AB 2501: Drinking water: state administrators: consolidation and extension of service.

(1)Existing law declares it to be the established policy of the state that every human being has the right to safe, clean, affordable, and accessible water adequate for human consumption, cooking, and sanitary purposes. 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, serving 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 within a disadvantaged community 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. The act requires the state board, before ordering consolidation or extension of service, to fulfill certain requirements, including, among other things, holding a public meeting, and to establishing a reasonable deadline, as prescribed, for a potentially receiving water system and a potentially subsumed water system to negotiate consolidation or another means of providing an adequate supply of affordable, safe drinking water. The act requires the state board to conduct a public hearing at the expiration of the reasonable deadline, as specified.

This bill would revise and recast these provisions. The bill would authorize the state board to order consolidation with a receiving water system if a public water system or state small water system, serving a disadvantaged community, consistently fails to provide an adequate supply of safe drinking water or if a disadvantaged community is reliant on a domestic well that consistently fails to provide an adequate supply of safe drinking water. The bill would require the state board, instead of a public hearing at the expiration of the deadline, to conduct a 2nd public meeting if the consolidation has not concluded within 6 months of the first public meeting.

The bill would require the state board, as necessary and appropriate, to compensate a receiving water system for any capacity lost as a result of the consolidation or extension of service, as provided. The bill would prohibit a receiving water system from charging any fees to, or placing conditions on, customers of the subsumed water system that it does not charge to, or impose on, new customers that are not subject to the consolidation with the receiving water system. The bill would prohibit the state board from funding public works or upgrades unrelated to the delivery of an adequate supply of affordable, safe drinking water. The bill would authorize the state board to order a receiving water system to consolidate or extend service to a public water system operated by a local educational agency only if certain additional conditions are met.

(2)The act also authorizes 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 public water system and to order the designated public water system to accept those administrative and managerial services, including full management and control, if sufficient funding is available and if the state board finds that consolidation with another system or extension of service from another system is either not appropriate or not technically and economically feasible.

This bill would revise and recast these provisions. The bill would authorize the state board to contract with, or provide a grant to, an administrator to provide administrative, technical, operational, or managerial services, or any combination of those services, to a designated water system to assist with the provision of an adequate supply of affordable, safe drinking water. The bill would also authorize the state board to order a designated water system to accept those services from an administrator appointed by the state board for full oversight of construction or development projects related to a consolidation or extension of service. The bill would require the state board, before ordering a designated water system to accept those services from an administrator, to develop certain standards, terms, and procedures in a policy handbook for purposes of these provisions.