2023 Senate Bill 89

House Fiscal Agency Analysis

Senate Bill 89 (S-2) would enact the "Clean Drinking Water Access Act", which would do the following: -- Require each school, within 15 months of the Act's effective date, to develop a drinking water safety plan and to make that plan available to EGLE, school staff, parents, and the general public upon request. -- Require a drinking water safety plan to specify the location of water outlets and to establish a schedule for annual water sampling and testing and regular replacement of water filter cartridges. -- Require a school to review and update the plan once every five years and to make changes as directed by EGLE or as needed to comply with the Act. -- Prescribe procedures for a school to follow if water sampling indicated the presence of lead at a concentration of one to five parts per billion, or higher. -- Require each school, by the end of the 2024-2025 school year, to install all filtered bottle-filling stations and faucets in the school's plan, shut off any water outlet that provided unfiltered drinking water, and post specified signage. -- Require the Legislature to appropriate annually to EGLE an amount sufficient to administer and comply with the Act and specify that schools would not have to comply with the Act until the Legislature did so. -- Require EGLE to assist schools in maintaining compliance with the Act and to provide a template for drinking water safety plans. -- Require EGLE to provide annual training for school staff and school official regarding water sampling protocol, reporting sampling results, and other relevant activities, and to provide guidance related to selecting equipment, shutting off water outlets, and sampling and testing water. -- Prohibit a school from installing a drinking fountain that was not a filtered bottlefilling stations beginning 15 months after the Act's effective date. -- Create the "School and Child Care Center Clean Drinking Water Fund" and provide for the distribution of money from the Fund.