California Drinking Water Needs Assessment

Identifying public water systems (starting with 3,300 or less service connections) and K-12 schools that are at-risk of failing to provide adequate safe drinking water. The State Water Board will be coordinating with Indian Health Services and U.S. EPA to develop and conduct a Risk Assessment for tribal water systems in California.

• December 14, 2020: Risk Assessment 2.0 Webinar 4: Thresholds, Scores and Weights
• Public Notices: English | Spanish
• White Paper (draft)
• Executive Summary: Spanish
• Presentation
• Webinar Recording 12-14-2020
• October 13, 2020: Risk Assessment 2.0 Webinar 3: Evaluation and Recommendation of Risk Indicators
  • Public Notices: English | Spanish
  • White Paper and Appendices: D1, D2, D3, D4
  • Presentation
  • Webinar Recording 10-13
• July 22, 2020: Risk Assessment 2.0 Webinar 2: Identifying Potential Risk Indicators
  • Public Notices: English | Spanish
  • Agenda
  • White Paper
  • Presentation
  • Webinar Recording 7-22
• April 17, 2020: Risk Assessment 2.0 Webinar 1: Methods for Determining “At-Risk” Public Water Systems, Domestic Wells, and State Small Water Systems
  • Public Notice
  • Webinar Recording 4-17
• July 11, 2019
  • Agenda
  • Webcast Recording
  • Presentation PDFs:
    • State Water Board Introduction
    • State Water Board Financial Pilot Study
    • Rural Community Assistance Corporation (RCAC)
    • California Rural Water Association (CRWA)
    • University of California, Davis
    • Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA)
    • Pacific Institute Presentation
    • University of North Carolina, Environmental Finance Center
    • University of California, Los Angeles-Luskin Center for Innovation 

Identifying state small water systems and regions where domestic wells are at-risk of failing to provide adequate safe drinking water.

• November 4, 2020: SAFER Aquifer Risk Map Board Presentation
  • Agenda
  • Aquifer Risk Map
  • White Paper 
  • Presentation
• October 9, 2020: SAFER Aquifer Risk Map: At-Risk Domestic Wells and State Small Systems Public Webinar
  • Public Notice: English | Spanish
  • Presentation
• July 22, 2020: SAFER Webinar Series 2: At Risk Public Water Systems (PM session for Domestic Wells & State Smalls)
  • Public Notices: English | Spanish
  • Agenda
  • White Paper
  • Presentation
  • Webinar Recording 7-22
• April 17, 2020: Methods for Determining “At-Risk” Public Water Systems, Domestic Wells, and State Small Water Systems
  • Public Notice
  • Webinar Recording 4-17
• January 18, 2019: Domestic Wells Workshop
  • Agenda
  • Abstracts
  • Webcast Recording
  • Presentation PDFs:
    • State Board Introduction, J. Borkovich and D. Polhemus
    • USGS GAMA Program, M. Fram
    • State Board GAMA Program, D. Bellan
    • Legacy Well Construction, R.M. Gailey
    • CV-SALTS Technical Approaches, V. Kretsinger
    • Modeling Nitrate in Central Valley, K. Ransom
    • Domestic Well Data in the Central Valley, R. Pauloo
    • Drinking Water Vulnerability Screening Tool, C. Pace
    • Tulare Lake Basin GIS Collaborative, M. Hickey

Determining the costs related to the implementation of interim and longer-term solutions for systems on the Human Right to Water list and At-Risk systems. The Cost Assessment also includes the identification of available funding sources and the funding gaps that may exist to support these solutions.

• February 26, 2021: SAFER: Cost Assessment Model Preliminary Results and Gap Analysis Webinar
  • White Paper
  • Executive Summary: Spanish
• November 20, 2020: Cost Estimate: In-Depth Cost Methodology Discussion Webinar
  • Public Notices: English | Spanish
  • White Paper
  • Presentation
• August 28, 2020: Cost Estimate: Overview of Approach and Update
  • Public Notice
  • White Paper
  • Webinar Recording
• May 10, 2019: Cost Analysis Workshop
  • Public Notice
  • Agenda
  • Webcast Recording
  • Presentation PDFs:
    • SWRCB DDW, D Polhemus
    • SWRCB DDW, E Leung
    • SWRCB DFA, L Orellana
    • Blue Sky Consulting, M Newman
    • Pacific Institute, L Feinstein
    • Corona Environmental Consulting, T Henrie
    • Provost & Pritchard, K Berryhill
    • UCLA, Y Cohen
    • Los Angeles County Sativa,D Lafferty
    • Central Valley Regional Board, K Longley

Identifying community water systems that serve disadvantaged communities that must charge their customers’ fees that exceed the affordability threshold established by the State Water Board in order to provide adequate safe drinking water.

• 9/11/2020: Advisory Group Webinar Discussion of Affordability
  • Webinar Recording 9-11, starting at 1 hr 14 minutes into presentation

The Pilot California Small Water Systems Rates Dashboard is an online tool, prepared in collaboration with University of North Carolina’s Environmental Finance Center, that allows users to compare or benchmark residential rates, financial, and system performance data of community water systems serving between 500 and 3,300 connections.

• October 30, 2020: SAFER Tool Launch CA Small Water System Rates Dashboard
  • Public Notice: English | Spanish
  • Introducing the California Small Water Systems Rates Dashboard
  • Introducing the Dashboard
  • Presentation

The original scope of the Needs Assessment was developed prior to passage of SB 200 and was originally designed to be conducted as a one-time study. Three State Water Board workshops hosted in early 2019 informed the original scope of the Needs Assessment to be developed through a contract with UCLA. After the passage of SB 200 and the establishment of the State Water Board’s Needs Analysis Unit the scope of the Needs Assessment pivoted to more closely align with the goals of the Human Right to Water and SB 200. The Needs Assessment is now required to be conducted annually and is used to inform the Fund Expenditure Plan for the Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Fund.

• Overall Needs Analysis Conceptual Plan, May 2019
• Notice of January 2019 Workshops
• Notice of May 10, 2019 Workshop