Office of the Mayor
City of Santa Rosa
100 Santa Rosa Avenue, Room 10
Santa Rosa, CA 95404
June 23, 2022
The Honorable Benjamin Allen, Chair
Senate Environmental Quality Committee
1021 O Street, Suite 3230
Sacramento, CA 95814
RE: AB 1817 (Ting): Safer Clothes & Textile Act of 2022—Support
Dear Chairman Allen:
On behalf of the City of Santa Rosa, I am writing to express our support for AB 1817 (Ting), which would prohibit any person from manufacturing, distributing, selling, or offering for sale in the state, any textile articles that contain regulated Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). AB 1817 is an important step towards proactively mitigating PFAS contamination of our watershed and exposure to our community.
The City of Santa Rosa provides drinking water and sewer services to approximately 178,000 residents and operates the Santa Rosa Regional Water Reuse System, which 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. On occasion, and pursuant to our National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Permit, Santa Rosa discharges tertiary treated water into the Laguna De Santa Rosa, an impaired waterway under the federal Clean Water Act.
PFAS are a class of approximately 9,000 chemicals that are both ubiquitous and indestructible because they are generally resistant to heat and water. Because of their unique properties, they have been used extensively for a wide range of industrial and consumer products, including clothes and textiles. Drinking water supplies and waterways are at risk of contamination when clothing containing PFAS compounds are washed, and wastewater is discharged. Although research is not definitive on its effect on the environment and public health, serious health effects have been linked to continuous exposure of PFAS in food, drinking water, and air.
Source control is critical in dealing with PFAS compounds in our watershed because remediation and treatment to eliminate PFAS in our water supply is extremely difficult and
Office of the Mayor
City of Santa Rosa
100 Santa Rosa Avenue, Room 10
Santa Rosa, CA 95404
costly. AB 1817 would help address these risks and reduce human exposure by banning the sale and distribution of textile articles containing PFAS.
For these reasons the City of Santa Rosa supports AB 1817 and urges your “aye” vote when it is heard in the Senate Environmental Quality 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 Phil Ting