California's Department of Public Health issued a plan Monday to improve the distribution of federal money for safe drinking water projects following a threat from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency this spring to cut off further funding unless the money was spent more effectively.
Clean water advocates, including some lawmakers, have long complained that the state has been slow to spend desperately needed funds, forcing thousands of people in small communities to buy bottled water because they cannot safely drink what flows through their taps. Advocates have complained that rather than helping communities come up with fixes, the state has left them tangled in red tape year after year.
In April, the EPA issued a rebuke to the state after finding that California officials had been sitting on $455 million in unspent federal funds, as well as up to $260 million returned to its coffers through loan repayments. It was the largest share of unspent money for improving drinking water in the nation.
The EPA faulted the state Department of Public Health for a "lack of financial accountability." It gave the department until Monday to come up with a proposal to fix the program.
The department's 16-page plan includes the addition of a cash flow financial model to better monitor the more than $1.5 billion the EPA has awarded to the state's revolving fund for safe drinking water since 1998.
The plan calls for distributing more than $800 million over the next three fiscal years — four times as much as in the last three. The department said it will reduce the amount of unspent funds to $371 million by the end of this month, and plans to accelerate its spending in the long term, even exceeding targets set forth by the EPA.
Jennifer Clary, a program manager with Clean Water Action, praised having a cash flow model but worried that expediting spending might entail cutting corners. Strict time frames, Clary said, also might divert funds away from projects in disadvantaged communities that lack the resources to quickly make them ready.
Kathleen Billingsley, chief deputy director of policy and programs, said the funds will reach communities of all sizes.
"We are not forsaking anyone at all," Billingsley said. "There is adequate funding to address small, medium and large water systems."
Clean-water advocates said they have seen projects held up because communities lacked technical capacity and know-how, including engineering expertise.
The Legislature's recently passed budget would add seven staff members and $2.7 million in state money to the effort, enhancing assistance to smaller communities, according to the plan.
The plan also calls for revising the project priority list so that communities with the greatest need are served first.
EPA representative David Yogi said the federal agency is reviewing the state's plan and will issue a written response next Monday.
matthew.hamilton@latimes.com
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