BILL NUMBER: SB 27 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN SENATE APRIL 24, 2007
AMENDED IN SENATE MARCH 29, 2007
INTRODUCED BY Senators Simitian, Machado, Perata, and Steinberg
DECEMBER 4, 2006
An act to add Division 26.6 (commencing with Section 79600) to the
Water Code, relating to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 27, as amended, Simitian. Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta,
Clean Drinking Water, Water Supply Security, and Environmental
Improvement Act of 2008.
Under existing law, various state agencies administer programs
relating to water supply, water quality, and flood management in the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
This bill would require the Secretary of the Resources Agency, on
or before January 1, 2008, to begin implementing certain actions on
behalf of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, including investing
in emergency preparedness, funding projects to aid sustainability in
the delta, identifying critical levels to be strengthened, and
commencing delta restoration projects. The secretary would be
required to take necessary action to ensure that the requirements of
a specified Governor's executive order relating to the delta are met
in a timely manner. The bill would declare legislative intent to
enact legislation to begin implementing a program for sustainable
management of the delta in 2008. The bill would make related
declarations and findings.
Vote: 2/3. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Division 26.6 (commencing with Section 79600) is added
to the Water Code, to read:
DIVISION 26.6. SACRAMENTO-SAN JOAQUIN RIVER DELTA, CLEAN
DRINKING WATER, WATER SUPPLY SECURITY, AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPROVEMENT
ACT OF 2008
79600. This division shall be known, and may be cited, as the
Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, Clean Drinking Water, Water
Supply Security, and Environmental Improvement Act of 2008.
79601. The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a) The Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta is a web of channels
and reclaimed islands at the confluence of the Sacramento and San
Joaquin Rivers. It forms the eastern portion of the wider San
Francisco Estuary, which includes the San Francisco, San Pablo, and
Suisun Bays. The delta collects water from California's largest
watershed, which encompasses roughly 45 percent of the state's
surface area and stretches from the eastern slopes of the coastal
ranges to the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada.
(b) The delta supports a unique and irreplaceable combination of
environmental and economic values, including all of the following:
(1) A unique ecosystem. The delta and the adjacent Suisun Marsh,
an integral part of the delta ecosystem, provide habitat for 700
species, including 12 species listed under either the California or
federal endangered species acts. Eighty percent of the state's
commercial fishery species live in or migrate through the delta. It
is a major stopping point for hundreds of thousands of migrating
birds along the Pacific Flyway. The Suisun Marsh alone contains more
that 10 percent of California's remaining wetlands.
(2) Water supply. Two-thirds of the state's population relies on
the delta for part or all of their drinking water. Water exported
from the delta irrigates 45 percent of the fruits and vegetables
produced in the United States.
(3) Agricultural and other land uses. Delta lands have contributed
significantly to the agricultural economy in California. Supporting
a population of about 470,000, the cities, towns, and settlements
within the delta are of significant historical, cultural, and
economic value.
(4) Major transportation corridors. The delta is crossed by three
state highways, three rail lines, and two deepwater channels and is
home to two inland ports. Most of these transportation corridors
serve other areas of the state.
(5) Utility corridors. The delta is crossed by hundreds of gas
lines, five high voltage lines, and a pipeline that provides drinking
water to residents in east San Francisco Bay. The delta is also home
to numerous underground natural gas storage sites.
(6) Recreation. The delta's 635 miles of boating waterways are
served by 95 marinas containing 11,700 inwater boat slips and dry
storage for 5,500 boats. In 2000, there were an estimated 6.4 million
boating-related visitor days, with 2.13 million boating trips. Other
major recreational activities in the delta include fishing,
waterfowl, and upland game bird hunting, wildlife viewing, bird
watching, and windsurfing.
(7) Flood management. The delta is the natural drain to a 42,500
square mile watershed that includes the Central Valley and the
western slope of the Sierra Nevada from Fresno to Mount Shasta. As
such, it is the main conduit for floodwaters to flow out to the
ocean. The delta itself is protected by extensive, but fragile, flood
management facilities, including about 1,100 miles of levees in the
delta and about 230 miles of levees in the Suisun Marsh. These levees
protect about 65 islands and tracts in the delta. Most of these
levee-protected lands are below sea level, some areas are as much as
25 feet below sea level.
(c) The delta cannot sustain these environmental and economic
values under current conditions. All of these values either are
already in significant decline or are at risk of sudden failure.
Several factors are intensifying the problems, including all of the
following:
(1) Land subsidence, sea level rise, and changes in climate make
Delta levees increasingly vulnerable to failure from earthquakes,
floods, and other causes. Over the next 50 years, there is a
two-thirds chance of a catastrophic levee failure in the delta,
leading to multiple island floodings and the intrusion of seawater.
For one such scenario, the Department of Water Resources estimates
that a large earthquake near the delta would cause major
interruptions in water supplies for Southern California, the San
Joaquin Valley, and the San Francisco Bay area, as well as
disruptions of power, road, and shipping lines, costing the state's
economy as much as $40 billion. These failures also would create
major environmental disruptions and local flooding risks.
(2) Endangered species and fisheries have continued to decline in
the Delta and disruptive nonnative species continue to invade. In the
fall of 2004, routine fish surveys registered sharp declines in the
numbers of several open-water (pelagic) species, including the delta
smelt, already listed as threatened under the federal and state
endangered species acts. Subsequent surveys have confirmed the trend,
raising concerns that the smelt, which are sometimes seen as an
indicator of ecosystem health in the delta, risks extinction if a
solution is not found quickly.
(3) Delta water quality remains at risk from salts entering from
the ocean and the San Joaquin Valley's agricultural drainage, as well
as from pesticides and metals coming from agricultural and urban
lands. Chronic toxicants continue to be a problem, and episodic toxic
events from urban and agricultural applications are also a major
problem.
(4) Regional population and economic growth has increased pressure
to urbanize delta lands near major transportation routes and urban
centers. This "hardening" of delta lands simultaneously raises the
costs of flood risks and reduces the flexibility of land management
options. Unlike most other activities in the delta, urbanization is
generally irreversible. Additionally, urbanization is
self-accelerating. Urbanization in one location significantly
increases the value of adjacent lands. This, coupled with declining
profit margins for farming, will increase the pressure to convert
farmlands to subdivisions. This shift will come at the expense of
habitat protection and other services, such as water quality and
water supply, that are important for other parts of California.
(d) Failing to address any one of these issues would have severe
environmental and economic consequences. Failing to address all of
these issues would be inviting a catastrophe.
79602. The Legislature further finds and declares all the
following:
(a) The Legislature has increasingly called for actions to resolve
the conflicts in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. During its
2005-06 Regular Session, the Legislature passed and the Governor
signed Assembly Bill 1200 (Laird), Senate Bill 1574 (Kuehl), and
Assembly Bill 1803 (Committee on Budget). Together, these bills
require an assessment of the potential impacts on water supplies of
catastrophic failures in the delta, identification and evaluation of
options to protect water supplies and the ecosystem of the delta, the
development of a vision for a sustainable delta, and a strategic
plan to achieve a sustainable Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
(b) The Public Policy Institute of California has made significant
progress in addressing many of the issues raised by that
legislation. In February 2007, the institute released a document
entitled "Envisioning Futures for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta."
This report did a highly credible job of describing the various
challenges facing the delta and identified nine potential approaches
to resolving those challenges. The authors found that four of the
nine options were not promising and should not be considered further.
The five remaining options included two versions of an isolated
conveyance system, two options with reduced exports, and one option
featuring an armored, but not isolated, conveyance system. The
authors further suggested that the creation of a hybrid solution,
relying on some combination of key elements, may provide the most
promising path forward. The University of California's Department of
Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning similarly made
important contributions to developing a long-term sustainable delta
in its March 2007 report entitled "ReEnvisioning the Delta:
Alternative Futures for the Heart of California."
(c) The recent work by the Public Policy Institute of California
and the University of California's Department of Landscape
Architecture and Environmental Planning demonstrates that there
already is a significant body of knowledge regarding the challenges
to the delta and potential options for resolving those challenges.
Accordingly, the Legislature expects, consistent with the Governor's
Executive Order S-17-06, that by January 1, 2008, the Blue Ribbon
Task Force will present a report to the Delta Vision Committee and
Governor that does all of the following:
(1) Meets the requirements of Assembly Bill 1200 and Senate Bill
1574.
(2) Assesses the risks and consequences to the delta's many uses
and resources in light of changing climatic, hydrologic,
environmental, seismic, and land use conditions. This assessment is
expected to address all of the following:
(A) The environment, including aquatic and terrestrial functions
and biodiversity.
(B) Land use and land use patterns, including agriculture,
urbanization, and housing.
(C) Transportation, including streets, roads, highways, waterways,
and ship channels.
(D) Utilities, including aqueducts, pipelines, and gas and
electric transmission corridors.
(E) Water supply and quality, municipal and industrial discharges,
and urban and agricultural runoff.
(F) Recreation and tourism, including boating, fishing, and
hunting.
(G) Flood risk management, including levee maintenance.
(H) Emergency response.
(I) Local and state economies.
(3) Develops a program for sustainable management of the delta's
multiple uses, resources, and ecosystem. Sustainable management of
the delta means managing the delta over the long term to restore and
maintain identified functions and values that are determined to be
important to the environmental quality of the delta and the economic
and social well-being of the people of the state. As part of the
delta vision process, priority functions and values are expected to
be identified, and measures necessary to provide long-term protection
and management are expected to be evaluated.
(d) The Legislature further expects that the Blue Ribbon Task
Force will focus most of its attention on exploring and evaluating
the five options that the Public Policy Institute of California found
most promising; two versions of an isolated conveyance system, two
options with reduced exports, and one option featuring an armored,
but not isolated, conveyance system. It is the expectation of the
Legislature that the Blue Ribbon Task Force will report to the Delta
Vision Committee and Governor which of the five options, or hybrid of
options, the task force believes best meets the requirements of
existing law and the Governor's Executive Order S-17-06.
(e) The Legislature further finds and declares that while the
delta vision process established under last session's Senate Bill
1574 holds great promise, the Legislature cannot sit idly by while
the risks to the delta continue to mount. As both the Public Policy
Institute of California and the University of California's Department
of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning conclude, there
are a number of actions that should begin immediately. These include
the following:
(1) Investing in essential emergency preparedness, such as
stockpiling emergency repair materials in the delta and constructing
one or more cutoff levees to allow isolation of the south delta from
brackish water following a catastrophic flooding event in the delta.
(2) Funding projects that would aid sustainability regardless of
the ultimate plan to achieve a sustainable delta, such as using bond
funds to set aside or purchase key habitat areas and investing in
demonstration projects such as the Franks Tract pilot project or new
fish screens at Clifton Court.
(3) Identifying critical levees that must be strengthened
immediately to protect the beneficial uses and resources of the
delta, as well as those levees that the state would not repair should
they fail.
(4) Commencing restoration projects to improve habitat conditions
for the delta smelt and other pelagic fish species, such as
restoration actions in the Suisun Marsh and Cache Slough regions.
79603. It is the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation
to begin implementing a program for sustainable management of the
Delta in 2008. It is the desire of the Legislature that this
legislation be based on the results of the Blue Ribbon Task Force's
report that is to be submitted to the Delta Vision Committee and the
Governor by January 1, 2008. However, should that report fall short
of expectations, the Legislature intends to move in all due haste to
develop its own program for sustainable management of the delta.
79604. (a) It is the intent of the Legislature that the
implementation of this division accomplish all of the following:
(1) Provide significant improvements to the quality of the
drinking water derived from the delta and used as a part of the
drinking water supply of 23 million Californians.
(2) Ensure that urban and agricultural water supplies derived from
the delta, including water supplies used within the delta, are not
disrupted because of catastrophic failures of delta levees resulting
from earthquakes, floods, land sinking, rising ocean levels, or other
forces.
(3) Provide a safe, clean, high quality, secure, affordable, and
sufficient water supply to meet the needs of California's
environment, residents, farms, and businesses.
(4) Improve and increase aquatic and terrestrial habitats and
improve ecological functions in the San Francisco Bay-Delta
watersheds to support sustainable populations of plant, fish, and
animal species.
(5) Improve water quality and reduce pollution within the
watersheds of the bay-delta.
(6) Reduce the reliance of water users on the delta through
conservation, reclamation, reuse, and other means.
(7) Create sustainable land use patterns.
(8) Create sustainable flood structures.
(9) Protect and enhance recreation and tourism opportunities.
(10) Maintain and improve transportation within and around the
delta.
(11) Accommodate the transmission of utilities either in or around
the delta.
(12) Develop and implement an appropriate emergency response plan.
(13) Protect and enhance the local economy.
(b) Programs funded by this division shall maximize where feasible
scientifically based procedures to reduce global warming gases
emitted by exposed delta soils.
79605. (a) The Secretary of the Resources Agency shall take
necessary action to ensure the requirements of the Governor's
Executive Order S-17-06 are met in a timely manner.
(b) On or before January 1, 2008, the Secretary of the Resources
Agency shall develop and begin implementing the following actions on
behalf of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.
(1) Investing in essential emergency preparedness, such as
stockpiling emergency repair materials in the delta and constructing
one or more cutoff levees to allow isolation of the south delta from
brackish water following a catastrophic flooding event in the delta.
(2) Funding projects that would aid sustainability regardless of
the ultimate plan to achieve a sustainable delta, such as using bond
funds to set aside or purchase key habitat areas and investing in
demonstration projects such as the Franks Tract pilot project or new
fish screens at Clifton Court.
(3) Identifying critical levees that must be strengthened
immediately to protect the beneficial uses and resources of the delta
as well as those levees that the state would not repair should they
fail.
(4) Commencing restoration projects to improve habitat conditions
for the delta smelt and other pelagic fish species, such as
restoration actions in the Suisun Marsh and Cache Slough regions.
(c) Nothing in this section grants any new authority to the
secretary or authorizes the use of funds not otherwise appropriated
by the Legislature for the express purposes of this section.
79606. The Legislature finds and declares that, in developing a
model for water movement that is consistent with the five options
described in subdivision (b) of Section 79602, a
it is necessary to develop a hydrologic graph that models the
Delta as a fluctuating estuary to determine the proper ecological
response to the crisis in the Delta. A successful system must
be designed to accomplish the following:
(a) Optimize opportunities to manage the delta as a fluctuating
tidal estuary within and between water years to mimic historic
salinity patterns throughout the bay-delta ecosystem.
(b) Optimize opportunities for recovery and restoration of native
aquatic and terrestrial species utilizing best available technologies
for minimizing entrainment of native fish during water export.
(c) Significantly reduce quantities of salts, halides, dissolved
solids, pollutants, organic chemicals, and carcinogenic precursors in
water exported from the delta for municipal, agricultural, and
industrial uses.
(d) Use the best available science and technology to restore
populations of native fisheries in the Sacramento, San Joaquin,
Mokelumne, and Cosumnes River systems.
(e) Optimize the operation of the delta to diminish, or if
possible, eliminate undesirable invasive nonnative aquatic plants,
fish, and invertebrates.
(f) Optimize opportunities for existing in-delta users to receive
water pursuant to their water rights.
(g) Allow for export of water at times and in ways that have the
least impact on native fish populations, water supply, and water
quality.
(h) Provide for the greatest possible protection of existing water
transmission and export facilities and transportation facilities
within the delta.
(i) Maximize the opportunity to preserve existing delta islands
for purposes of preservation and restoration of native fish and
wildlife, and agricultural production consistent with that
preservation and restoration.
79607. (a) The legislation described in Section 79603 shall
include a funding mechanism consistent with the option selected
pursuant to subdivision (b) of Section 79602.
(b) The legislation described in Section 79603 shall include a
management and governance structure consistent with the principles
set forth by the Public Policy Institute of California.