SB 998: Discontinuation of residential water service: urban and community water systems.

Existing law, the California Safe Drinking Water Act, requires the State Water Resources Control Board to administer provisions relating to the regulation of drinking water to protect public health. 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.

Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including water corporations. Existing law requires certain notice to be given before a water corporation, public utility district, municipal utility district, or a municipally owned or operated public utility furnishing water may terminate residential service for nonpayment of a delinquent account, as prescribed.

This bill would require an urban and community water system, defined as a public water system that supplies water to more than 200 service connections, to have a written policy on discontinuation of water service to certain types of residences for nonpayment available in prescribed languages. The bill would require the policy to include certain components, be available on the systems Internet Web site, and be provided to customers in writing, upon request. The bill would provide for enforcement of these provisions, including making a violation of these provisions punishable by a civil penalty issued by the board in an amount not to exceed $1,000 for each day in which the violation occurs, and would require the enforcement moneys collected by the board to be deposited in the Safe Drinking Water Account. The bill would prohibit an urban and community water system from discontinuing residential service for nonpayment until a payment by a customer has been delinquent for at least 60 days. The bill would require an urban and community water system to contact the customer named on the account and provide the customer with the urban and community water systems policy on discontinuation of residential service for nonpayment no less than 7 business days before discontinuation of residential service, as prescribed.

This bill would prohibit residential service from being discontinued under specified circumstances. The bill would require an urban and community water system that discontinues residential service to provide the customer with information on how to restore service. The bill would require an urban and community water system to waive interest charges on delinquent bills for, and would limit the amount of a reconnection of service fee imposed on, a residential customer who demonstrates, as prescribed, to the urban and community water system household income below 200% of the federal poverty line. The bill would require an urban and community water system that furnishes individually metered residential service to residential occupants of a detached single-family dwelling, a multiunit structure, mobilehome park, or permanent residential structure in a labor camp, and that the owner, manager, or operator of the dwelling, structure, or park is the customer of record, to make every good faith effort to inform the residential occupants by written notice that service will be terminated and that the residential occupants have the right to become customers, as specified. The bill would require an urban and community water system to report the number of annual discontinuations of residential service for inability to pay on its Internet Web site and to the board, and the bill would require the board to post on its Internet Web site the information reported. The bill would require an urban water supplier, as defined, or an urban and community water system regulated by the commission, to comply with the bills provisions on and after February 1, 2020, and any other urban and community water system to comply with the bills provisions on and after April 1, 2020. The bill would provide that the provisions of the bill are in addition to the provisions in existing law duplicative of the bill and that where the provisions are inconsistent, the provisions described in the bill apply.