(a) Each public water system shall reimburse the state board for actual costs incurred by the state board for any of the following enforcement activities related to that water system:
(1) Preparing, issuing, and monitoring compliance with, an order or a citation.
(2) Preparing and issuing public notification.
(3) Conducting a hearing pursuant to Section 116625.
(b) The state board shall submit an invoice for these enforcement costs to the public water system that requires payment before September 1 of the fiscal year following the fiscal year in which the costs were incurred. The invoice shall indicate the total hours expended, the reasons for the expenditure, and the hourly cost rate of the state board. The costs set forth in the invoice shall not exceed the total actual costs to the state board of enforcement activities specified in this section.
(c) Notwithstanding the reimbursement of enforcement costs of the local primacy agency pursuant to subdivision (a) of Section 116595 by a public water system under the jurisdiction of the local primacy agency, a public water system shall also reimburse enforcement costs, if any, incurred by the state board pursuant to this section.
(d) “Enforcement costs,” as used in this section, does not include “litigation costs” pursuant to Section 116585.
(e) The state board shall not be entitled to enforcement costs pursuant to this section if a court determines that enforcement activities were in error.
(f) Payment of the invoice shall be made within 90 days of the date of the invoice. Failure to pay the invoice within 90 days shall result in a 10-percent late penalty that shall be paid in addition to the invoiced amount.
(g) The state board may, at its sole discretion, waive payment by a public water system of all or any part of the invoice or penalty.
(Amended by Stats. 2015, Ch. 24, Sec. 22. (SB 83) Effective June 24, 2015.)