Water recycling.

(1) Existing law establishes the State Water Resources Control Board, referred to as the state board, and the California regional water quality control boards, referred to as regional boards, as the principal state agencies with authority over matters relating to water quality. Existing law requires the State Department of Public Health to investigate the feasibility of developing uniform water recycling criteria for direct potable reuse, as defined, and to provide a final report on that investigation to the Legislature on or before December 31, 2016. Existing law also requires the department to complete a public review draft of its report by June 30, 2016. This bill would require the department, in consultation with the state board, to investigate the feasibility of developing uniform water recycling criteria for direct potable reuse and to provide a final report on that investigation to the Legislature on or before December 31, 2016. This bill would also require the department to complete the public review draft of its report by September 1, 2016. (2) Existing law requires an expert panel to be convened and administered by the department and requires the expert panel to be comprised of, at a minimum, an epidemiologist, a microbiologist, and a chemist, among others. Existing law authorizes the department to appoint an advisory group, task force, or other group, comprised of no fewer than 9 representatives of specified entities to advise the department regarding the development of uniform water recycling criteria for direct potable reuse. This bill would require the department to convene and administer the expert panel on or before February 15, 2014. The bill would require the expert panel, in addition to its existing responsibilities, to assess any additional areas of research that are needed to be able to establish uniform regulatory criteria for direct potable reuse and recommend an approach for accomplishing any of the additional needed research regarding uniform criteria for direct potable reuse in a timely manner. The bill would also require the expert panel to include a limnologist. The bill would require the department to convene the advisory group, task force, or other group, on or before January 15, 2014, and would subject the advisory group to specific open meetings provisions. The bill would further expand the list of specified entities from which the representatives of the advisory group, task force, or other group could be selected to include, among others, the department, the state board, ratepayer or taxpayer advocate organizations, and the United States Environmental Protection Agency. The bill would require, on or before June 30, 2016, the department to prepare a draft report summarizing the recommendations of the expert panel. The bill would authorize the department to contract with a public university or other research institution for purposes of the expert panel. (3) Existing law also authorizes the department to accept funds from any source and use those funds, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for certain purposes. This bill would instead authorize the department to accept funds from nonstate sources and use those funds for certain purposes.