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, including, but not limited to, conducting research, studies, and demonstration programs relating to the provision of a dependable, safe supply of drinking water, enforcing the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, adopting implementing regulations, and conducting studies and investigations to assess the quality of water in private domestic water supplies. The act requires the board to adopt primary drinking water standards for contaminants in drinking water and requires the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment to prepare and publish an assessment of the risks to public health posed by each contaminant for which the board proposes a primary drinking water standard.
The act requires a public water system to provide prescribed notices within 30 days after it is first informed of a confirmed detection of a contaminant found in drinking water delivered by the public water system for human consumption that is in excess of a maximum contaminant level, a notification level, or a response level established by the state board.
This bill would require the office to adopt and complete a work plan within prescribed timeframes to assess which substances in the class of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances should be tested as a identified as a potential risk to human health.
health, as provided.
The bill would require the office, as part of those assessments, to determine which of the substances are appropriate candidates for notification levels to be adopted by the state board. The bill would require the office, by January 1, 2022, to provide to the Legislature an update on the assessment. The bill would require the office to assess annually those substances as new information, scientific research, and detection methodologies become available.