California Water Plan: safe drinking water.

(1) Existing law requires the Department of Water Resources to update every 5 years the plan for the orderly and coordinated control, protection, conservation, development, and use of the water resources of the state, which is known as the California Water Plan. Existing law prescribes the contents of the California Water Plan, and requires the department to include a discussion of various strategies and information in that plan. This bill would additionally require the department to include a specified safe drinking water plan prepared by the State Department of Public Health in updates of the California Water Plan. The bill would require the department to contract with the State Department of Public Health for that purpose. (2) Existing law requires the department, as part of each update to the California Water Plan, to conduct a study to determine the amount of water needed to meet the state's future needs. The department is required, one year prior to issuing each update to the California Water Plan, to release a draft of assumptions and estimates upon which the study will be based. Existing law prescribes a list of subjects for which the department is required to release those assumptions and estimates. This bill would add current and projected unmet safe drinking water needs to that list.