Existing law, the California Safe Drinking Water Act, enacts provisions governing drinking water quality, and requires the State Department of Public Health ensure that all public water systems, as defined, are operated in compliance with the act. Among other things, the act requires the department to adopt primary drinking water standards for contaminants in drinking water, as specified. Existing law also authorizes the department to fund improvements and expansions of small community water systems and to give priority to funding projects in disadvantaged communities.

This bill would require the department to develop and implement a pilot project in the Counties of Fresno, Imperial, and Monterey pilot projects in the geographical areas known as Salinas Valley, Tulare Lake Basin, and Coachella Valley to collect data to determine the schools and communities in each county, particularly those located in economically disadvantaged areas, in which high levels of arsenic or nitrate contamination have been detected in the drinking water, and any other data or information necessary to develop regulations to implement effective solutions to contamination of the drinking water, including regulations governing water treatment devices. The bill would also require the department to work cooperatively with community-based nonprofit organizations to develop and implement effective interim and long-term solutions designed to ensure safe drinking water in those communities, and to provide technical assistance to those organizations to improve drinking water.