not be limited to, detailed plans and specifications, water quality information, physical descriptions of the existing or proposed system, information related to technical, managerial, and financial capacity and sustainability, and information related to achieving the goals of Section 106.3 of the Water Code, including affordability and accessibility.
(b) A public water system shall submit the report in the form and format and at intervals specified by the state board.
(c) Beginning January 1, 2025, and annually thereafter, thereafter at intervals determined by the state board, a public water system shall provide to the state board both of the following:
(1) Information and data related to the average water bill paid by customers, including, but not limited, to limited to, all of the following:
(A) The median dollar amount billed to customer accounts in the prior calendar year.
(B) The total dollar amount billed to customer accounts in the prior calendar year.
(C) If the public water system differentiates between customer classifications, separate information and data may be provided for each customer classification.
(2) Information and data related to the public water system’s completed and planned efforts to replace aging infrastructure, including, but not limited to, both of the following:
(A) The total cost of all infrastructure improvements completed in the prior calendar year.
(B) The percentage of water main replaced in the prior calendar year.
(d) For purposes of this section, the following definitions apply:
(1) “Median dollar amount billed” shall be calculated by identifying the middle value of all of the water bills presented to customers.
(2) “Water main” means any pipeline, except for user service lines, within the distribution system.
(e) For purposes of this section, a water corporation may submit data for each ratemaking area, as identified by the Public Utilities Commission, as opposed to at the public water system level.

SEC. 4.SEC. 3.

 No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution because the only costs that may be incurred by a local agency or school district will be incurred because this act creates a new crime or infraction, eliminates a crime or infraction, or changes the penalty for a crime or infraction, within the meaning of Section 17556 of the Government Code, or changes the definition of a crime within the meaning of Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution.