Environment (Drinking Water)

Existing law prohibits a person from distributing, selling, or offering for sale in the state any plant-based food packaging that contains regulated perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances or PFAS, as defined. This bill would prohibit, on and after January 1, 2028, the manufacture, distribution, sale, or offering for sale in the state of food packaging that contains intentionally added bisphenols or ortho-phthalates, as defined. The bill would require, subject to an appropriation, the Department of Toxic Substances Control to adopt regulations to establish a threshold in food packaging for bisphenols or ortho-phthalates that are not intentionally added, as specified. The bill would also prohibit, no sooner than a year after the adoption of those regulations, the manufacture, distribution, sale, or offering for sale in the state of food packaging that contains bisphenols or ortho-phthalates at or above that threshold. The bill would require a manufacturer of food packaging that is manufactured, distributed, sold, or offered for sale in the state that contains bisphenols or ortho-phthalates that are not intentionally added to maintain specified information. The bill would authorize the department and the Attorney General to enforce these provisions and would subject a person to an administrative or civil penalty not to exceed $5,000 for the first violation and not to exceed $10,000 for each subsequent violation, as specified. The bill would, upon appropriation by the Legislature, authorize funds in the Toxic Substances Control Account to be used by the department to implement these provisions.

Existing law requires the Department of Toxic Substances Control, on or before January 1, 2029, to adopt regulations to enforce specified covered perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) restrictions, which include prohibitions on the distribution, sale, or offering for sale of certain products that contain specified levels of PFAS. Existing law requires the department, on and after July 1, 2030, to enforce and ensure compliance with those provisions and regulations, as provided. Existing law requires manufacturers of these products, on or before July 1, 2029, to register with the department, to pay a registration fee to the department, and to provide a statement of compliance certifying compliance with the applicable prohibitions on the use of PFAS to the department, as specified. Existing law authorizes the department to test products and to rely on third-party testing to determine compliance with prohibitions on the use of PFAS, as specified. Existing law requires the department to issue a notice of violation for a product in violation of the prohibitions on the use of PFAS, as provided. Existing law authorizes the department to assess an administrative penalty for a violation of these prohibitions and authorizes the department to seek an injunction to restrain a person or entity from violating these prohibitions, as specified. This bill would, on and after January 1, 2028, prohibit a person from distributing, selling, or offering for sale a cleaning product, dental floss, juvenile product, food packaging, or ski wax, as provided, that contains intentionally added PFAS, as defined, except for previously used products and as otherwise preempted by federal law. The bill would, until January 1, 2031, exempt certain components of a cleaning product from this prohibition, as specified. The bill would clarify that, on and after January 1, 2028, a cleaning product is required to comply with certain regulations adopted by the California Air Resources Board regarding volatile organic compounds in consumer products, and would prohibit the use of a regulatory variance to comply with those regulations, as specified. The bill would, on and after January 1, 2030, prohibit a person from distributing, selling, or offering for sale cookware that contains intentionally added PFAS, except for previously used products and as otherwise preempted by federal law. The bill would authorize the department, on or before January 1, 2029, to adopt regulations to carry out these provisions. This bill would require these prohibitions on products containing intentionally added PFAS to be enforced by the department pursuant to the existing authority described above, including, but not limited to, product testing and administrative penalties. The bill would require a manufacturer of a product regulated by the bill to provide a certificate of compliance to the department upon request instead of on or before July 1, 2029. The bill would exempt a manufacturer of a product regulated by the bill from the registration and registration fees required by the existing enforcement authority described above.

Existing law, the Administrative Procedure Act, sets forth the requirements for the adoption, publication, review, and implementation of regulations by state agencies. The Safe Drinking Water, Wildfire Prevention, Drought Preparedness, and Clean Air Bond Act of 2024 (act) , approved by the voters as Proposition 4 at the November 5, 2024, statewide general election, authorized the issuance of bonds in the amount of $10,000,000,000 pursuant to the State General Obligation Bond Law to finance projects for safe drinking water, drought, flood, and water resilience, wildfire and forest resilience, coastal resilience, extreme heat mitigation, biodiversity and nature-based climate solutions, climate-smart, sustainable, and resilient farms, ranches, and working lands, park creation and outdoor access, and clean air programs. Existing law authorizes certain regulations needed to effectuate or implement programs of the act to be adopted as emergency regulations in accordance with the Administrative Procedure Act, as provided. Existing law requires the emergency regulations to be filed with the Office of Administrative Law and requires the emergency regulations to remain in effect until repealed or amended by the adopting state agency. This bill, notwithstanding the above, would exempt the adoption of regulations for purposes of developing and adopting program guidelines and selection criteria needed to effectuate or implement programs of the act from the requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act, as provided. The bill would require a state entity that receives funding to administer a competitive grant program established using the Administrative Procedure Act exemption to do certain things, including, among other things, to develop draft project solicitation and evaluation guidelines, to transmit copies of the draft guidelines to the fiscal committees and to the appropriate policy committees of the Legislature, to hold a noticed public meeting on the draft guidelines, and to submit the final guidelines to the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency, except as provided. The bill would require the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency to post an electronic form of the guidelines submitted by a state entity and the subsequent verifications on the Natural Resources Agency's internet website. The bill would authorize the use of certain previously developed program guidelines and selection criteria for these purposes, as provided. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

The Safe Drinking Water, Wildfire Prevention, Drought Preparedness, and Clean Air Bond Act of 2024, approved by the voters as Proposition 4 at the November 5, 2024, statewide general election, authorized the issuance of bonds in the amount of $10,000,000,000 pursuant to the State General Obligation Bond Law to finance projects for safe drinking water, drought, flood, and water resilience, wildfire and forest resilience, coastal resilience, extreme heat mitigation, biodiversity protection and nature-based climate solutions, climate-smart, sustainable, and resilient farms, ranches, and working lands, park creation and outdoor access, and clean air programs. Of these funds, the act makes $300,000,000 available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for improving climate resilience and sustainability of agricultural lands, including, among other things, by making $15,000,000 available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to the State Department of Education, in consultation with the Department of Food and Agriculture, for purposes of providing grants to public postsecondary educational institutions that are designated as Agricultural Experiment Stations or Agricultural Research Institutes, to develop research farms to improve climate resiliency, as specified. Existing law authorizes a state agency to furnish services, materials, or equipment to, or perform work for, any other state agency upon terms and conditions and for the consideration as they may determine, and to enter into agreements for that purpose, subject to approval of the Director of General Services. Existing law requires a state agency that furnishes the services, materials, or equipment to, or performs the work for, the other state agency to compute charges in a manner approved by the Director of Finance. Existing law authorizes a state agency to provide for the advancing of funds, as provided, to defray those charges. This bill would authorize the State Department of Education to advance a payment for a contract or agreement made with the Department of Food and Agriculture pursuant to the research farm provisions of Proposition 4, described above, in the 2026–27 and 2027–28 fiscal years. The bill would exempt those contracts and agreements from the above-described requirement of approval by the Director of General Services. The bill would provide, for purposes of those contracts and agreements, that developing a research farm pursuant to the research farm provisions of Proposition 4 includes constructing a new research farm and maintaining, altering, or improving an existing research farm previously constructed by the Agricultural Experiment Station or the Agricultural Research Institute. This bill would provide, for purposes of the research farm grants, that Agricultural Experiment Stations and Agricultural Research Institutes are designated by the University of California and the California State University.

(1) The Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act establishes a statewide program for the control of the quality of all the waters in the state and makes certain legislative findings and declarations. Existing law defines the term "beneficial uses" for the purposes of water quality as certain waters of the state that may be protected against quality degradation, to include, among others, domestic, municipal, agricultural, and industrial supplies. This bill would add findings and declarations related to California tribal communities, as defined, and the importance of protecting tribal water use. The bill would add tribal water uses as waters of the state that may be protected against quality degradation for purposes of the defined term "beneficial uses." The bill would require any project or regulatory program subject to approval by the State Water Quality Control Board or a regional water quality control board, within a specified environmental review, and in any findings and declarations presented for state board or a regional board approval, to describe, with both quantitative and qualitative information, how the project or regulatory program will impact tribal water uses, and would require, on or before December 1, 2026, and every 2 years thereafter, the state board to publish a report on implementation of this provision on its internet website. (2) Existing law requires the state board to consult with and carefully evaluate the recommendations of concerned federal, state, and local agencies during the process of formulating or revising state policy for water quality control. This bill would additionally require the state board to consult and carefully evaluate the recommendations of concerned California tribal communities. (3) Existing law requires the state board to formulate and adopt state policy for water quality control. Existing law requires each regional board to formulate and adopt water quality control plans for all areas within the region and prohibits a water quality control plan, or a revision of the plan, adopted by a regional board from becoming effective unless it is approved by the state board. Existing law authorizes the state board to adopt certain water quality control plans. Existing law requires a regional board to establish water quality objectives in water quality control plans that in its judgment will ensure reasonable protection of beneficial uses and the prevention of nuisance and requires each regional board to consider specified factors in establishing water quality objectives. This bill would require, on or before January 1, 2027, the state board to propose, and solicit tribal consultation and public comment on, water quality standards to achieve reasonable protection of tribal water uses into the water quality control plan for the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta watershed. This bill would add consultations with California tribal communities and environmental justice considerations as factors for a regional board to consider in establishing water quality control objectives. The bill would exempt adoption of tribal water uses within water quality control plans from the California Environmental Quality Act, and would require, upon the next triennial review of a water quality control plan after January 1, 2026, each regional board to define tribal beneficial uses in its water quality control plan and, where applicable, adopt water quality standards to achieve reasonable protection of tribal water uses into water quality control plans. (4) Existing law requires the California Environmental Protection Agency and the Natural Resources Agency, on or before December 1, 2007, to enter into a memorandum of understanding for the purposes of establishing the California Water Quality Monitoring Council, which the state board is required to administer. Existing law requires the monitoring council to review existing water quality monitoring, assessment, and reporting efforts and to recommend specific actions and funding needs necessary to coordinate and enhance those efforts. Existing law requires the memorandum of understanding to describe the means by which the monitoring council shall formulate recommendations to reduce redundancies, inefficiencies, and inadequacies in existing water quality monitoring and data management programs and to ensure that water quality improvement projects financed by the state provide specific information necessary to track project effectiveness with regard to achieving clean water and healthy ecosystems. This bill would require, on or before December 1, 2026, the California Environmental Protection Agency and the Natural Resources Agency to amend the memorandum of understanding to incorporate participation from California tribal communities in the actions of the monitoring council, and would describe these potential methods of participation. The bill would require the memorandum of understating to include recommendations on how to achieve and maintain tribal water uses through state board and regional board regulatory actions and other programs, as specified. (5) Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect.