Safe Drinking Water State Revolving Fund Law of 1997: water systems: financing.

Existing law establishes the Safe Drinking Water State Revolving Fund, and moneys in the fund are continuously appropriated to the State Water Resources Control Board for the provision of grants and revolving fund loans to provide for the design and construction of projects for public water systems that will enable suppliers to meet safe drinking water standards. Existing law, for community public water systems and not-for-profit noncommunity public water systems, allows planning and preliminary engineering studies, project design, and construction costs incurred by those public water systems to be funded by loans and other repayable financing. Existing law additionally allows, if those public water systems are owned by public agencies or not-for-profit water companies, those specified costs to be funded by grants, principal forgiveness, or a combination of grants and loans or other financial assistance. Existing law requires the board to determine what portion of the full costs the public agency or private not-for-profit water company is capable of repaying and requires the board to authorize a grant or principal forgiveness only to the extent the board finds the public agency or private not-for-profit water company is unable to repay the full costs of the financing. This bill would authorize the above-described costs to be funded by loans or other repayable financing, grants, principal forgiveness, or a combination of grants and loans or other financial assistance, regardless of whether the community water system or not-for-profit noncommunity water system is owned by a public agency or private not-for-profit water company. By expanding the use of moneys in a continuously appropriated fund, this bill would make an appropriation. The bill would only authorize a grant or principal forgiveness to a community water system or not-for-profit noncommunity water system that serves a disadvantaged community. The bill, for a water system that is a water corporation regulated by the Public Utilities Commission, would limit the principal forgiveness to capital improvements made by the water system serving disadvantaged communities with fewer than 3,300 service connections. Existing law deems a public agency or private not-for-profit water company serving a severely disadvantaged community with fewer than 200 service connections and that owns a small community water system or nontransient community water system to have no ability to repay any financing for a project serving the severely disadvantaged community. This bill would apply this finding to a community water system or not-for-profit noncommunity water system that is not a water corporation regulated by the Public Utilities Commission and that serves a severely disadvantaged community with fewer than 200 service connections.