BACKGROUND
The California State Legislature introduced over 2,700 bills by the February 22, 2019 bill introduction deadline. Staff has initially identified about 250 bills that could impact our ability to provide safe, reliable and cost-effective utility services to our residents and customers. Below is a list of key bills that staff are actively engaged on. We anticipate additional bills will be added to our priority list as bills get amended and set for hearings.
Solid Waste
SB 667 (Ben Hueso) Recycling Infrastructure and Facilities (Support)
SB 667 requires CalRecycle to develop a 5-year investment strategy to drive innovation and infrastructure to meet organic waste reduction and recycling targets, including providing loans and incentive payments to fund organic waste recycling infrastructure. Intends to use the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund for these purposes in fiscal years 2020-21 to 2024-25. Allows the California Alternative Energy and Advanced Transportation Financing Authority to provide alternative financing for facilities needed to develop local and regional recycling markets.
Staff Comment: This measure is follow-up to SB 1383 (Lara, Chapter 523, Statutes of 2014), which established methane emissions reduction targets in a statewide effort to reduce emissions of short-lived climate pollutants in various sectors of California’s economy. SB 1383 established a statewide target of reducing the disposal of organic waste by 50% from the 2014 level by 2020 and 75% reduction by 2025. The organics recycling market is not fully developed and through the Solid Waste Industry Group (SWIG) we are supportive of this measure that would help agencies like Roseville meet this new statewide target by providing additional funding.
Wastewater
AP 292 (Quirk) Recycled Water: Raw Water and Groundwater Augmentation (Support)
This bill intends to eliminate the definition of direct potable reuse and instead substitutes the term groundwater augmentation for indirect potable reuse for groundwater recharge in definitions. Requires the State Water Resources Control Board to adopt uniform water recycling for raw water augmentation.
Staff Comment: Since 1962, utilities across the country have participated in water reuse projects to diversify their portfolios of water sources due to drought and growing water demand. We are in agreement with the California Association of Sanitation Agencies (CASA) and support the updates to this bill as public acceptance and education as to the importance of water reuse is a priority.
AB 756 (Garcia) Public Water Systems: Contaminants (Watch)
Requires a public water system to monitor for perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl (PFAS) substances. Requires a public water system to publish and keep current on its internet website water quality information relating to regulated contaminants and to notify each customer on the customer's next water bill and through email of confirmed detections of specified excess contaminants.
Staff Comment: Per- and polyfluroalkyl substances (PFAS) are man-made chemicals manufactured and used in the United States since the 1940s. PFAS are found in variety of places, most commonly in commercial household products, most notably nonstick products (e.g. Teflon) and fire-fighting foams. Roseville’s water supply from Folsom Reservoir is relatively fresh snow melt and has not been contaminated with these materials. Federal action is taking place, including the US EPA in the process of developing a Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) for PFAS. Proposed legislation would require us to test and notify utility customers by email and on our website. We are already testing regularly but the email requirements are impractical because we would have to maintain a current database of email addresses from customers who are under no obligation to share.
AB 1672 (Bloom) Flushable Products (Support)
This bill intends to enact legislation to prohibit the sale or advertisement of any disposal product labeled as flushable or sewer and septic safe if that product fails to meet specific performance standards.
Staff Comment: Some products advertised as flushable are made of material that does not break apart causing hang-ups and blockages within the wastewater utility. The manual labor and resources required to remove and clear the products from the collection systems are extensive. We support this legislation sponsored by the California Association of Sanitation Agencies (CASA).
Water Tax:
Budget Trailer Bill – Environmental Justice-Safe and Affordable Drinking Water and Exide Cleanup (Oppose)
This measure would require EU to add a state water tax on to each customer’s bill based upon the customer’s meter size. The collected state water tax would then be sent to the State so they can distribute the funding to small disadvantaged communities, primarily in the Central Valley, who do not have access to safe and clean water. The State Water Tax would be applied to all customer classes residential, commercial, industrial and governmental. As proposed, the bill would allow us to keep four (4) percent of what we collect for administrative costs until July of 2022 and then we would only be able to retain two (2) percent for administration.
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$0.95/month:
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Unmetered
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$0.95/month:
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up to 1 inch
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$4.00/month:
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Above 1 inch to 2 inches
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$6.00/month:
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Above 2 inches to 4 inches
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$10.00/month:
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Above 4 inches
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Staff Comment: Approximately $580,000 would be collected from Roseville customers and sent to the State per year. As currently written, Roseville would not qualify to receive any of this funding back to benefit our customers. In order for Roseville to comply with this new mandate, we would need to update our billing system and educate our customers. We anticipate annual costs to implement this mandate to be around $100,000, far more than the $22,000-$11,000 Roseville would be allowed to retain for administrative costs. Ultimately, this will impact the affordability of our water for our customers and impact our ability to update and maintain our infrastructure.
AB 217 (Eduardo Garcia) Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Fund (Watch-Spot Bill)
As introduced, AB 217 would create the Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Fund in the State Treasury. Those funds would be available for appropriation to the State Water Resources Control Board to provide secure access to safe drinking water for all Californians.
Staff Comment: Assemblymember Garcia is the Chair of the Water Parks and Wildlife Committee and was appointed by Speaker Anthony Rendon to lead the Assembly’s safe water efforts along with Assemblymember Heath Flora. We anticipate this measure to be amended with a funding source and Roseville will take a formal position at that time.
AB 1381 (Rudy Salas) Safe Drinking Water Plan (Watch-Spot Bill)
As currently written, AB 1381 states the intent to amend current law regarding the submission of a Safe Drinking Water Plan.
Staff Comment: Roseville is tracking this measure as it could impact the policy direction and funding needed for the State to achieve of the Human Right to Water in California. When this measure is amended we will review and suggest a formal position at that time.
SB 200 (Bill Monning) Safe and Affordable Drinking Fund (Watch-Spot)
As introduced, SB 200 would create the Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Fund in the State Treasury. Those funds would be continuously appropriated to the State Water Resources Control Board to provide secure access to safe drinking water for all Californians.
Staff Comment: Senator Monning was the author of the water tax legislation last year (SB 623). Governor Newsom is modeling his Budget Trailer Bill upon SB 623 from last year. The funding source has not yet been put into SB 200, but we anticipate it to look very similar to what he proposed last year. We will return with a formal position once the funding source is identified in the bill.
SB 414 (Anna Caballero) Small System Water Authority Act of 2019 (Support)
The bill would establish criteria for the consolidation of water of systems not meeting drinking water standards. In doing so, it would help to prevent propping up water systems that cannot consistently meet state and federal drinking water standards.
Staff Comment: Measure SB 414 is part of a comprehensive solution that provides the State Water Board with the tools needed to address providing safe drinking to hundreds of thousands of Californians, without placing a tax on each one of our customer meters. Roseville supports this legislation as it would help to reduce the overall funding needed to assure every Californian has access to clean and safe water.
SB 669 (Caballero) Safe Drinking Water Trust (Support)
The purpose of the Trust proposed in SB 669 would be to provide a durable funding source to help community water systems in disadvantaged communities provide their customers with access to safe drinking water. This is an alternative policy proposal to the various bills proposing a State Water Tax.
Staff Comment: Measure SB 669 is part of a comprehensive solution that provides the State Water Board with the tools needed to address providing safe drinking to hundreds of thousands of Californians, without placing a tax on each one of our customer meters. As the water tax is proposed in the Budget Trailer Bill, approximately $580,000 would be collected annually from our customers and our own City connections and sent to the state. The potential annual administrative costs to EU have been estimated to potentially exceed $100,000 annually. This includes changes to our utility billing system and also staff time. As currently proposed, we would only be able to retain between $11,000 to $22,000 annually to cover our administrative costs.
Other:
AB 60 (Laura Friedman) Water Meter Accuracy Standards (Amend)
AB 60 is a re-introduction of a bill from last year (AB 3206, Friedman). This version is paired back from last year and they did accept some of the amendments we had previously sought. As proposed, this measure would require the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission to adopt, by January 1, 2022, regulations for the accuracy of water meters.
Staff Comment: While Roseville supports meter accuracy standards, we recognize that the American Water Works Association (AWWA) has already researched and published National Meter Accuracy Standards. We have found that these standards are more stringent than those suggested by some others. We view this bill as unnecessary; however, if the following technical amendments are obtained we would be neutral on the bill. There is a gap from 2020 and 2022 when the new standards are adopted that agencies are unable to contract for the purchase of meters. We also want the Commission to be required to follow the AWWA standard versus it being an option to consider. Finally, if the Commission adopts regulations that are stricter or different than the national standards, there needs to be time built-in for manufacturers to comply and make meters available for purchase.
AB 533 (Chris Holden) Income tax exclusion, water conservation and efficiency programs (Support)
Would provide tax exemptions for residential and business customers who receive rebates, vouchers or other financial incentives from Roseville for water conservation or storm water capture projects.
Staff Comment: This incentive will encourage future participation in Roseville’s water efficiency programs. Consumer rebate programs not only allow Roseville to save money while building resilience within our system, they can also help to stimulate our local economy and have a profound collective impact upon environmental and energy sustainability. In record precipitation years, like this year, it is very difficult to maintain a compelling water efficiency message and garner support. The rebate program provides much needed incentive to conserve regardless of our water supply condition. Reducing that financial incentive by making rebates taxable income would be a major disincentive for customer participation and will undermine the success of our program.
AB 654 (Blanca Rubio) Utility Customers, Disclosure of Personal Data (Watch)
AB 654 is being co-sponsored by the California Municipal Utilities Association (CMUA) and California Special Districts Association (CSDA) as the result of a request by one of their member agencies. The goal of the bill is to protect customer data shared between government agencies from a Public Records Act (PRA) request once the new has received the information.
Staff Comment: Roseville had been provided an early copy of the proposed language, which we objected to as it would have required Roseville to turn over our customer data to any other public agency requesting it (state or local). Roseville was successful in amending the language to only make it permissible to share the customer data with another governmental agency and when doing so that customer data remains protected from a PRA request. Roseville staff plans to watch this bill to make sure it does not get amended in a way that could potentially harm or make publicly available our customers data.
SB 134 (Bob Hertzberg) Enforcement-Water Loss Performance Standards (Support)
This measure was introduced to fix a conflict that was created with the passage of the conservation legislation (AB 1668 and SB 606) from last year. A conflict was identified between the water loss performance standards of SB 606 and the existing enforcement authority of the State Water Resources Control Board to issue penalties granted under SB 555 (Chapter 679, Statutes of 2015). The conflict created removes the flexibility for a water agency to meet their water use objectives, which was negotiated as part of the conservation legislation.
Staff Comment: Roseville supports this SB 134 to remove the double jeopardy that was created with the passage of SB 606. Our water use objectives are a combination of indoor water use standards, outdoor water use standards, commercial, industrial and institutional (CEO) performance standards, and water loss performance standards. By removing this double jeopardy we can focus our attention on the standard where we can achieve our biggest return on investment