CASA Takes Positions on 2023 Legislation
The CASA State Legislative Committee met on March 10th to review and take positions on bills of interest that have been introduced in the 2023 Legislative Session. All bills were required to be introduced by February 17th and are now in the process of being referred to the relevant policy committees for review and hearing. Over the next several weeks all bills need to be heard and passed in the policy committee process leading up to the final April 28th deadline. Several bills will take top priority in CASA’s advocacy efforts for the year, including the following:

AB 759 (Grayson) Sanitary District Act cleanup
CASA is sponsoring AB 759 by Assembly Member Grayson, which would align district accounting procedures with those of other similar special districts.  Current law (the Sanitary District Act) requires a sanitary district board president to approve the district’s check register at every board meeting.  This bill would instead allow a sanitary district board to adopt their own procedures for managing funds. This change is reflective of how similar districts, including sanitation districts, municipal water districts, and community services districts, allocate accounting responsibilities.  The bill has been referred to the Assembly Local Government Committee and will be heard on March 28th.

AB 727 (Weber) PFAS in cleaning products
CASA is also co-sponsoring AB 727 (Weber) with Environmental Working Group, which aims to ban PFAS in cleaning products.  PFAS has been found in a variety of cleaning products including floor waxes, dishwashing detergents, surface polishes and other cleaning products. We believe this is an important source reduction measure for PFAS chemicals with a direct pathway and nexus to the wastewater system.  The bill has been referred to the Assembly Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials Committee where it will be heard in the coming month.

AB 805 (Arambula) Drinking water consolidations: expansion to include sewer systems
Assembly Member Arambula has introduced AB 805 which expands the existing Water Board authority to compel drinking water consolidations to also include consolidations of sewer systems when both the subsumed and receiving agencies provide both water and sewer services.  CASA has taken a “work with author” position and has assembled a working group to review and provide feedback to the author as the bill moves forward.  AB 805 has been referred to the Assembly Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials Committee and will be heard in committee on March 28th.

SB 778 (Ochoa Bogh) Subsurface installations
Senator Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh has reintroduced a bill to expand the field marking requirement for subsurface installations (also known as the “Dig Alert” program) to include the marking of all non-pressurized sanitary and storm sewers, which are exempt from the requirement in current law.  CASA has an “oppose, unless amended” position on the bill, which we believe is unwarranted and a significant new liability and cost burden for agencies to bear.  The bill has been double-referred to the Senate Business and Professions Committee and Senate Governance and Finance Committee.

For a full list of bill positions that CASA has taken, please click here.