SECTIONS 116760.10 - California Statutes

HEALTH AND SAFETY CODE

SECTION 116760.10

116760.10. The Legislature hereby finds and declares all of the
following:
(a) The department has discovered toxic contaminants and new
pathogenic organisms, including cryptosporidium, in many of
California's public drinking water systems.
(b) Many of the contaminants in California's drinking water
supplies are known to cause, or are suspected of causing, cancer,
birth defects, and other serious illnesses.
(c) It is unlikely that the contamination problems of small public
water systems can be solved without financial assistance from the
state.
(d) The protection of the health, safety, and welfare of the
people of California requires that the water supplied for domestic
purposes be at all times pure, wholesome, and potable. It is in the
interest of the people that the state of California provide technical
and financial assistance to ensure a safe, dependable, and potable
supply of water for domestic purposes and that water is available in
adequate quantity at sufficient pressure for health, cleanliness, and
other domestic purposes.
(e) It is the intent of the Legislature to provide for the
upgrading of existing public water supply systems to ensure that all
domestic water supplies meet safe drinking water standards and other
requirements established under Chapter 4 (commencing with Section
116270).
(f) (1) The extent of the current risk to public health from
contamination in drinking water creates a compelling need to upgrade
existing public water systems. The demand for financial assistance to
enable public water systems to meet drinking water standards and
regulations exceeds funds available from the Safe Drinking Water
State Revolving Fund.
(2) A project whose primary purpose is to supply or attract growth
shall not be eligible to receive assistance from the Safe Drinking
Water State Revolving Fund.
(3) A project whose primary purpose is to enable a public water
system to improve public health protection by complying with drinking
water standards and regulations and that also includes components to
accommodate a reasonable amount of growth over its useful life shall
be eligible for assistance from the Safe Drinking Water State
Revolving Fund, but the project shall receive priority based on the
component to meet drinking water standards pursuant to Section
116760.70. The department shall expressly consider the effort of the
applicant to secure funds other than those available from the Safe
Drinking Water State Revolving Fund in establishing the priority
listing for funding pursuant to Article 4 (commencing with Section
116760.50).
(4) After projects have been prioritized for funding into priority
list categories pursuant to the requirements of Section 116760.70,
within each category, projects that do not include a component of
growth, shall receive priority for funding over projects that have a
component to accommodate a reasonable amount of growth.
(g) The Legislature further finds and declares that regional
solutions to water contamination problems are often more effective,
efficient, and economical than solutions designed to address solely
the problems of a single small public water system, and it is in the
interest of the people of the State of California to encourage the
consolidation of the management and the facilities of small water
systems to enable those systems to better address their water
contamination problems.
(h) The protection of drinking water sources is essential to
ensuring that the people of California are provided with pure,
wholesome, and potable drinking water.
(i) That coordination among local, state, and federal public
health and environmental management programs be undertaken to ensure
that sources of drinking water are protected while avoiding
duplication of effort and reducing program costs.
(j) It is necessary that a source water protection program be
implemented for the purposes of delineating, assessing, and
protecting drinking water sources throughout the state and that
federal funds be utilized pursuant to the federal Safe Drinking Water
Act (42 U.S.C. Sec. 300j et seq.) to carry out that program.
(k) It is in the interest of the people of the state to provide
funds for a perpetual Safe Drinking Water State Revolving Fund that
may be combined with similar federal funding to the extent the
funding is authorized pursuant to the federal Safe Drinking Water Act
(42 U.S.C. Sec. 300j et seq.).
( l) This chapter shall govern implementation of the Safe Drinking
Water State Revolving Fund, and shall be implemented in a manner
that is consistent with the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, and, to
the extent authorized under the federal act, in a manner that is
consistent with the California Safe Drinking Water Act, Chapter 4
(commencing with Section 116275).