Health Services' procedures for obtaining sample analyses from public water systems also have flaws. Health Services needs to improve its procedures to ensure that public water systems submit laboratory results promptly so that agencies can identify and alleviate contamination quickly. To further compound the problems surrounding MTBE contamination, Health Services and the state and regional boards are not making certain that public water system operators, storage tank owners or operators, and regulatory agencies responsible for detecting and cleaning up chemical contamination are doing their jobs. Not only does the State regulate underground storage tanks ineffectively, it has failed in some instances to aggressively enforce the State's Safe Drinking Water Act and the laws governing underground storage tanks. Specifically, Health Services, the regional boards, and local agencies have not adequately enforced laws that require prompt follow-up monitoring for chemical findings and contaminated sites, notified the public about chemicals found in drinking water, and managed the complete cleanup of chemical contamination of groundwater.
Some regulatory problems arise from poor communication among various state and local agencies.
Currently, both Health Services and the state board are working on GIS projects to map potential sources of drinking-water contamination, and this duplication of effort could be unnecessarily costly to the State. Health Services should serve as the lead developer for the GIS because it can use the system to evaluate risks to the State's approximately 16,000 drinking-water sources and thus accomplish the goals of the federally mandated Drinking Water Source Assessment and Protection Program. Finally, neither agency can effectively implement a GIS until the State significantly improves the databases containing information on the locations of possible contamination. To ensure that California's drinking water is safe from contamination by gasoline leaking from underground storage tanks, the California Environmental Protection Agency and the Health and Welfare Agency, which oversees Health Services, need to make certain that the state, regional, and local agencies listed below fulfill their designated responsibilities and improve their policies and procedures in the ways outlined. Ensure that local agencies increase their efforts to identify storage tanks without permits, issue permits as appropriate, monitor storage tank safety, and penalize owners or operators that delay reporting leaks.