SB 552: Public water systems: disadvantaged communities: consolidation or extension of service: administrative and managerial services.

Existing law, the California Safe Drinking Water Act, provides for the operation of public water systems and imposes on the State Water Resources Control Board various responsibilities and duties. The act authorizes the state board to order consolidation with a receiving water system where a public water system, or a state small water system within a disadvantaged community, consistently fails to provide an adequate supply of safe drinking water. The act authorizes the state board to order the extension of service to an area that does not have access to an adequate supply of safe drinking water so long as the extension of service is an interim extension of service in preparation for consolidation. Existing law, for these purposes, defines disadvantaged community to mean a disadvantaged community that is in an unincorporated area or is served by a mutual water company.

This bill would authorize the state board to order consolidation where a public water system or a state small water system is serving, rather than within, a disadvantaged community, and would limit the authority of the state board to order consolidation or extension of service to provide that authority only with regard to a disadvantaged community. This bill would make a community disadvantaged for these purposes if the community is in a mobilehome park, even if it is not in an unincorporated area or served by a mutual water company.

The act requires the state board, before ordering consolidation or extension of service, to take certain actions, including consulting with specified entities, to hold at least one initial public meeting, as specified, and to obtain written consent from any domestic well owner for consolidation or extension of service. The act provides that any affected resident within the consolidation or extended service area who does not provide written consent is ineligible, until consent is provided, for any future water-related grant funding from the state, except as specified.

This bill would also require the state board, before ordering consolidation or extension of service, to consult with public water systems in the chain of distribution of the potentially receiving water system. The bill would provide that an initial public meeting is not required for a potentially subsumed area that is served only by domestic wells. The bill would apply to the domestic well owner, instead of to an affected resident, within the consolidation or extended service area the written consent requirement for eligibility for water-related grant funding.

The act requires the state board, upon ordering the consolidation or extension of service, to adequately compensate the owners of a privately owned subsumed water system for the fair market value of the system as determined by the Public Utilities Commission for water corporations subject to the commissions jurisdiction or the state board for all other systems. The act prohibits a consolidated water system from increasing charges on existing customers of the receiving water system solely as a consequence of the consolidation or extension of service unless the customer receives a corresponding benefit.

This bill would instead authorize the Public Utilities Commission or the state board to determine the fair market value of a subsumed water system, without regard to whether the system is a water corporation subject to the commissions jurisdiction. The bill would prohibit fees or charges imposed on a customer of a subsumed water system from exceeding the cost of consolidating the water system or the cost of extension of service to the area.

The act exempts the consolidation or extension of service pursuant to these provisions from the Cortese-Knox-Hertzberg Local Government Reorganization Act of 2000, which governs the procedures for the formation and change of organization of cities and special districts.

This bill would instead exempt an action taken by the state board pursuant to these provisions from the Cortese-Knox-Hertzberg Local Government Reorganization Act of 2000.

This bill would authorize the state board, for the purpose of providing affordable, safe drinking water to disadvantaged communities and preventing fraud, waste, and abuse, to contract with an administrator to provide administrative and managerial services to a designated water system and to order the designated public water system to accept those services if sufficient funding is available and if the state board makes a certain finding. The bill would define designated water system as a public water system that serves a disadvantaged community and that the state board finds consistently fails to provide an adequate and affordable supply of safe drinking water. The bill would require the state board to provide a public water system with notice, as specified, and to conduct a public meeting, as specified, before determining that the public water system is a designated public water system. The bill would authorize the administrator of a designated public water system to expend available moneys for capital infrastructure improvements that the designated public water system needs to provide an adequate and affordable supply of safe drinking water, to set and collect user water rates and fees, and to expend available moneys for the operation and maintenance costs of the designated public water system. The bill would require the state board to work with the administrator of the public water system and the communities served by that designated public water system to develop, within the shortest feasible timeframe, adequate technical, managerial, and financial capacity to deliver safe drinking water so that the services of the administrator are no longer necessary. The bill would not apply these administrator provisions to a charter city, charter county, or charter city and county.

This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 116681 of the Health and Safety Code proposed by AB 1611 and SB 839 that would become operative if this bill and one or both of those bills are enacted and this bill is chaptered last.