republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20172018/ab-1438.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "State Water Resources Control Board: environmental laboratories: public water systems: certificates and permits: procedures."
description: "(1) Existing law, the Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Act, requires certain laboratories that conduct analyses of environmental samples for regulatory purposes to obtain a certificate of accreditation from the State Water Resources Control Board. The act requires an accredited laboratory to report, in a timely fashion and in accordance with the request for analysis, the full and complete results of all detected contaminants and pollutants to the person or entity that submitted the material for testing. The act authorizes the state board to adopt regulations to establish reporting requirements, establish the accreditation procedures, recognize the accreditation of laboratories located outside California, and collect laboratory accreditation fees. The act requires fees and civil penalties collected under the act to be deposited in the Environmental Laboratory Improvement Fund and that moneys in the fund be available for expenditure by the board, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for the purposes of the act. Existing law authorizes the state board to implement these provisions by entering and inspecting laboratories for these purposes, as specified. Existing law makes it a crime to interfere with the state board with regard to those inspection provisions."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20172018"
identifier: "AB 1438"
citation: "California AB 1438 (20172018)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["State Water Resources Control Board: environmental laboratories: public water systems: certificates and permits: procedures."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Committee on Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials"]
version_count: 4
action_count: 19
vote_count: 8
first_action: "2017-02-17"
last_action: "2017-09-27"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/0b7dda39-3a91-4404-8e62-c21f83ac157f"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB1438"
source_hash: "d009ade498a5f0f88abe715839cb247dd222356cda2dc1372300ba08b7e3c3c7"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ca"]
---

# California AB 1438 (20172018) — State Water Resources Control Board: environmental laboratories: public water systems: certificates and permits: procedures.

(1) Existing law, the Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Act, requires certain laboratories that conduct analyses of environmental samples for regulatory purposes to obtain a certificate of accreditation from the State Water Resources Control Board. The act requires an accredited laboratory to report, in a timely fashion and in accordance with the request for analysis, the full and complete results of all detected contaminants and pollutants to the person or entity that submitted the material for testing. The act authorizes the state board to adopt regulations to establish reporting requirements, establish the accreditation procedures, recognize the accreditation of laboratories located outside California, and collect laboratory accreditation fees. The act requires fees and civil penalties collected under the act to be deposited in the Environmental Laboratory Improvement Fund and that moneys in the fund be available for expenditure by the board, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for the purposes of the act. Existing law authorizes the state board to implement these provisions by entering and inspecting laboratories for these purposes, as specified. Existing law makes it a crime to interfere with the state board with regard to those inspection provisions.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **02/17/17 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB1438&version=20170AB143899INT)
2. **09/27/17 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB1438&version=20170AB143897CHP)
3. **AB1438** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB1438)
4. **09/07/17 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB1438&version=20170AB143898ENR)

## Votes

- Do pass — **7–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Judiciary] — **7–0** (pass) · upper
- 3rd Reading AB1438 E.S. & T.M. (Quirk) By Wieckowski — **40–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass and be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] with recommendation: To Consent Calendar — **7–0** (pass) · lower
- Placed on suspense file — **7–0** (pass) · upper
- AB 1438 E.S. & T.M. Consent Calendar Second Day — **76–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] with the recommendation: To Consent Calendar — **7–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass. To Consent Calendar. — **16–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Committee on Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2017-02-17** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2017-02-19** From printer. May be heard in committee March 21.
- **2017-03-13** Referred to Com. on E.S. & T.M. `referral-committee`
- **2017-03-21** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. with recommendation: To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (March 21). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2017-04-26** From committee: Do pass. To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 16. Noes 0.) (April 26). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2017-04-27** Read second time. Ordered to Consent Calendar. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2017-05-04** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 76. Noes 0. Page 1395.) `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2017-05-04** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2017-05-18** Referred to Coms. on EQ. and JUD. `referral-committee`
- **2017-06-07** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on JUD. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (June 7). Re-referred to Com. on JUD. `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2017-06-21** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. with recommendation: To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (June 20). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2017-07-10** In committee: Referred to APPR. suspense file. `referral-committee`
- **2017-09-01** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (September 1). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2017-09-05** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2017-09-06** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 40. Noes 0. Page 2517.). `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2017-09-06** In Assembly. Ordered to Engrossing and Enrolling. `committee-passage`
- **2017-09-13** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 4 p.m.
- **2017-09-27** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2017-09-27** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 327, Statutes of 2017.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/0b7dda39-3a91-4404-8e62-c21f83ac157f`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).