SB 669

Bill Subjects

Abstract

(1) 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. Existing law declares it to be the established policy of the state that every human being has the right to safe, clean, affordable, and accessible water adequate for human consumption, cooking, and sanitary purposes. This bill would establish the Safe Drinking Water Fund in the State Treasury and would provide that moneys in the fund are continuously appropriated to the state board. The bill would require the state board to administer the fund to assist community water systems in disadvantaged communities that are chronically noncompliant relative to the federal and state drinking water standards and do not have the financial capacity to pay for operation and maintenance costs to comply with those standards, as specified. The bill would authorize the state board to provide for the deposit into the fund of federal contributions, voluntary contributions, gifts, grants, and bequests, transfers by the Legislature from the General Fund and the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, funding from authorized general obligation bond acts, and net revenue from the Safe Drinking Water Trust that this bill would create. The bill would require the state board to expend moneys in the fund for grants, loans, contracts, or services to assist eligible applicants. The bill by July 1, 2021, and by July 1 of each year thereafter, would require the state board to adopt, working with a multistakeholder advisory group, after a public workshop and a public hearing, an annual fund implementation plan. The bill would require the state board annually to prepare and make publicly available a report of expenditures of the fund and to adopt annually, after a public hearing, an annual update to a specified needs analysis. By creating a new continuously appropriated fund, this bill would make an appropriation. (2) Existing law requires a trustee to administer a trust with reasonable care, skill, and caution under the circumstances then prevailing that a prudent person acting in a like capacity would use, as specified. The existing Uniform Prudent Investor Act requires a trustee to invest and manage trust assets as a prudent investor would, by considering the purposes, terms, distribution requirements, and other circumstances of the trust. This bill would create in the State Treasury the Safe Drinking Water Trust Fund, to hold the trust property of the Safe Drinking Water Trust. The bill would create the Safe Drinking Water Trust Commission, consisting of 3 members, to serve as the trustee of the trust and would require the trustee to abide by the act and have all of the fiduciary duties, responsibilities, and obligations consistent with serving as a trustee of a trust. The bill would require the trustee to transfer the net income from the trust fund to the Safe Drinking Water Fund for expenditure, as prescribed. The bill would authorize funding of the trust principal, subject to transfer by the Legislature. The bill would require the trustee to accept donations that shall be deemed trust property and increase the principal of the trust. The bill would require the trustee to meet, not less than quarterly, to review the investment of the trust principal and administer the trust. The bill would require the trustee to provide the state board annually with an accounting of the investments and a forecast of the projected income to be distributed from the funds in future fiscal years. The bill would require the trust to be deemed a charitable trust subject to the supervision of the Attorney General.