This morning, the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) held a workshop on the California Water and Wastewater Arrearage Payment Program. The FY 2021-22 State Budget included $985 million that the SWRCB will allocate for funding assistance to water agencies that incurred arrearages during a period of the pandemic. CSDA and other statewide associations advocated strongly for this funding based on the impacts that many water districts reported as a result of the pandemic. (See CSDA’s August Take Action Brief for additional details about the program).
On August 11, SWRCB released a survey to 2,872 community water systems to collect data about arrearages. The deadline to complete this survey is tomorrow, September 10 by 5:00 P.M.
According to SWRCB staff presenting at today’s workshop, just 54% of systems invited to complete the survey have done so as of this morning. About 16% have not started it, and the remainder have started it but not completed it. Notably, only $129 million in arrearages has been reported on surveys collected to date, far short of what was understood to be the impact statewide.
It is imperative that water districts fill out the survey as a first step in claiming some of the nearly $1 billion allocated for this purpose. The survey can be accessed through your district’s Electronic Annual Report (eAR) portal. More information about the program can be found here.