SAFER Drinking Water Solutions
The ultimate goal of the SAFER program is for all of California’s water systems to provide safe and affordable drinking water to communities on a long term basis. To achieve this goal, the SAFER program uses data and an annual needs assessment to identify water systems that are out of compliance. Water Boards staff and SAFER partners then assist water systems in developing and implementing both short-term and long-term solutions to help water systems reach long-term sustainability.
Short-term solutions address immediate drinking water and public health needs while long-term- solutions are developed. Short-term solutions may include temporarily connecting to safe drinking water sources, installing under-sink or whole house treatment systems (point-of-use or point-of-entry household water treatment), and providing water directly to communities (e.g., bottled water or hauled water).
Long-term solutions may include water system partnerships, consolidations, or regionalization projects, as well as the training and development of locally based technical and managerial staff to run water systems. Long-term solutions are developed with input from the impacted community.
Point of Use (POU) and Point of Entry (POE) Treatment
Most public water systems treat water at a central plant before it goes out to customers. Small public water systems may be able to use point of use (POU) and point of entry (POE) treatment devices to remove contaminants from the water when central treatment is not affordable. POU and POE devices use many of the same technologies as central water treatment plants, but POU devices treat water at a single outlet in a house or building, such as a kitchen sink, and POE devices treat all water entering a single house or a building.
For more information, visit our Point of Use (POU) and Point of Entry (POE) Regulations page.
To learn more about household water treatment devices, visit Residential Water Treatment Devices.
Read the Water Boards 2023 Point-of-Use / Point-of-Entry Report (Executive Summary)
Water System Administrators
The State Water Board can appoint an Administrator (in certain situations) to oversee a public water system that consistently fails to provide safe drinking water to customers. Administrators can have limited or complete oversight of a water system depending on the system’s needs. A Full-Scope Administrator manages all necessary aspects of a water system, while a Limited-Scope Administrator would only assist with completion of a specific project. The State Water Board funds administrators, so assistance is free for the system.
For more information, visit our Water System Administrators page.
Water System Partnerships and Consolidations
Water partnerships can take many forms, including local resource sharing, physical consolidation, managerial consolidation, and full regionalization. Partnerships provide opportunities for systems to collaborate on compliance solutions and operations and maintenance activities and to share costs with nearby systems. The State Water Board supports water partnerships whenever feasible.
For more information, visit our Drinking Water Partnerships and Consolidations page.
Technical Assistance (TA)
Technical Assistance (TA) is available to help small disadvantaged communities (DACs) plan, develop, fund, and implement eligible drinking water projects. TA can include coordination and development of capital improvement projects, facilitation of operation and maintenance, engineering and environmental analysis, legal assistance, leak detection/water audits, compliance audits, financial analysis, TMF (technical, managerial, and financial), and board or operator training.
For more information, visit our TA Funding page.
