State Water Resources Control Board: grants: interim relief: private water wells.

The Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act requires a person who discharges waste into the waters of the state in violation of waste discharge requirements or other order or prohibition issued by a California regional water quality control board or the State Water Resources Control Board to clean up the waste or to abate the effects of the waste. The act authorizes the state board or a regional board to issue a cleanup or abatement order that may require, among other things, the provision of, or payment for, uninterrupted replacement water service to each affected public water supplier or private well owner. The act, to the extent that funding is made available, authorizes the state board to provide grants to a county or qualified nonprofit organization that would award grants or loans, or both, to eligible applicants for specified purposes relating to drinking water and wastewater treatment. This bill would authorize the state board to provide grants to eligible applicants to be used to provide interim relief, as specified, to households in which a private water well has gone dry, or has been destroyed, due to drought, wildfire, or other natural disaster, subject to an appropriation of funds for that purpose by the Legislature. The bill would authorize the board to provide up to 10% of the funds appropriated for these purposes to eligible applicants for planning related to permanent solutions for private water wells that have gone dry, or have been destroyed, due to drought, wildfire, or other natural disaster.