Just days after Gov. Jerry Brown signed several bills geared to improving drinking water quality, Assembly Member Henry T. Perea said he will push forward and build on that foundation.

"Mark my words," the freshman Democrat from Fresno said, "this is step one."

Perea made the comments at a Wednesday news conference in downtown Fresno to thank Brown for signing the bills. One of those was Perea's own Assembly Bill 983, which allows disadvantaged communities to get grants for the full cost of water infrastructure, compared to 80% under previous law.

Already, Perea said, he is talking with local water-quality activists as well as area water districts about what next steps can be taken to help bring clean drinking water to all Valley residents.

Perea started off his news conference by giving kudos to The Bee for its reporting on this issue. The Bee published a three-part series last week called Don't Drink the Water, which focused on nitrates, arsenic and other drinking water pollutants in Tulare County and elsewhere in the San Joaquin Valley.

What Perea hopes comes out of these conversations is a new series of bills that can be introduced in the next legislative session, which begins in January.

Ideas already being formulated include identifying more funding sources to help pay for the $150 million total for projects already on record to address the Valley's water problems in small towns.

Perea calls this the "800 pound gorilla" since it involves finding money in a cash-strapped state. There is some money there, he said, but not enough to quickly address the needs.

Another idea is the possibility of consolidating small, struggling water districts -- which Perea acknowledges is a tough political issue that will face certain opposition from parochial interests. But it could make them more effective in delivering water and securing funding for badly needed infrastructure upgrades.

Perea also will immediately start work on a short-term goal: Bringing Dr. Ron Chapman, director of the California Department of Public Health, to the Valley to see first-hand the challenges facing small, impoverished towns and water districts.

In addition, a nonpolitical idea being tossed around could involve some larger, wealthier water districts giving some of their water to the smaller, impoverished districts.

In exchange, the impoverished districts might allow for something like a water-recharge basin to be located within their boundaries, which could give back some water to the wealthier districts in wet years like the one just passed.

Mario Santoyo, director of the California Latino Water Coalition, said the actual amount of water needed is small, relatively speaking. It could either be provided as fresh water or to mix with existing water supplies in the affected districts.

The question, he said, is infrastructure: Is it there to deliver the water in such an exchange?

Santoyo, who also is an assistant general manager for the Friant Water Users Authority, said the water exchange concept has been discussed in preliminary meetings between some of the water districts that are part of the authority and advocates for some of the impoverished communities who have substandard tap water.

"It's all our problem," Santoyo said of access to clean drinking water for all. "It's not just their problem."

Maria Herrera, community outreach coordinator with the Visalia-based Community Water Center, praised the proposed next steps.

But the first order of business, she said, needs to be getting the word out about the new legislation Brown signed, as well as working with the state to help set funding priorities and to address bureaucratic barriers that are making it difficult for small, impoverished water districts to win state funding.

That is why the Community Water Center and others suggested that Perea bring Chapman to the Valley. While Perea is at it, Herrera said, he should also bring the head of the state's Drinking Water Program, which is part of the Department of Public Health.

"Solutions have to be affordable because most of these communities are not paying affordable rates now," she said.

Perea also said the timeline needs to be accelerated and not move at the usual bureaucratic pace, which is slow.

"At the end of the day," he said, "these folks need clean drinking water."