The California Safe Drinking Water Act provides for the operation of public water systems and imposes on the State Water Resources Control Board various duties and responsibilities for the regulation and control of drinking water in the state.

Existing law authorizes the state board, upon the appropriation of funds by the Legislature, to provide grants and direct expenditures to public water systems that serve small or disadvantaged communities to address emerging contaminants in those communities, consistent with federal grant terms, as provided.

This bill would authorize the state board to fund projects, upon the appropriation of funds by the Legislature, through grants or loans to public water systems to address perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances in drinking water or source water. The bill would prescribe sources from which those funds may originate and permissible activities for those projects. The bill would authorize the state board to implement the bill through a policy handbook or workplan exempt from the rulemaking provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act.