California Environmental Quality Act: water system well and domestic well projects: exemption.

The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of an environmental impact report on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment. 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 relating to the regulation of drinking water to protect public health. Existing law establishes the Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Fund in the State Treasury to help water systems provide an adequate and affordable supply of safe drinking water in both the near and long terms. Existing law requires the state board to annually adopt, and update every 3 years, a fund expenditure plan that contains specified information, including, but not limited to, a list of water systems that consistently fail to provide an adequate supply of safe drinking water. Existing law requires the state board to develop a drinking water needs assessment to inform the board's annual fund expenditure plan. This bill would, until January 1, 2028, exempt from CEQA a well project, as defined, that meets specified conditions, including that the domestic well or the water system to which the well is connected has been designated by the state board as high risk or medium risk in the state board's drinking water needs assessment. The bill would require a lead agency, before determining that a well project is exempt from CEQA pursuant to these provisions, to contact the state board to determine whether claiming the exemption will affect the ability of the well project to receive federal financial assistance or federally capitalized financial assistance. The bill would require a lead agency that determines that a well project is exempt from CEQA pursuant to these provisions to file a notice of exemption with the Office of Planning and Research and the county clerk, as provided. Because the bill would increase the responsibilities of a lead agency related to the applicability of this exemption, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.