SB 623 (Monning): Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Fund
Background
Recent California State Water Resources Control Board (SWB) data identified roughly 300 California public water systems serving communities currently out of compliance with drinking water standards, some of which have been unable to provide safe drinking water for multiple years. Drinking water advocates estimate over 1 million Californians are exposed to unsafe drinking water each year. Additionally, nearly 2 million Californians utilize domestic wells and/or state small water systems that are not eligible for most assistance programs, leaving them particularly vulnerable to unsafe drinking water. Drinking water contaminants are dangerous and can cause a variety of both short and long-term health effects, with children and the elderly typically at greatest risk.
For years, the SWB has called for the creation of a new sustainable funding source to support safe drinking water needs, since other sources of funding, such as bond funding or the Safe Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (SDWSRF) do not qualify to be used to support urgent needs like ongoing operations and maintenance costs for drinking water treatment. Small, rural and/or socioeconomically disadvantaged communities lack sufficient ratepayer base to afford the entire cost of ongoing drinking water treatment. The lack of a sustainable funding source means disadvantaged communities and others have no outside support to draw upon forcing them to choose between water they cannot afford or water that they cannot drink.
Solution
SB 623 will establish the Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Fund to provide an ongoing source of funding to ensure all Californians have access to safe drinking water.
The Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Fund will be located at SWB in its Office of Sustainable Water Solutions, which is best situated to leverage other sources of existing or new funding. In addition, it will provide for coordination with the newly created multi-disciplinary technical assistance program focused entirely on the needs of small disadvantaged communities, so that it may efficiently and effectively secure safe drinking water to impacted communities and residents throughout the state.
The SWB, in consultation with a multi-disciplinary stakeholder group and after adoption of a fund implementation plan and needs assessment, shall prioritize funding to focus on disadvantaged communities and low-income domestic well users with exceedances of primary drinking water standards where the cost of treatment or new sources would otherwise make the cost of the water service unaffordable. The funds collected will also provide for costs where no other currently existing sources of funding available.
Funding shall come from a safe drinking water fee in the form of a fertilizer mill fee, a safe drinking water fee on dairies, and a new small safe drinking water fee assessed monthly on water bills. The combined fees will raise an estimated total of $140 million annually for the first two years, and thereafter can be kept consistent or reduced by the State Water Board based on its annual needs assessments. Fees cannot be adjusted to exceed the caps identified in statute. For single-family homes and most multi-family homes and businesses, the monthly safe drinking water fee is capped at a maximum of $.95 cents, with an exemption from the fee for low-income households (under 200% of the federal poverty level).
The policies represented in SB 623 are informed by years of experience and discussion about how to solve California’s long-standing gap in operations and maintenance funding for drinking water treatment. They are the result of over a year of bipartisan policy discussions, convened by the author, Senate Majority Leader Senator Bill Monning, and crafted with input from major environmental justice, environmental, water, health, and agricultural stakeholders. And the historically diverse coalition behind SB 623 is a testament to the urgency of this issue and the unique opportunity represented by SB 623 to finally secure safe drinking water for all Californians – both now and generations to come.
Supporters of the Bill
Agricultural Council of California
Allensworth Community Services District
Alliance of Child and Family Services
Almond Alliance
American Heart Association
American Rivers
American Stroke Association
Armona Community Services District
Arvin Community Services District
American Stroke Association
Asian Pacific Environmental Network
Asociación de Gente Unida por el Agua
Black Women for Wellness
California Audubon
California Bicycle Coalition
California Citrus Mutual
CA Environmental Justice Alliance
California Food Policy Advocates
California Fresh Fruit Association
California Housing Partnership
California Labor Federation
CA League of Conservation Voters
California Rice Commission
CA Partnership for the San Joaquin Valley
CA Rural Legal Assistance
Foundation
CA Pan-Ethnic Health Network
California Strawberry Commission
California Water Service
Catholic Charities, Diocese of Stockton
Central California Environmental Network
Central California Environmental Justice
Network
Center for Race, Poverty, and the Environment
Ceres
Church Brothers Farms
City of Arvin
City of Hanford
City of Huron
City of Porterville
Clean Water Action
Clif Bar
Comite Civico del Valle
Common Sense Kids Action
Community Alliance for Agroecology
Community Water Center
Costa Farms
County of Tulare
Cultiva la Salud
D’Arrigo Brothers of California
Dolores Huerta Foundation
Driscoll’s
EILEEN FISHER
El Quinto Sol de America
Environmental Defense Fund
Esperanza Community Housing CA
Faith in the Valley
Farm Bureau Monterey
Foxy Produce
Fresno Building Healthy Communities
Friends Committee on Legislation of CA
Friends of Calwa
Gap, Inc.
Grower-Shopper Association of Central California
Kaweah Basin Water Quality Association
Kaweah Delta Water Conservation District
Kern County Farm Bureau
Latino Coalition for a Healthy America
Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability
League of Women Voters
Lutheran Office of Public Policy
Merrill Farms
Mission Readiness: Council for a Strong America
Monterey County Board of Supervisors
Naturipe
NextGen California
Pacific Institute
Pacific Water Quality Association
Pepsico
Physicians for Social Responsibility Los
Angeles
Planning and Conservation League
Policy Link
Poplar Community Services District
Public Health Advocates
Public Interest Law Project
Pueblo Unido CDC
Rava Ranches
Rio Farms
Rural County Representatives of California
Rural County Assurance Corporation
Salinas Basin Agricultural Stewardship Group
Self Help Enterprises
Service Employees International Union
Sierra Nevada Brewing Company
State Building and Construction Trades Council
Strategic Actions for a Just Economy
Strategic Concepts in Organizing & Policy Education
Sultana Community Services District
Sunflower Alliance
The Coca-Cola Company
TransForm
United Farm Workers
Water Quality Association
Western Center on Law & Poverty
Western Growers
Western United Dairymen
Wholly H2O