POWER OF PARTNERSHIP
Working
Together
CA-NV Section and the
State of California
By John M. Gaston
John M. Gaston, 1995 Section Chair and
former Chief Engineer for the
California Department of Public Health,
Office of Drinking Water, reflects on
a century of partnership between
the Section and the State of California
to ensure public health.
COOPERATION BETWEEN THE CA-NV SECTION AWWA and the State of California stretches back to the Section’s
earliest days. Two key incidents stand out: the development of the Safe Drinking Water Act and the implementation
of the requirements between the State and AWWA.
A Brief History of the California Section of AWWA
The original California Section of AWWA was formed in 1920,
and considerable information is available on that event. Records
indicate that the limited staff of the State of California Drinking
Water Program were active in the newly formed Section and
supportive of the activities. In the 1920s, chlorination of drinking
water was still not a universal process, and the industry was in the
midst of a sharp learning curve to link the reduction of harmful
bacteria and the use of appropriate disinfection. Records show
that the incidence of waterborne disease was on the downturn
throughout the 1920s and 1930s with the introduction of chlorine-based
technology and other improvements. Because of the
minimal staff available to the State of California Drinking Water
Program, the vast majority of the innovations and improvements
to treatment technology were developed by the industry.
It is important to note that the association between the
California Section and the State began as the Section was formed
and has continued until this time.
22 SOURCE spring 2020
A Brief History of the State of California
Drinking Water Program
The first record of legislation addressing a Statewide Drinking
Program is recorded in the Statutes of 1913. A more expansive
version of this legislation is in the legislative record from 1915.
Unfortunately, even though the statute speaks to the need for
a Statewide regulatory program, no funding was provided to
support staff to do the work. Prior to this, some counties had a
semblance of a regulatory program, generally without any formal
recognition of formal authority for enforcement.
The federal government entered the drinking water
regulatory arena in 1914. The United States Public Health Service
(USPHS) was tasked with enforcing the Interstate Commerce Act,
which regulated, among other commodities, the use of drinking
water in interstate situations. For example, water loaded on a
passenger train in California and headed east across the country
was regulated by the federal government because the train crossed
a state line. This program still exists today, in a truncated form,