Safe drinking water and water quality.

(1) Existing law, the California Safe Drinking Water Act, requires the State Water Resources Control Board to administer provisions relating to the regulation of drinking water to protect public health. Existing law provides that the California Safe Drinking Water Act does not apply to small state water systems, except as specified. This bill would expand the application of the act to small state water systems, as specified. (2) Existing law requires any person operating a public water system to obtain and provide at that person's expense an analysis of the water to the state board, in the form, covering those matters, and at intervals as the state board by regulation may prescribe. This bill would authorize the state board to adopt regulations pursuant to the above provision as emergency regulations under the Administrative Procedure Act and would require the state board to hold a hearing before adopting those emergency regulations. The bill would exempt from the Administrative Procedure Act specified orders and other actions by the state board relating to drinking water. (3) 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 authorizes the state board to provide for the deposit into the fund of certain moneys and continuously appropriates the moneys in the fund to the state board for grants, loans, contracts, or services to assist eligible recipients. This bill would authorize the state board to award moneys from the fund of $10,000 or less without a written agreement to address a drinking water emergency and would exempt contracts entered into pursuant to the Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Fund provisions from specified existing law. (4) Under existing law, the state board and the California regional water quality control boards prescribe waste discharge requirements in accordance with the Federal Water Pollution Control Act and the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act. Existing law establishes various programs authorizing the state board to provide financial assistance for water quality and drinking water purposes, including, among other programs, the State Water Pollution Control Revolving Fund program, pursuant to which state and federal funds are continuously appropriated from the State Water Pollution Control Revolving Fund to the state board for loans and other financial assistance for purposes related to the federal Clean Water Act. Existing law generally authorizes the state board to enforce the financial assistance programs. This bill would consolidate the enforcement authority available to the state board to enforce the terms, conditions, and requirements of its financial assistance programs, as specified. As part of that consolidation, the bill would explicitly authorize the state board to recover any costs incurred in the enforcement of an agreement, to recover any amount of financial assistance provided to a recipient not expended for the authorized purposes, and to impose civil penalties in specified amounts on any person who violates any term of a financial assistance agreement. The bill would require information related to funds disbursed or costs claimed for reimbursement pursuant to a financial assistance agreement to be furnished and attested to under penalty of law, and would provide that a person who knowingly makes a false statement, material misrepresentation, or false certification in any submittal to the state board relating to a financial assistance agreement, shall, upon conviction, be punished by a specified criminal fine or imprisonment, or by both that fine and imprisonment. By creating a new crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would require all moneys collected pursuant to the above provisions to be deposited into the fund from which the financial assistance agreement that is the subject of the action originated, unless the state board determines that deposit in another fund would be more effective for providing financial assistance for the same or substantially similar purpose, and if the fund is continuously appropriated and the moneys are derived from the imposition of penalties, the moneys would be required to be separately accounted for and available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for the purposes for which expenditures from that fund are authorized. 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.