Special to the Mercury News
Posted: 07/03/2013 03:00:00 PM PDT
Updated: 07/04/2013 11:57:04 AM PDT
For local water managers, nothing is more critical than delivering safe drinking water. There is a tremendous amount of work involved, from monitoring supplies and distribution systems to extensive sampling and testing to verify the safety and quality of water before it enters customers' homes. Thousands of samples are analyzed in laboratories to ensure that water is safe. Wells and hundreds of miles of water mains also must be tested and maintained.
In most parts of California, this happens like clockwork -- but not in some rural communities. Recent studies have found small, economically disadvantaged communities in the Salinas Valley and the Tulare Lake Basin, for example, where drinking water sources are contaminated and there are no alternatives readily available.
Action is needed, but the solutions we choose must not create new problems.
One proposal moving through the Legislature is raising concerns: Assembly Bill 145 by assemblymen Henry Perea and Anthony Rendon is well-intended but takes an approach that could undermine public health protection.
The challenges facing these communities are complex. They need targeted solutions and collaboration to address a range of technical, administrative, financial and governmental issues.
One problem has been the state Department of Public Health's management of a critical revolving fund to provide grants and loans to communities for drinking water projects. The department acknowledges shortcomings that have caused delays in disbursing funds, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has declared the program out of compliance with federal requirements.
Instead of dealing with the fund directly, however, AB 145 seeks to move the entire drinking water regulatory program to the State Water Resources Control Board. The state board has an important mission in protecting water quality and regulating wastewater and stormwater discharges, but it is not a public health agency, and it is not led by public health experts.
That matters because the drinking water regulatory program must focus first and foremost on protecting public health. Moving the entire program out of the Department of Public Health could undermine its public health focus and weaken emergency response to waterborne illnesses and other water security threats. What's more, it would lead to disruptions that could impede key activities such as monitoring and permitting the state's 7,500 drinking water systems and providing 24-hour emergency response to protect public health.
It would be a mistake. The dangers are too great. That's why water agencies and public health groups around the state believe AB 145 in its current form is not the solution.
A better approach is to focus on correcting problems with the revolving fund. The Department of Public Health submitted a corrective action plan to the EPA on June 24. Read more...
