Chau Unveils Legislative Package

Assemblyman Ed Chau (D–Alhambra) has unveiled his 2013 legislative bill package, which includes bills addressing consumer privacy protections, transparency in the student loan process and groundwater cleanup, among other issues.  

Online Privacy: Assembly Bill 242 would require online privacy policies to be no more than 100 words in length and to be written at no greater than an eighth-grade reading level.

"When people skip over these pages by clicking accept, they don't realize how the information is being used," Chau told Patch. "[Studies show] that if people realized how personal information will be used, they would decided against using these services online."

Student Debt: AB 330 would require post-secondary institutions to provide the California Student Aid Commission with the net cost of attending their schools, along with their graduates' averages student loan debt. The CSAC would then post the information on its Web site.

Groundwater Cleanup: Arcadia receives water from the San Gabriel aquifer, one of the United States' most heavily polluted groundwater basins. In 2006, California voters approved Prop. 84, which set aside state bond money for cleaning up groundwater contamination.

Proposition 84 also allocated $60 million for state groundwater cleanup projects, $8 million of which went towards the cleanup of the San Gabriel aquifer. As well, the San Gabriel Basin Water Quality Authority has received more than $435 million in settlement agreements with various polluters.

AB 1043 would authorize a Proposition 84 grantee who recovers funds from a polluter to use those recovered funds for ongoing treatment and remediation for projects within the grantee’s jurisdiction instead of sending that money back to the state.

“Treating contaminated groundwater is critical to ensure water supply reliability for the San Gabriel Valley,” Chau said. “This legislation will help incentivize the pursuit of polluters by local agencies to secure more funding for groundwater cleanup throughout the state.”

Language Access to the Courts: AB 1127 would require the Judicial Council to adopt a Statewide Language Access plan that includes standards and procedures to address language access needs in trial courts.

Chau said this bill would particularly help the heavily immigrant population of Arcadia and the greater San Gabriel Valley. Arcadia has an Asian population of 59.2 percent, according to the 2010 Census.