Small Community Drought Relief Program
Information
The Small Community Drought Relief Program (Program) was authorized by the Legislature pursuant to the Budget Act of 2021 (Stats. 2021, ch. 240, § 80) and its Trailer Bill, (Wat. Code, § 13198 et seq.). The Trailer Bill authorized specified state agencies, defined as implementing agencies, subject to an appropriation for these purposes, to make grants and direct expenditures for interim or immediate relief in response to conditions arising from a drought scenario to address immediate impacts on human health and safety and on fish and wildlife resources and to provide water to persons or communities that lose or are threatened with the loss or contamination of water supplies.
The small communities are those that are not supplied by an urban water suppliers as defined in California Water Code (Sec 10617). Urban water suppliers are those that provide drinking water with more than 3,000 connections or more than 3,000 acre-feet per year.