Water systems: consolidations: administrative and managerial services.

Existing law declares it to be the established policy of the state that every human being has the right to safe, clean, affordable, and accessible water adequate for human consumption, cooking, and sanitary purposes. Existing law, the California Safe Drinking Water Act, provides for the operation of public water systems and imposes on the State Water Resources Control Board various responsibilities and duties. The act authorizes the state board to order consolidation with a receiving water system where a public water system or a state small water system, serving a disadvantaged community, as defined, consistently fails to provide an adequate supply of safe drinking water. The act, if consolidation is either not appropriate or not technically and economically feasible, authorizes the state board to contract with an administrator to provide administrative and managerial services to designated public water systems and to order the designated public water system to accept administrative and managerial services, as specified. This bill would require, on or before March 1, 2018, and regularly thereafter, as specified, the state board to track and publish on its Internet Web site an analysis of all voluntary and ordered consolidations of water systems that have occurred on or after July 1, 2014. The bill would require the published information to include the resulting outcomes of the consolidations and whether the consolidations have succeeded or failed in providing an adequate supply of safe drinking water to the communities served by the consolidated water systems.