(a) The sum of eighty million dollars ($80,000,000) shall be available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to the state board for competitive grants for projects for treatment and remediation activities that prevent or reduce the contamination of groundwater that serves as a source of drinking water.

(b) Projects shall be prioritized based upon the following criteria:

(1) The threat posed by groundwater contamination to the affected community’s overall drinking water supplies, including an urgent need for treatment of alternative supplies or increased water imports if groundwater is not available due to contamination. For the purposes of this paragraph, treatment includes ongoing operation and maintenance of existing facilities.

(2) The potential for groundwater contamination to spread and impair drinking water supply and water storage for nearby population areas.

(3) The potential of the project, if fully implemented, to enhance local water supply reliability.

(4) The potential of the project to maximize opportunities to recharge vulnerable, high-use groundwater basins and optimize groundwater supplies.

(5) The project addresses contamination at a site for which the courts or the appropriate regulatory authority has not yet identified responsible parties, or where the identified responsible parties are unwilling or unable to pay for the total cost of cleanup, including water supply reliability improvement for critical urban water supplies in designated superfund areas with groundwater contamination listed on the National Priorities List established pursuant to Section 105(a)(8)(B) of the federal Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (42 U.S.C. Sec. 9605(a)(8)(B)).

(c) Funding authorized by this chapter shall not be used to pay any share of the costs of remediation recovered from parties responsible for the contamination of a groundwater storage aquifer, but may be used to pay costs that cannot be recovered from responsible parties. Parties that receive funding for remediating groundwater storage aquifers shall exercise reasonable efforts to recover the costs of groundwater cleanup from the parties responsible for the contamination. Funds recovered from responsible parties may only be used to fund treatment and remediation activities including operations and maintenance.

(d) The contaminants that may be addressed with funding pursuant to this chapter may include, but shall not be limited to, nitrates, perchlorate, MTBE (methyl tertiary butyl ether), arsenic, selenium, hexavalent chromium, mercury, PCE (perchloroethylene), TCE (trichloroethylene), DCE (dichloroethene), DCA (dichloroethane), 1,2,3-TCP (trichloropropane), carbon tetrachloride, 1,4-dioxane, 1,4-dioxacyclohexane, nitrosodimethylamine, bromide, iron, manganese, and uranium.

(e) A project that receives funding pursuant to this chapter shall be selected by a competitive grant process with added consideration for those projects that leverage private, federal, or local funding.

(f) For the purposes of awarding funding under this chapter, a local cost share of not less than 50 percent of the total costs of the project shall be required. The cost-sharing requirement may be waived or reduced for projects that directly benefit a disadvantaged community or an economically distressed area.

(g) The state board may assess the capacity of a community to pay for the operation and maintenance of a facility to be funded by a grant awarded under this chapter.

(h) At least 10 percent of the funds available pursuant to this chapter shall be allocated for projects serving severely disadvantaged communities.

(i) Funding authorized by this chapter may include funding for technical assistance to disadvantaged communities. The agency administering this funding shall operate a multidisciplinary technical assistance program for small and disadvantaged communities.

(j) Subdivisions (a) and (b) of Section 16727 of the Government Code do not apply to this chapter.

(Added by Stats. 2017, Ch. 852, Sec. 3. Approved in Proposition 68 at the June 5, 2018, election.)