Office of the Mayor
City of Santa Rosa
100 Santa Rosa Avenue, Room 10
Santa Rosa, CA 95404
April 20, 2022
The Honorable Bill Quirk, Chair
Assembly Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials Committee Legislative Office Building, Room 171
Sacramento, California 95814
Subject: AB 2247 (Bloom): Support
Dear Chairman Quirk:
On behalf of the City of Santa Rosa, I am writing to express our support position on AB 2247 (Bloom), which would require manufacturers of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) or products containing PFAS to disclose the presence of PFAS in those products in a publicly accessible database. This is important and necessary information that will inform state and local decision making regarding the management of PFAS in our watersheds and the environment.
The City of Santa Rosa, located approximately 50 miles north of San Francisco, operates a Regional Water Reuse System that serves approximately 230,000 residents in Santa Rosa, Rohnert Park, Cotati, Sebastopol, and unincorporated portions of Sonoma County. The hub of the Water Reuse System is the Laguna Treatment Plant, which cleans and recycles approximately 7 billion gallons of wastewater each year from homes, businesses, and industry in the region. During dry to normal years nearly 100 percent of our tertiary recycled water is beneficially reused for agricultural and urban irrigation, as well as to recharge the Geysers steamfields to produce clean and renewable energy. Our state accredited environmental laboratory, located at the Plant, analyzes drinking water, sewage, and industrial waste to ensure it complies with all applicable federal, state, and local regulations, and to protect public health, the environment, and our watershed.
PFAS have recently become a topic of public concern, due to their high mobility and resistance to breaking down naturally in the environment, as well as the persistent detection of PFAS compounds in people’s bodies. The State is comprehensively investigating levels of PFAS in our environment, with a particular focus on water and wastewater resources. While significant progress is being made towards identifying pathways of PFAS in our water and sewersheds, additional information is needed for agencies to be able to make efficient management decisions: local water and wastewater agencies need to know what exactly they are looking for in order to implement effective source reduction policies to limit PFAS inputs into our systems.
AB 2247 would allow us to use the PFAS disclosure data required from manufacturers of PFAS
Office of the Mayor
City of Santa Rosa
100 Santa Rosa Avenue, Room 10
Santa Rosa, CA 95404
or products containing PFAS to optimize pollution prevention programs at the local level through our local pre-treatment programs, and this information would generate consumer awareness about the chemicals used in everyday products and how they impact the environment. We need data to support practical and cost-effective management solutions, and AB 2247 is an important first step towards this end goal.
It is important to note that PFAS chemicals are both ubiquitous and indestructible. Without better information about sources of PFAS to support source control, local water management options are limited and costly, leading to affordability concerns for the delivery of essential public services. In some cases, PFAS can be removed from water and wastewater at the end through advanced treatment technology. However, there is no technologically feasible method for the large-scale destruction of PFAS compounds. Instead, once removed, PFAS residuals are merely displaced and transferred to another waste stream and typically cycle back through the waste management process.
For these reasons the City of Santa Rosa supports AB 2247 and urges your “aye” vote when it is heard in the Assembly Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials Committee. Should you have any questions please contact our legislative advocate, Sharon Gonsalves, with the Renne Public Policy Group, at (916) 849-5536.
Sincerely,
Chris Rogers
Mayor, City of Santa Rosa
CC: Senator Mike McGuire
Assemblymember Jim Wood
Assemblymember Marc Levine
Assemblymember Richard Bloom