Water Quality, Supply, and Infrastructure Improvement Act of 2014.

Existing law, the Water Quality, Supply, and Infrastructure Improvement Act of 2014, approved by the voters as Proposition 1 at the November 4, 2014, statewide general election, authorizes the issuance of general obligation bonds in the amount of $7,545,000,000 to finance a water quality, supply, and infrastructure improvement program. The bond act provides that the sum of $725,000,000 is to be available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for grants or loans for water recycling and advanced treatment technology projects. The bond act requires these water recycling and advanced treatment technology projects to be selected on a competitive basis, considering specified criteria, including, among other criteria, water supply reliability improvement and public health benefits from improved drinking water quality or supply. This bill would include in the water supply reliability improvement criterion whether the project is proposed by a community that is heavily dependent on groundwater from a basin in overdraft, and would include in the public health benefits criterion whether the project is proposed by a community that has extended, or is in the process of extending, its water service delivery to entities reliant on either contaminated groundwater or groundwater wells that have run dry.