Illinois General Assembly - Full Text of HB6596
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Full Text of HB6596  99th General Assembly

HB6596 99TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

  
  

 


 
99TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
State of Illinois
2015 and 2016
HB6596

 

Introduced , by Rep. David McSweeney

 

SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:
 
New Act

    Creates the Public Water Supply School Testing Act. Provides that beginning January 1, 2017, water supplies available for drinking water use in all classroom-instruction public school buildings and charter school buildings shall be tested for lead at least once a year. Provides that water suppliers shall be responsible for such testing and associated expenses. Contains provisions concerning testing expenses, rate relief, and reimbursements. Provides that test results shall be public, provided to school districts and the Environmental Protection Agency, and published online by water suppliers. Creates the Public Water Supply School Testing Fund. Provides that any monies paid by the federal government to the State to test local school water shall be deposited into the Fund and such monies shall be used for the purposes set forth in the Act. Provides that the Agency may adopt rules concerning the Fund and to implement the Act. Effective immediately.


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FISCAL NOTE ACT MAY APPLY

 

 

A BILL FOR

 

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1    AN ACT concerning safety.
 
2    Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
3represented in the General Assembly:
 
4    Section 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the Public
5Water Supply School Testing Act.
 
6    Section 5. Purpose. The purpose of this Act is to make sure
7that public water supplies utilized by students in buildings
8used for classroom instruction are safe from contamination by
9lead.
 
10    Section 10. Definitions. For the purposes of this Act:
11    "Agency" means the Environmental Protection Agency.
12    "Public school" has the meaning provided in Section 21A-5
13of the School Code.
 
14    Section 15. Testing of water supplies. Beginning January 1,
152017, water supplies available for drinking water use in all
16classroom-instruction public school buildings shall be tested
17for lead, as measured in parts per billion, at least once a
18year. Each test shall be performed at one location within each
19free-standing building in which classroom instruction is
20performed and need not be performed on each individual drinking
21water tap or fixture. Water suppliers shall be responsible for

 

 

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1the testing at each public school they supply. Water suppliers
2may either conduct testing themselves or hire a contractor to
3conduct testing. Any contractor hired by a water supplier to
4conduct such testing shall make a complete disclosure of the
5test results to the water supplier.
 
6    Section 20. Testing expenses. Testing shall be performed at
7the expense of the water supplier. This expense, unless
8otherwise funded in whole or in part by reimbursement grants,
9shall be considered a cost of safe operations. If the water
10supplier is a public agency, then they are authorized to seek
11rate relief from the municipality or other unit of local
12government that supervises their rates. If the water supplier
13is a privately-owned utility, then they are authorized to seek
14rate relief from the entity that regulates their operations.
15Prior to seeking rate relief, a water supplier shall seek
16partial or total compensation from reimbursement grants
17disbursed from the Public Water Supply School Testing Fund for
18the cost of this testing initiative.
 
19    Section 25. Test results. Test results are public documents
20and shall be provided at no cost by the water supplier to the
21Agency and the school district of the tested school. Test
22results shall be published by the water supplier that paid for
23the test on a publicly accessible website within 5 business
24days of being made available to that water supplier.
 

 

 

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1    Section 30. Public Water Supply School Testing Fund. The
2Public Water Supply School Testing Fund is created as a special
3fund outside the State treasury into which any monies paid by
4the federal government to the State to test local school water
5shall be deposited and such monies shall be used for the
6purposes set forth in this Act. The Agency is authorized, but
7not required, to set forth guidelines and procedures by
8administrative rule to distribute any future resources
9transferred from the federal government to the Public Water
10Supply School Testing Fund to local water authorities. Such
11guidelines, if adopted, shall take account of monies paid in
12any given year from the federal government directly to a unit
13of local government, a local water authority, or a school
14district for the purpose of testing lead in school drinking
15water. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Public
16Water Supply School Testing Fund is not subject to sweeps,
17administrative charges or chargebacks, or any other fiscal or
18budgetary maneuver that would in any way transfer any funds
19from the Public Water Supply School Testing Fund into any other
20fund of the State.
 
21    Section 35. Rulemaking. The Agency may adopt rules under
22the Illinois Administrative Procedure Act to implement the
23purposes of this Act.
 
24    Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon

 

 

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1becoming law.