Drinking water: consolidation and extension of service: domestic wells.

(1) 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, or extension of service from, a receiving water system, as defined, if a public water system or state small water system serving a disadvantaged community consistently fails to provide an adequate supply of safe drinking water or if a disadvantaged community is reliant on a domestic well that consistently fails to provide an adequate supply of safe drinking water. The act requires the state board, before ordering consolidation or extension of service, to, among other things, obtain written consent from any domestic well owner for consolidation or extension of service. The act makes any domestic well owner within the consolidation or extended service area that does not provide written consent ineligible, until consent is provided, for water-related grant funding, as specified. The act also requires the state board, before ordering consolidation or extension of service, to make a finding that consolidation of the receiving water system and subsumed water system or extension of service to the subsumed water system is appropriate and technically and economically feasible. The act defines "subsumed water system" for these purposes as the public water system, state small water system, or affected residences consolidated into or receiving service from the receiving water system. This bill would modify the provision that authorizes consolidation or extension of service if a disadvantaged community is reliant on a domestic well described above to instead authorize consolidation or extension of service if a disadvantaged community, in whole or in part, is substantially reliant on domestic wells that consistently fail to provide an adequate supply of safe drinking water. The bill would impose the additional requirement that the state board consider how many owners of dwelling units served by domestic wells in the service area have provided or are likely to provide written consent to extension of service and would specify that the state board need not find that any specific percentage of the owners of dwelling units served by domestic wells in the service area are likely to consent to the consolidation or extension of service to serve their dwelling units. The bill would revise the requirement for written consent from a domestic well owner to instead prohibit an order from requiring the consolidation or extension of service to a residence served solely by a domestic well until an owner of the affected residence provides written consent to the consolidation or extension of service. The bill would revise the definition of a subsumed water system to apply to affected residences served by domestic wells. (2) The act also requires the state board, before ordering consolidation or extension of service, to, among other things, hold at least one public meeting at the initiation of this process in a place as close as feasible to the affected areas. The act requires the state board to make reasonable efforts to provide a 30-day notice of the meeting, as specified. This bill would require the state board to include prescribed information in the 30-day notice. (3) Upon ordering consolidation or extension of service, the act requires the board, among other things, to compensate the receiving water system for any capacity lost as a result of the consolidation or extension of service, as necessary and appropriate, either by paying a capacity connection fee or providing additional capacity needed as a result of the consolidation or extension of service, and by paying legal fees. This bill would rename a capacity connection fee a capacity charge and would require a capacity charge to be paid only to the extent that it does not exceed the reasonable cost of providing the service.