California’s next drinking water chief must get the balance right

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OPINION — California’s State Water Resources Control Board is preparing to select the next deputy director of its Division of Drinking Water. The choice deserves far more attention than a routine executive appointment.

The person who replaces Darrin Polhemus, who is retiring at the end of August, will have a major role in deciding how California protects the drinking water systems that serve tens of millions of people. That includes deciding which risks deserve immediate attention, where regulatory resources should be focused, and how the state responds when public health goals run up against aging infrastructure, limited resources, and the cost of new requirements.

The timing is especially important because California’s water utilities are being asked to deal with two problems at the same time.

First, they have to keep the systems they already operate safe and reliable. California has made remarkable progress in protecting drinking water. According to the 2026 Drinking Water Needs Assessment, 98.6% of Californians served by public water systems received water that met drinking-water standards in 2025. But that same assessment identified 406 failing public water systems and another 654 that are considered at risk.

Those figures should not be viewed as a contradiction. California can have some of the safest drinking water in the country while still having hundreds of systems struggling with infrastructure, finances and day-to-day operations.

At the same time, the state is looking ahead to new contaminants and emerging health concerns. Scientific knowledge changes, and California should continue to act when the evidence shows that a new threat warrants regulation, monitoring or treatment.

But new requirements do not come without a price.

Treatment plants have to be designed, financed and built. Operators have to be trained. Monitoring programs have to be established and maintained. Data must be collected and reviewed. Meanwhile, utilities still have to repair aging pipelines, replace deteriorating facilities and keep the systems running every day. Much of that cost eventually falls on ratepayers.

The State Water Board’s own assessment shows how difficult that challenge has become. Its most recent funding-gap analysis identified approximately $11.5 billion in five-year capital and managerial needs for failing, at-risk and other high-risk systems, along with an estimated $5.5 billion gap in grant funding. The State Water Board also projected another $13.9 billion in local cost-share needs.

Those numbers put the importance of the next deputy director into perspective.

California needs a drinking water leader who can look at the entire system rather than focus on one problem at a time. That means knowing when a public health threat requires immediate action, but also being willing to ask how strong the science is, what treatment can realistically accomplish, and what it will cost communities already struggling to maintain their systems.

The 2026 Needs Assessment makes clear that its findings are intended to help the state prioritize funding, technical assistance, and both short- and long-term solutions. The next Deputy Director will have a significant influence over how those priorities are put into practice.

That is why this appointment should be viewed as a public health decision, not just a personnel decision. The person chosen will help determine whether California can protect the gains of the previous decades and focus the attention of varied stakeholders on the most important actions to ensure safe drinking water for all. 

That is the standard the State Water Board should use when choosing its next deputy director of Drinking Water.

Roy L. Wolfe, Ph.D. is an experienced water professional, former board chair of the Water Research Foundation and former executive at the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.