(1) 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. This bill would establish the Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Fund in the State Treasury to help water systems provide an adequate and affordable supply of safe drinking water in both the near and long terms. The bill would authorize the state board to provide for the deposit into the fund of certain moneys and would continuously appropriate the moneys in the fund to the state board for grants, loans, contracts, or services to assist eligible recipients. The bill would require the state board, in consultation with the Department of Finance, to adopt a fund expenditure plan with specified contents and would require, on and after July 1, 2020, expenditures of the fund to be consistent with the plan. The bill would require, by January 1, 2021, the state board, in consultation with local health officers and other relevant stakeholders, to make publicly available, as specified, a map of aquifers that are used or likely to be used as a source of drinking water that are at high risk of containing contaminants that exceed safe drinking water standards. For purposes of the map, the bill would require local health officers and other relevant local agencies to provide all results of, and data associated with, water quality testing performed by certified laboratories to the state board, as specified. By imposing additional duties on local health officers and local agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The act provides for the operation of public water systems and authorizes the state board to contract with, or provide a grant to, an administrator to provide administrative, technical, operational, or managerial services, or any combination of those services, to a designated water system to assist with the provision of an adequate supply of affordable, safe drinking water. The act defines an administrator as a person whom the state board has determined is competent to perform the administrative, technical, operational, or managerial services required, as specified, and authorizes a privately owned public utility to serve as an administrator. This bill would, among other things, authorize an administrator to additionally provide legal services pursuant to those provisions and to act, where the administrator is authorized to act on behalf of a designated public water system, on behalf of a voluntary participant, as defined. The bill would recast the authorization for a local agency or a privately owned public utility to serve as an administrator for these 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 authorizes the state board, if the state board determines that it is feasible for the service area of the public water system addressed by the application to be served by one or more currently permitted public water systems, to deny the permit of a proposed new public water system if it determines that it is reasonably foreseeable that the proposed new public water system will be unable to provide affordable, safe drinking water in the reasonably foreseeable future, as prescribed. This bill would eliminate the requirement that the state board determine that it is reasonably foreseeable that the proposed new public water system will be unable to provide affordable, safe drinking water in the reasonably foreseeable future in order to deny the permit of a proposed new public water system. The act defines a disadvantaged community for its purposes as an area, as specified, in which the median household income is less than 80% of the statewide average. This bill would revise that definition to apply to specified areas with a median household income of less than 80% of the statewide annual median household income level. 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. This bill would require a public water system to submit the report in the form and format and at intervals specified by the state board. (2) Existing law requires a laboratory that performs analyses for regulatory purposes of drinking water, wastewater, hazardous waste, and contaminated soils or sediments to obtain certification or accreditation, as specified. Existing law requires, when a person or entity submits material to the laboratory for testing, the laboratory to report the results of all detected contaminants and pollutants to that person or entity. This bill would require a laboratory accredited by the State Water Resources Control Board to also report the results of each drinking water analysis to the state board in the form or format and at intervals specified by the state board. (3) The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 designates the State Air Resources Board as the state agency charged with monitoring and regulating sources of emissions of greenhouse gases. The act authorizes the state board to include the use of market-based compliance mechanisms. Existing law requires all moneys, except for fines and penalties, collected by the state board as part of a market-based compliance mechanism to be deposited in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund and to be available upon appropriation. Existing law continuously appropriates 35% of the annual proceeds of the fund for transit, affordable housing, and sustainable communities programs and 25% of the annual proceeds of the fund for certain components of a specified high-speed rail project. This bill, beginning in the 2020–21 fiscal year, would require 5% of the annual proceeds of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, up to the sum of $130,000,000, to be deposited into the Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Fund for the purposes of the Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Fund, subject to specified restrictions. The bill would require the Director of Finance, beginning in the 2023–24 fiscal year and until June 30, 2030, to calculate the sum to be transferred by the Controller from the General Fund to the Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Fund if the annual transfer from the annual proceeds of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund is less than $130,000,000 to equal a total transfer into the Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Fund of $130,000,000, as specified. (4) The Budget Act of 2019 appropriates $100,000,000 from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund and $30,000,000 from the General Fund to the State Water Resources Control Board for support or local assistance to fund grants, loans, contracts, or services to help water systems provide safe and affordable drinking water. This bill would require these moneys to be available for the purposes of the Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Fund, subject to specified restrictions. (5) This bill would provide that its provisions are severable. (6) 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, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above. (7) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Sponsored bills
(1) Existing federal law, the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, regulates, among other things, the quality and packaging of foods introduced or delivered for introduction into interstate commerce and generally prohibits the misbranding of food. Existing federal law, the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990, governs state and local labeling requirements, including those that characterize the relationship of any nutrient specified in the labeling of food to a disease or health-related condition. Existing state law, the Sherman Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Law, generally regulates misbranded food and provides that any food is misbranded if its labeling does not conform with the requirements for nutrient content or health claims as set forth in the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and the regulations adopted pursuant to that federal act. Existing law requires that a food facility, as defined, make prescribed disclosures and warnings to consumers. Existing law makes a violation of these requirements a crime. Existing state law, the Pupil Nutrition, Health, and Achievement Act of 2001, prohibits the sale of specified beverages to pupils at schools, except for vegetable-based drinks, drinking water with no added sweetener, milk, and in high schools, an electrolyte replacement beverage if those beverages meet certain nutritional requirements. This bill would establish the Sugar-Sweetened Beverages Safety Warning Act, which would prohibit a person from distributing, selling, or offering for sale a sugar-sweetened beverage in a sealed beverage container, a multipack of sugar-sweetened beverages, or a concentrate, as those terms are defined, in this state unless the sealed beverage container, multipack, or packaging of the concentrate bears a safety warning. The bill also would require every person who owns, leases, or otherwise legally controls the premises where a vending machine or beverage dispensing machine is located, or where a sugar-sweetened beverage is sold in an unsealed container, to place a specified safety warning in certain locations, including on the exterior of any vending machine that includes a sugar-sweetened beverage for sale. (2) Under existing law, the State Department of Public Health, upon the request of a health officer, as defined, may authorize the local health department of a city, county, city and county, or local health district to enforce the provisions of the Sherman Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Law. Existing law authorizes the State Department of Public Health to assess a civil penalty against any person for a violation of that law in an amount not to exceed $1,000 per day, except as specified. Existing law authorizes the Attorney General or any district attorney, on behalf of the State Department of Public Health, to bring an action in a superior court to grant a temporary or permanent injunction restraining a person from violating the Sherman Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Law. This bill, commencing July 1, 2021, would make the first violation of that law or regulations adopted pursuant to that law result in a notice of violation that would inform the recipient that they have an opportunity to remedy the violation without penalty, and a second or subsequent violation punishable by a civil penalty of not less than $50, but no greater than $500. This bill would also create the Sugar-Sweetened Beverages Safety Warning Fund for the receipt of all moneys collected for violations of those requirements, and would allocate moneys in this fund, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to the department for the purpose of enforcing those provisions. The bill would make legislative findings and declarations relating to the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages, obesity, and dental disease.
This measure would recognize June 6, 2019, as the 75th anniversary of the invasion of Normandy, also known as D-Day. This measure would express the gratitude and appreciation of the Legislature to the members of the United States Armed Forces who participated in D-Day, and would call upon the people of California to observe the anniversary with appropriate reflections and recognition.
This measure would designate Monday, May 6, 2019, as California Peace Officers' Memorial Day, urge all Californians to use that day to honor California peace officers, and recognize specified California peace officers who were killed in defense of their communities.
The California Constitution requires that all statutes of this state in effect on February 17, 1972, requiring, authorizing, imposing, or relating to the death penalty are in full force and effect, subject to legislative amendment or repeal by statute, initiative, or referendum. The California Constitution requires that the death penalty not be deemed to be, or to constitute, the infliction of cruel or unusual punishment. This measure would amend the California Constitution to delete that provision and instead would prohibit the death penalty from being imposed as a punishment for any violation of law.
This measure would recognize March 14, 2019, as California Attractions and Parks Day, and would declare that the Legislature intends to take actions to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the California Attractions and Parks Association and celebrate the organization's important role and many contributions to California's tourism industry through its promotion, support, and sponsorship of a wide variety of activities and programs at attractions and parks throughout the state.
Existing law prohibits the Department of Motor Vehicles from issuing a commercial driver's license to any person to operate a commercial motor vehicle unless the person has passed a written and driving test for the operation of a commercial motor vehicle that complies with the minimum standards established by the federal Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1986 and specified federal regulations, and has satisfied all other requirements of that act as well as any other requirements imposed by state law. This bill would require the department, no later than June 5, 2020, to adopt regulations related to entry-level driver training requirements for drivers of commercial motor vehicles including specified minimum hours of behind-the-wheel training and in compliance with the requirements of specified federal regulations.
Existing law imposes certain obligations in the context of particular transactions, and provides mechanisms to enforce those obligations. This bill would enact the California Internet Consumer Protection and Net Neutrality Act of 2018. This act would prohibit fixed and mobile Internet service providers, as defined, that provide broadband Internet access service, as defined, from engaging in specified actions concerning the treatment of Internet traffic. The act would prohibit, among other things, blocking lawful content, applications, services, or nonharmful devices, impairing or degrading lawful Internet traffic on the basis of Internet content, application, or service, or use of a nonharmful device, and specified practices relating to zero-rating, as defined. It would also prohibit fixed and mobile Internet service providers from offering or providing services other than broadband Internet access service that are delivered over the same last-mile connection as the broadband Internet access service, if those services have the purpose or effect of evading the above-described prohibitions or negatively affect the performance of broadband Internet access service.