Existing law establishes in state government, within the office of the Governor, the Office of Emergency Services. Existing law requires the office to be responsible for the state’s emergency and disaster response services for natural, technological, or manmade disasters and emergencies, including responsibility for activities necessary to prevent, respond to, recover from, and mitigate the effects of emergencies and disasters to people and property. Existing law, the FIRESCOPE Act of 1989, requires the office to establish and administer a program, known as the FIRESCOPE program, to maintain and enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of managing multiagency firefighting resources in responding to an incident. Existing law requires the office, in collaboration with the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and the board of directors of the FIRESCOPE program, to develop standards and regulations for any privately contracted private fire prevention resources operating during an active fire incident in the state, as provided, and to develop regulations to govern the use of equipment used by privately contracted private fire prevention resources during an active fire incident, as provided.

This bill would additionally require the office to develop regulations prohibiting privately contracted private fire prevention resources from hooking up their equipment to public water sources, unless approved by incident command or the authority having jurisdiction over the active fire incident and unless the equipment includes a backflow prevention device.

The California Safe Drinking Water Act provides for the operation of public water systems and imposes certain responsibilities on community water systems related to the operation of water distribution systems, as defined.

This bill would explicitly state that none of the above-described regulations governing the use of equipment used by privately contracted fire prevention resources during an active fire incident shall alter, impair, or interfere with the authority of a community water system to operate a water distribution system.