116419. (a) The panel shall serve at the direction of the deputy director. At the deputy director’s request, the panel’s duties may include, but are not limited to, any of the following activities in consultation with the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment and, as needed, the Department of Toxic Substances Control:
(1) Review existing data, including, but not limited to, occurrence and toxicity data, for CECs collected by the state board and nationwide by the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule program and recommend to the deputy director further actions based on state-specific conditions and the state’s CEC initiatives.
(2) Identify CEC candidates based on potential public health effects.
(3) Incorporate recommendations from other ongoing efforts evaluating CECs both within California and throughout the United States, as applicable.
(4) Review the existing CEC risk-based framework in aquatic and recycled water systems to see if the framework is applicable to drinking water.
(5) Recommend a framework for a risk-based screening program for CECs and appropriate indicators and surrogates that consider their occurrence in drinking water, contribution and fate in the environment, and potential for human exposure.
(6) Review the results of any screening program, which may include screening programs within California and throughout the United States, and provide recommendations to assist the deputy director in prioritizing, monitoring, evaluating health impacts, and informing regulatory determinations for CECs.
(7) Address the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s Contaminant Candidate List and not create any impediments to complying with federal law or duplicative monitoring.
(b) Nothing in this section or Section 116418 shall duplicate, change, or interfere with the state board’s or the deputy director’s ongoing efforts on perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances and CECs.
(Added by Stats. 2022, Ch. 676, Sec. 2. (SB 230) Effective January 1, 2023.)