Safe Drinking Water State Revolving Fund.

Existing law, the California Safe Drinking Water Act, requires the State Department of Public Health to administer provisions relating to the regulation of drinking water to protect public health. The department's duties include, but are not limited to, conducting research, studies, and demonstration programs relating to the provision of a dependable, safe supply of drinking water, enforcing the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, adopting and enforcing regulations, and conducting studies and investigations to assess the quality of water in domestic water supplies. Existing law establishes the Safe Drinking Water State Revolving Fund, which is continuously appropriated to the department for grants and revolving fund loans for the design and construction of projects for public water systems that will enable suppliers to meet safe drinking water standards. Under existing law, a grant is authorized only to the extent the department finds the public agency or not-for-profit water company is unable to repay the full costs of a loan. This bill would limit loans and grants from the fund for planning and preliminary engineering studies, project design, and construction costs to those incurred by community and not-for-profit noncommunity public water systems and would specify that a small community water system or nontransient noncommunity water system that is owned by a public agency or a private not-for-profit water company and is serving a severely disadvantaged community, is deemed to have no ability to repay a loan. Under existing law, the maximum amount of a construction grant award to a public water system for a single project is $3 million or, for a public water system that serves a disadvantaged community, $10 million, as specified. This bill would authorize an applicant, subject to specified conditions, to receive up to the full cost of a project in the form of a loan.