Existing law, the California Safe Drinking Water Act, requires the State Water Resources Control Board to administer provisions relating to the regulation of drinking water to protect public health, including, but not limited to, conducting research, studies, and demonstration programs relating to the provision of a dependable, safe supply of drinking water, enforcing the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, adopting enforcement regulations, and conducting studies and investigations to assess the quality of domestic water wells.

Existing law prohibits a person from operating a public water system without an emergency notification plan that has been submitted to and approved by the state board. Existing law requires the emergency notification plan to provide for immediate notice to the customers of the public water system of any significant rise in the bacterial count of water or other failure to comply with any primary drinking water standard that represents an imminent danger to the health of the water users.

This bill would authorize and encourage a public water system to provide notification to water users in their preferred language when updating the emergency notification plan, if resources are available.