Bill Text: CA SB66 | 2023-2024 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: Water Quality, Supply, and Infrastructure Improvement Act of 2014: Drinking Water Capital Reserve Fund: administration.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)
Status: (Failed) 2024-02-01 - Returned to Secretary of Senate pursuant to Joint Rule 56. [SB66 Detail]
Download: California-2023-SB66-Amended.html
|
Amended
IN
Senate
March 21, 2023 |
CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE—
2023–2024 REGULAR SESSION
Senate Bill
No. 66
| Introduced by Senators Hurtado and Cortese |
January 05, 2023 |
An act to amend Section 79724 of the Water Code, relating to water.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 66, as amended, Hurtado.
Water: predictive models and data collection. Water Quality, Supply, and Infrastructure Improvement Act of 2014: Drinking Water Capital Reserve Fund: administration.
The Water Quality, Supply, and Infrastructure Improvement Act of 2014, approved by the voters as Proposition 1 at the November 4, 2014, statewide general election, authorizes the issuance of general obligation bonds in the amount of $7,545,000,000 to finance a water quality, supply, and infrastructure improvement program. The bond act provides that the sum of $260,000,000 is to be available for grants and loans for public water system infrastructure improvements and related actions to meet safe drinking water standards, ensure affordable drinking water, or both, as specified. Existing law requires the State Water Resources Control Board to deposit up to $2,500,000 of the $260,000,000 into the Drinking Water Capital Reserve Fund, to be available upon appropriation by the Legislature. Existing law requires
the state board to administer the Drinking Water Capital Reserve Fund for the purpose of serving as matching funds for disadvantaged communities and requires the state board to develop criteria to implement this provision.
This bill would require the state board to provide an analysis of the criteria to implement that provision to the Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Water and Assembly Committee on Water, Parks, and Wildlife on January 1, 2025, and every 2 years thereafter.
Existing law establishes the Department of Water Resources in the Natural Resources Agency and the State Water Resources Control Board in the California Environmental Protection Agency. Existing law requires the department, as part of updating The California Water Plan every five
years, to conduct a study to determine the amount of water needed to meet the state’s future needs and to recommend programs, policies, and facilities to meet those needs.
This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to ensure that reliable predictive models and data collection systems are used to properly forecast and allocate surface water.
Digest Key
Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee:Bill Text
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1.
Section 79724 of the Water Code is amended to read:79724.
(a) (1) Of the funds authorized by Section 79720, two hundred sixty million dollars ($260,000,000) shall be available for grants and loans for public water system infrastructure improvements and related actions to meet safe drinking water standards, ensure affordable drinking water, or both. Priority shall be given to projects that provide treatment for contamination or access to an alternate drinking water source or sources for small community water systems or state small water systems in disadvantaged communities whose drinking water source is impaired by chemical and nitrate contaminants and other health hazards identified by the state board. Eligible recipients serve disadvantaged communities and are public water systems or public agencies. The state board may make grants for the purpose of financing feasibility studies and to meet the eligibility requirements for a construction grant. Eligible expenses may include initial operation and maintenance costs for systems serving disadvantaged communities. Priority shall be given to projects that provide shared solutions for multiple communities, at least one of which is a disadvantaged community that lacks safe, affordable drinking water and is served by a small community water system, state small water system, or a private well. Construction grants shall be limited to five million dollars ($5,000,000) per project, except that the state board may set a limit of not more than twenty million dollars ($20,000,000) for projects that provide regional benefits or are shared among multiple entities, at least one of which shall be a small disadvantaged community. Not more than 25 percent of a grant may be awarded in advance of actual expenditures.(2) For the purposes of this subdivision, “initial
operation and maintenance costs” means those initial, eligible, and reimbursable costs under a construction funding agreement that are incurred up to, and including, initial startup testing of the constructed project in order to deem the project complete. Initial operation and maintenance costs are eligible to receive funding pursuant to this section for a period not to exceed two years.
(b) The administering entity may expend up to twenty-five million dollars ($25,000,000) of the funds allocated in subdivision (a) for technical assistance to eligible communities.
(c) (1) The state board shall deposit up to two million five hundred thousand
dollars ($2,500,000) of the funds available pursuant to this section into the Drinking Water Capital Reserve Fund, which is hereby created in the State Treasury. Moneys in the Drinking Water Capital Reserve Fund shall be available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, and shall be administered by the state board for the purpose of serving as matching funds for disadvantaged communities. The state board shall develop criteria to implement this subdivision.
(2) The state board shall provide an analysis of the criteria to implement this subdivision to the Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Water and the Assembly Committee on Water, Parks, and Wildlife on January 1, 2025, and every two years thereafter.
It is the intent of the Legislature to enact subsequent legislation to ensure that the Department of Water Resources and the State Water Resources Control Board are using reliable predictive models and data collection systems allowing them to properly forecast and allocate surface water.
