California Health and Safety Code 116270 – The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:(a) …
The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a) Every resident of California has the right to pure and safe drinking water.
Terms Used In California Health and Safety Code 116270
- Department: means the state board. See California Health and Safety Code 116275
- Primary drinking water standards: means :
California Health and Safety Code 116275
- Resident: means a person who physically occupies, whether by ownership, rental, lease, or other means, the same dwelling for at least 60 days of the year. See California Health and Safety Code 116275
- State: means the State of California, unless applied to the different parts of the United States. See California Health and Safety Code 23
- State board: means the State Water Resources Control Board. See California Health and Safety Code 116275
(b) Feasible and affordable technologies are available and shall be used to remove toxic contaminants from public water supplies.
(c) According to the State Department of Health Services, over 95 percent of all large public water systems in California are in compliance with health-based action levels established by the department for various contaminants.
(d) It is the policy of the state to reduce to the lowest level feasible all concentrations of toxic chemicals that, when present in drinking water, may cause cancer, birth defects, and other chronic diseases.
(e) This chapter is intended to ensure that the water delivered by public water systems of this state shall at all times be pure, wholesome, and potable. This chapter provides the means to accomplish this objective.
(f) It is the intent of the Legislature to improve laws governing drinking water quality, to improve upon the minimum requirements of the federal Safe Drinking Water Act Amendments of 1996, to establish primary drinking water standards that are at least as stringent as those established under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, and to establish a program under this chapter that is more protective of public health than the minimum federal requirements.
(g) It is the further intent of the Legislature to establish a drinking water regulatory program within the state board to provide for the orderly and efficient delivery of safe drinking water within the state and to give the establishment of drinking water standards and public health goals greater emphasis and visibility within the state.
(h) This act shall be construed to ensure consistency with the requirements for states to obtain and maintain primary enforcement responsibility for public water systems under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act and acts amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto.
(Amended by Stats. 2015, Ch. 673, Sec. 3. (AB 1531) Effective January 1, 2016.)