A number of RCRC member counties have local oversight of small public drinking water systems, known as Local Primacy Agency (LPA) counties. Collectively, the LPA counties have responsibility for over half of the state’s, generally small, drinking water systems. An ongoing challenge for these systems is meeting the compliance obligations for drinking water when the community served by these systems are also less able to pay for the cost of compliance. One approach to addressing this situation was in Assembly Bill 2296, authored by Assembly Member Bill Quirk (D-Hayward). This bill would have allowed LPA counties to opt-in to a funding stabilization program administered by the State Water Resources Control Board to fund the regulatory oversight of these small systems.
AB 2296 was vetoed last week by the Governor, despite the support of RCRC, local health officers, and having worked with interested stakeholders to resolve differences. Without this fund stabilization program, it is expected that a number of LPA’s will now be turned over to the SWRCB to administer due to the lack of revenue at the local level. While this is current law, it does so at the expense of maintaining some level of local involvement. Seven counties have relinquished their oversight authority back to the state since 2007, and without this bill, it is anticipated a number of other counties will follow suit.