Water: water supply: infrastructure.

Existing law requires the Department of Water Resources to update every 5 years the plan for the orderly and coordinated control, protection, conservation, development, and use of the water resources of the state, known as the California Water Plan. This bill would establish findings and declarations stating that the November 2014 ballot currently includes a bond measure for $11.14 billion to fund projects related to water, that many Californians lack access to clean, safe, and affordable drinking water, and that it is in the general public interest to pass a general obligation bond to help fund projects that address the critical and immediate needs of disadvantaged, rural, or small communities and projects that leverage state and federal drinking water quality and wastewater treatment funds. The bill would also require the State Water Resources Control Board and the Drinking Water and Environmental Management Division of the State Department of Public Health to initiate and complete a comprehensive study relating to the need for state funding for water projects and, on or before July 1, 2014, to provide a report to the Legislature summarizing those findings.