Water and sewer system corporations: consolidation of service.

The Public Utilities Act prohibits, with certain exemptions, any public utility from selling, leasing, assigning, mortgaging, or otherwise disposing of or encumbering specified property necessary or useful in the performance of the public utility's duties to the public without first, for qualified transactions valued above $5,000,000, securing an order from the Public Utilities Commission authorizing it to do so or, for qualified transactions valued at $5,000,000 or less, filing an advice letter and obtaining approval from the commission. 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 related responsibilities and duties. Existing law authorizes the state board to order consolidation of public water systems where a public water system or state small water system serving a disadvantaged community consistently fails to provide an adequate supply of safe drinking water, as provided. This bill, the Consolidation for Safe Drinking Water Act of 2019, would authorize a water or sewer system corporation to file an application and obtain approval from the commission through an order authorizing the water or sewer system corporation to consolidate with a public water system or state small water system that has fewer than 3,300 service connections and serves a disadvantaged community, or to implement rates for the subsumed water system. The bill would require the commission to approve or deny the application within 8 months, except as provided. Unless the commission designates a different procedure because it determines a consolidation warrants a more comprehensive review, the bill would authorize a water or sewer system corporation to instead file an advice letter and obtain approval from the commission through a resolution authorizing the water or sewer system corporation to consolidate with a public water system or state small water system that has fewer than 3,300 service connections and serves a disadvantaged community, or to implement rates for the subsumed water system. The bill would authorize the executive director of the commission or the director of the division of the commission having regulatory jurisdiction over the water or sewer system corporation to approve an uncontested advice letter and would require the commission to approve or deny the advice letter within 120 days, except as provided.