Safe and Affordable Funding for Equity and Resilience

The Safe and Affordable Funding for Equity and Resilience Program (SAFER) is a set of tools, funding sources, and regulatory authorities designed to ensure that one million Californians who currently lack safe drinking water receive safe & affordable drinking water as quickly as possible. The SAFER program also aims to reach sustainable operations for all of the state’s drinking water systems and is a critical element for achieving the goals of safe, accessible, and affordable water for all Californians.

The program was established from the Safe and Affordable Drinking Water (SADW) Fund through Senate Bill 200 (SB200) in 2019. The Fund will provide $130 million per year that will be used to develop and implement sustainable solutions for small systems with violations of drinking water standards. The money may be spent on operations and maintenance costs, cost of consolidating with larger system, provision of replacement water, and funding for administrators to run the small systems.