| Last Version Text |
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<ns0:ActionText>INTRODUCED</ns0:ActionText>
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<ns0:ActionText>ENROLLED</ns0:ActionText>
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<ns0:SessionYear>2025</ns0:SessionYear>
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<ns0:MeasureType>SB</ns0:MeasureType>
<ns0:MeasureNum>317</ns0:MeasureNum>
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<ns0:AuthorText authorType="LEAD_AUTHOR">Introduced by Senator Hurtado</ns0:AuthorText>
<ns0:AuthorText authorType="COAUTHOR_ORIGINATING">(Coauthor: Senator McNerney)</ns0:AuthorText>
<ns0:AuthorText authorType="COAUTHOR_OPPOSITE">(Coauthor: Assembly Member Arambula)</ns0:AuthorText>
<ns0:Authors>
<ns0:Legislator>
<ns0:Contribution>LEAD_AUTHOR</ns0:Contribution>
<ns0:House>SENATE</ns0:House>
<ns0:Name>Hurtado</ns0:Name>
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<ns0:Legislator>
<ns0:Contribution>COAUTHOR</ns0:Contribution>
<ns0:House>SENATE</ns0:House>
<ns0:Name>McNerney</ns0:Name>
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<ns0:Legislator>
<ns0:Contribution>COAUTHOR</ns0:Contribution>
<ns0:House>ASSEMBLY</ns0:House>
<ns0:Name>Arambula</ns0:Name>
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<ns0:Title> An act to add Chapter 6.63 (commencing with Section 25249.20) to Division 20 of the Health and Safety Code, relating to wastewater. </ns0:Title>
<ns0:RelatingClause>wastewater</ns0:RelatingClause>
<ns0:GeneralSubject>
<ns0:Subject>Wastewater surveillance.</ns0:Subject>
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<ns0:DigestText>
<html:p>Existing law establishes the State Department of Public Health to implement various programs throughout the state relating to public health. The department administers the California Wastewater Surveillance Dashboard that provides an overview of data from testing wastewater for SARS-CoV-2 virus in California. The data in the dashboard is generated by those participating in the department’s California Surveillance of Wastewaters (Cal-SuWers) network, including the Cal-SuWers program, WastewaterSCAN, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Wastewater Surveillance System, wastewater utilities, and academic, laboratory, and other state and federal partners. </html:p>
<html:p>This bill would require the department, in consultation with participating wastewater treatment facilities, local health departments, and other subject matter experts,
to maintain the Cal-SuWers network to test, as appropriate for public health use, for pathogens, toxins, or other public health indicators in wastewater. The bill would require participation in the Cal-SuWers network from local health departments and wastewater treatment facilities to be voluntary. The bill would authorize the department to coordinate with health care providers, local health departments, and emergency response agencies to ensure wastewater surveillance data is used for early intervention, outbreak response, epidemiological investigations, and public health planning. The bill would
authorize the department to communicate to the general public, through a publicly accessible internet website, as specified, to provide transparency and public awareness of wastewater-based disease monitoring. The bill would authorize the department to utilize external funding sources, in addition to the department’s existing, noncontinuously appropriated funding sources, to implement these provisions. The bill would make related findings and declarations.</html:p>
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<ns0:DigestKey>
<ns0:VoteRequired>MAJORITY</ns0:VoteRequired>
<ns0:Appropriation>NO</ns0:Appropriation>
<ns0:FiscalCommittee>YES</ns0:FiscalCommittee>
<ns0:LocalProgram>NO</ns0:LocalProgram>
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<ns0:ImmediateEffect>NO</ns0:ImmediateEffect>
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<ns0:Urgency>NO</ns0:Urgency>
<ns0:TaxLevy>NO</ns0:TaxLevy>
<ns0:Election>NO</ns0:Election>
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<ns0:Bill id="bill">
<ns0:Preamble>The people of the State of California do enact as follows:</ns0:Preamble>
<ns0:BillSection id="id_4CD5AF8B-8B4F-4B70-8156-F89E5892E7B8">
<ns0:Num>SECTION 1.</ns0:Num>
<ns0:Content>
<html:p>The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:</html:p>
<html:p>
(a)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Wastewater surveillance is a proven and cost-effective tool for public health monitoring, allowing for the early detection of infectious diseases, including COVID-19, influenza, mpox, norovirus, and antimicrobial-resistant pathogens.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(b)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Wastewater monitoring played a crucial role during the COVID-19 pandemic, providing early warnings of infection trends, guiding public health responses, and reducing the burden on
hospitals and testing systems.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(c)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
The State Department of Public Health has demonstrated leadership in disease monitoring and response by establishing a wastewater-based epidemiology program in partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Wastewater Surveillance System, academic institutions, local health departments, and wastewater treatment agencies. This program is critical for ongoing disease tracking and the infrastructure must remain in place and at the ready in anticipation of future outbreaks of infectious diseases.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(d)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Despite its effectiveness, wastewater surveillance infrastructure remains inconsistent across California, with significant gaps in rural, underserved, and high-risk areas, including counties reliant on
septic systems, tribal lands, and regions with vulnerable populations.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(e)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
California’s agricultural economy and food supply chain depend on proactive disease monitoring, particularly in the face of outbreaks, including avian influenza, which has already infected over two-thirds of California’s dairy herds and 90 percent of commercial and backyard poultry flocks.
</html:p>
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<ns0:BillSection id="id_56DBB027-AFC1-416A-8143-B181BD1EDA9B">
<ns0:Num>SEC. 2.</ns0:Num>
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Chapter 6.63 (commencing with Section 25249.20) is added to Division 20 of the
<ns0:DocName>Health and Safety Code</ns0:DocName>
, to read:
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<ns0:LawHeading id="id_2C81C062-83BE-4BD9-AD14-7D19C595E8EA" type="CHAPTER">
<ns0:Num>6.63.</ns0:Num>
<ns0:LawHeadingVersion id="id_098CE6C9-F13B-4405-A250-797CA12045A2">
<ns0:LawHeadingText>Wastewater Surveillance</ns0:LawHeadingText>
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<ns0:Num>25249.20.</ns0:Num>
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<ns0:Content>
<html:p>For purposes of this chapter, the following definitions apply:</html:p>
<html:p>
(a)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
“California Surveillance of Wastewaters program” or “Cal-SuWers program”
means the wastewater surveillance program administered by the State Department of Public Health, in coordination with local health departments and wastewater utilities, for the purpose of monitoring pathogens and other public health indicators. Laboratory analysis is performed at the department or through contracts with qualified laboratories.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(b)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
“Cal-SuWers network” means the statewide wastewater surveillance program administered by the department that includes both of the following:
</html:p>
<html:p>
(1)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Data from the Cal-SuWers program.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(2)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Data generated by and received from participating wastewater programs not administered by the department.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(c)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
“Department” means the State Department of Public
Health.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(d)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
“Wastewater surveillance” means the collection and analysis of wastewater samples to detect pathogens, toxins, and other public health indicators to provide early warning for infectious disease outbreaks and environmental health threats.
</html:p>
</ns0:Content>
</ns0:LawSectionVersion>
</ns0:LawSection>
<ns0:LawSection id="id_C3856BAA-5F30-4652-B855-031A443B9661">
<ns0:Num>25249.21.</ns0:Num>
<ns0:LawSectionVersion id="id_3EC2143F-7829-4846-B490-BF09675CC3BE">
<ns0:Content>
<html:p>
(a)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
The department, in consultation with participating wastewater treatment facilities, local health departments, and other subject matter experts, shall maintain the Cal-SuWers network to test, as appropriate for public health use, for pathogens, toxins, or other public health indicators in wastewater.
Testing shall be conducted by the department or other monitoring programs in the Cal-SuWers network.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(b)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Participation in the Cal-SuWers network from local health departments and wastewater treatment facilities shall be voluntary.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(c)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Subject to subdivision (b), the department shall work with the local health departments and wastewater treatment facilities participating in the Cal-SuWers program to collect
samples. The department shall arrange for those samples to be tested by qualified laboratories.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(d)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
The department may consult with, or contract with, other wastewater epidemiology projects or public health programs being conducted or previously completed by nonprofits, nongovernmental organizations, academic institutions, and other governmental entities to maintain the mission of the Cal-SuWers network.
</html:p>
</ns0:Content>
</ns0:LawSectionVersion>
</ns0:LawSection>
<ns0:LawSection id="id_D2BB7B88-3B9D-4E98-A818-B2AED219295A">
<ns0:Num>25249.22.</ns0:Num>
<ns0:LawSectionVersion id="id_B74E6A12-6CFE-42AB-BADC-64A2CFB92054">
<ns0:Content>
<html:p>
(a)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
The department may coordinate with health care providers, local health departments, and emergency response agencies to ensure wastewater surveillance data is used for early intervention, outbreak response, epidemiological investigations, and public health planning.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(b)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
The department may communicate to the general public, through a publicly accessible internet website, to provide transparency and public awareness of wastewater-based disease monitoring. For purposes of this paragraph, a publicly accessible internet website may be maintained by an entity other than the department and shall do all of the following:
</html:p>
<html:p>
(1)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Provide real-time data visualization of wastewater surveillance results, including regional trends and pathogen detection patterns.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(2)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Include educational materials and resources to help the public understand how wastewater surveillance supports public health.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(3)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Be updated to ensure current information is available to residents, public health officials, and policymakers.
</html:p>
</ns0:Content>
</ns0:LawSectionVersion>
</ns0:LawSection>
<ns0:LawSection id="id_C75FD92E-C296-4751-BA46-3B1B2103F475">
<ns0:Num>25249.23.</ns0:Num>
<ns0:LawSectionVersion id="id_4C7F409D-004C-4725-8980-029A3A9AB087">
<ns0:Content>
<html:p>In addition to the department’s existing, noncontinuously appropriated funding sources, the department may utilize external funding sources to implement this chapter. The department may solicit private donations or grants and may accept moneys donated by other wastewater epidemiology or federal programs. </html:p>
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|
| Last Version Text Digest |
Existing law establishes the State Department of Public Health to implement various programs throughout the state relating to public health. The department administers the California Wastewater Surveillance Dashboard that provides an overview of data from testing wastewater for SARS-CoV-2 virus in California. The data in the dashboard is generated by those participating in the department’s California Surveillance of Wastewaters (Cal-SuWers) network, including the Cal-SuWers program, WastewaterSCAN, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Wastewater Surveillance System, wastewater utilities, and academic, laboratory, and other state and federal partners. This bill would require the department, in consultation with participating wastewater treatment facilities, local health departments, and other subject matter experts, to maintain the Cal-SuWers network to test, as appropriate for public health use, for pathogens, toxins, or other public health indicators in wastewater. The bill would require participation in the Cal-SuWers network from local health departments and wastewater treatment facilities to be voluntary. The bill would authorize the department to coordinate with health care providers, local health departments, and emergency response agencies to ensure wastewater surveillance data is used for early intervention, outbreak response, epidemiological investigations, and public health planning. The bill would authorize the department to communicate to the general public, through a publicly accessible internet website, as specified, to provide transparency and public awareness of wastewater-based disease monitoring. The bill would authorize the department to utilize external funding sources, in addition to the department’s existing, noncontinuously appropriated funding sources, to implement these provisions. The bill would make related findings and declarations. |