The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a) Public water systems are faced with the need to replace or upgrade the public water system infrastructure to meet increasingly stringent state and federal safe drinking water laws and regulations governing fire flow standards for public fire protection.
(b) Increasing amounts of capital are required to finance the necessary investment in public water system infrastructure.
(c) Scale economies are achievable in the operation of public water systems.
(d) Providing water corporations with an incentive to achieve these scale economies will provide benefits to ratepayers.
(Added by Stats. 1997, Ch. 675, Sec. 1. Effective January 1, 1998.)