III. State Smalls and Private Wells After O&M, the largest unfunded need is the drinking water needs for those Californians on state smalls and private wells: 2,945 domestic wells have been identified as critical or dry --- impacting nearly 12,000 residents - this is a drastic underestimate. Emergency and interim needs continue to be unmet. Permanent resources and focused response from one state department continues to be absent, which further complicates connecting interim solutions with long-term solutions. In 2015 the state committed $24 million to provide emergency drinking water projects ($19 million Clean Up And Abatement & $5 million private wells program under DWR); and there is also limited funding through USDA. Considering one bottled water program in Tulare County costs $500,000 - $ 1 million a year, this funding is extremely limited. Existing homes must be able to connect to new water infrastructure, but this is generally not included in traditional infrastructure funding. More is needed to place laterals from small communities to neighboring larger water systems to create long term resilience. Pipe costs on average $1 million per mile. Currently there are no state funds for drilling new wells Technical assistance and adequate funding are needed to ensure basic coordination and communication issue. Read more about this topic in our .
III. State Smalls and Private Wells After O&M, the largest unfunded need is the drinking water needs for those Californians on state smalls and private wells: 2,945 domestic wells have been identified as critical or dry --- impacting nearly 12,000 residents - this is a drastic underestimate. Emergency and interim needs continue to be unmet. Permanent resources and focused response from one state department continues to be absent, which further complicates connecting interim solutions with long-term solutions. In 2015 the state committed $24 million to provide emergency drinking water projects ($19 million Clean Up And Abatement & $5 million private wells program under DWR); and there is also limited funding through USDA. Considering one bottled water program in Tulare County costs $500,000 - $ 1 million a year, this funding is extremely limited. Existing homes must be able to connect to new water infrastructure, but this is generally not included in traditional infrastructure funding. More is needed to place laterals from small communities to neighboring larger water systems to create long term resilience. Pipe costs on average $1 million per mile. Currently there are no state funds for drilling new wells Technical assistance and adequate funding are needed to ensure basic coordination and communication issue. Read more about this topic in our .