ITEM 1: REQUEST BY THE LOS ANGELES REGIONAL WATER QUALITY CONTROL BOARD TO ELEVATE THE COMMUNITY OF EL RIO TO PRIORITY CLASS B ON THE SMALL COMMUNITY GRANT PRIORITY LIST.

DISCUSSION: The Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board (RWQCB-4) has made a request to place an item on the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) agenda to:

1. Elevate the Community of El Rio from Priority Class C to Priority Class A on the Small Community Grant (SCG) Priority List adopted by the SWRCB on May 14, 1997;

2. Reserve funds for project construction; and

3. Accept Ventura County's estimate of the Median Household Income (MHI) for El Rio.

4. Not use the sliding scale to determine the amount of grant funding.

The current Priority List contains projects with eligible costs of about $85.4 million with only $30 million being available under the Safe, Clean Reliable Water Supply Act. Exhibit B is a copy of the adopted list.

The request by the RWQCB-4 to add a project at this late date would set a precedent and potentially open up the list to other communities needing grant funding. Further, allowing an agency to receive grant monies based on their own estimate of MHI would not be fair to all the other projects on the list, whose grant funding is based on estimated 1996 MHI levels from official census data or approved MHI surveys. Finally, setting aside funds and dropping the use of the sliding scale for El Rio would take away money from existing SCG projects and would also be unfair to other communities whose grants are limited by the sliding scale.

POLICY ISSUE: Should the SWRCB place the community of El Rio on the SCG Priority List?

FISCAL IMPACT: Approval of the request could take away up to $3.5 million in funding from existing small communities on the Priority List that are on schedule and expecting funding.

RWQCB IMPACT: N/A

STAFF RECOMMENDATION: That the SWRCB deny the request from the RWQCB-4 to add the community of El Rio to the SCG Priority List.

[Attachments not available electronically but can be obtained by calling Eric Torguson at (916) 227-4449.]

DRAFT May 4, 1998

WHEREAS:

1. The State Water Resources Control Board adopted the SCG Priority List on May 14, 1997;

2. The adopted list already contains eligible project costs of about $85.4 million;

3. The request to reserve funds for the Community of El Rio would impact existing small communities competing for and expecting grant funding;

4. Allowing the use of an unsupported Median Household Income (MHI) and not applying the sliding scale to determine grant funding for El Rio would be unfair to all other applicants using estimated 1996 MHI data to qualify for placement on the SCG Priority List and who have the amount of their grant funding determined by the sliding scale.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT:

The State Water Resources Control Board denies the request from the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board to place the community of El Rio on the Small Community Grant Priority List.

The undersigned, Administrative Assistant to the Board, does hereby certify that the foregoing is a full, true, and correct copy of a resolution duly and regularly adopted at a meeting of the State Water Resources Control Board held on May 27, 1998.

Maureen Marché

Administrative Assistant to the Board