ASSEMBLY APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

ASSEMBLY, No. 1400

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED:  JUNE 24, 2024

      The Assembly Appropriations Committee reports favorably Assembly Bill No. 1400.

      This bill would require the owner or operator of a public water system to immediately notify, by telephone and electronic mail, the governing body of a municipality and the chief administrator of every school district, charter school, and nonpublic school located within the municipality whenever the public water system violates any drinking water quality standard for drinking water supplied by the public water system within the municipality.  The notification would provide the name of any contaminant that exceeds a drinking water quality standard, the maximum contaminant level or the action level, as appropriate, for the contaminant, the level of the contaminant found on each date, the dates when the tests were performed, the location of each sample tested and the location of each sample tested that exceeds a maximum contaminant level or action level.  The bill also requires the owner or operator of the public water system to provide information on suggested remedies that a customer may take to address the violation.

      This bill was pre-filed for introduction in the 2024-2025 session pending technical review.  As reported, the bill includes the changes required by technical review, which has been performed.

FISCAL IMPACT:

      The OLS finds that this bill would result in an indeterminate amount of annual administrative costs for the State and certain local governments to provide the required notifications whenever public water systems violate drinking water quality standards.  The OLS estimates that these administrative efforts may be subsumed within existing staff duties.

      For background, there are approximately 3,700 water systems in the State, which consist of: (1) 582 public water systems such as those that serve municipalities, operated by 475 water purveyors; (2) 720 non-transient non-community systems that serve businesses, hotels, and schools; and (3) 2,372 transient non-community systems that serve businesses, camps, churches, hotels, and restaurants.  Of the 582 public water systems in the State, 307 are owned by local government water purveyors, seven are owned by State water purveyors, and 268 are owned by private entities.  In 2016, New Jersey public water systems reported nearly 300 violations across all regulated contaminants.

      The OLS notes that public water systems are already required to provide similar notifications under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act and the State Safe Drinking Water Act.  As a result, many of the administrative costs associated with this bill may be mitigated.  Costs may also vary from year to year depending on the number of drinking water standard violations reported.