BILL ANALYSIS
AB 13
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Date of Hearing: April 14, 2009
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON WATER, PARKS AND WILDLIFE
Jared William Huffman, Chair
AB 13 (Salas) - As Amended: April 1, 2009
SUBJECT : Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Conservancy
SUMMARY : Creates a new conservancy for the Sacramento-San
Joaquin Delta (Delta). Specifically, this bill :
1)Creates the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Conservancy
(Conservancy) within the Natural Resources Agency.
2)Requires the Conservancy to:
a) Provide policy oversight, foster implementation of and
manage funds to implement the restoration and management of
habitats and lands for the sustainability of ecosystem
function, pursuant to the Delta sustainability plan adopted
by the Delta Ecosystem and Water Council.
b) Develop and implement projects to address the economic
viability of the Delta region, consistent with the Delta
sustainability plan.
3)Establishes composition of the governing board for the
Conservancy, to include 11 voting members and three ex officio
non-voting members:
a) Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency
b) Director of Finance
c) five members representing the five Delta counties
(Solano, Yolo, Sacramento, San Joaquin and Contra Costa),
one appointed by each county Board of Supervisors
d) two public members appointed by the Governor
e) two public members appointed by the Legislature, one by
the Senate Rules Committee and one by the Speaker of the
Assembly
f) three ex officio non-voting members including: Director
of the Department of Fish and Game (DFG), chair of the
Delta Protection Commission (DPC), an executive officer of
San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission
(BCDC), or designees.
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4)Provides for 5-year, staggered terms for the Board members
representing the Delta counties, and 4-year, staggered terms
for the public Board members.
5)Requires public members to reflect either the diversity of
interests in the Delta or statewide interests as they relate
to the authorities and mission of the Conservancy.
6)Provides for organization of the Board, including compensation
and reimbursement of expenses, appointment of a chair and
staff/consultants, quorum, arrangement for Conservancy office.
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7)Requires board to establish and coordinate activities with an
advisory committee that will include, but not be limited to, a
representative of each of the following:
a) Department of Water Resources (DWR)
b) State Water Resources Control Board
c) State Coastal Conservancy
d) Suisun Resource Conservation District
e) Yolo Basin Foundation
f) Each reclamation district with responsibility for levees
located within the Delta
8)Limits Conservancy jurisdiction to the Delta and Suisun Marsh,
unless the Board makes certain findings as to the proposed
action's connection to Delta ecosystem and coordination with
other local agencies.
9)Allows the Conservancy to review ecosystem projects in the
Delta for consistency with the Delta's sustainability program,
and allows appeal of such determinations to the Delta
Ecosystem and Water Council for final determination.
10)Bars the Conservancy from regulating land-use, except to the
extent that it has property interests or an agreement with the
landowner.
11)Requires the Conservancy to:
a) Implement habitat restoration and management projects to
achieve the ecosystem goals of the comprehensive Delta
sustainability program.
b) Cooperate, coordinate, and consult as necessary or
appropriate with any other agency having regulatory or
other responsibility related to the authorities of the
mission of the Conservancy.
c) Take whatever actions are reasonably necessary and
incidental to the management of lands under its ownership
or control.
d) Coordinate or assist in the implementation of local,
state, and federal ecosystem projects, including the
Bay-Delta Conservation Plan and other habitat conservation
plans.
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e) Develop and implement projects, consistent with the
program, to maintain the economic and social viability of
the Delta region, including but not limited to projects
that:
i) Provide recreational opportunities and appropriate
public access to natural resources;
ii) Protect viable agriculture and Delta communities
iii) Promote wildlife-friendly agriculture.
iv) Promote agricultural practices that reduce
greenhouse gas emissions and increase carbon
sequestration.
v) Support the growth of agricultural tourism
vi) Protect the viability of the Delta's legacy
communities.
vii) Address the impacts from the implementation of the
Delta sustainability program.
f) Coordinate with appropriate scientific entities to
conduct necessary scientific studies.
g) Assume responsibility, if offered for local, state,
federal and private lands or management of those lands in
the Delta or Suisun Marsh.
12)Authorizes the Conservancy to:
a) Accept acquire and hold real property interests.
b) Make grants or loans to other agencies and nonprofit
organizations.
c) Directly undertake or contract with other agencies or
nonprofit organizations to undertake appropriate actions.
d) Enter into agreements with other agencies, nonprofit
organizations, or private entities for implementation of
projects, including construction and management.
e) Acquire and hold any necessary regulatory permits.
f) Implement projects to address related flood issues.
13)Requires the Conservancy to use easements and cooperative
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agreements to achieve ecosystem restoration goals, to the
extent practicable.
14)Denies the power of eminent domain to the Conservancy.
15)Requires annual reports to the Legislature and Governor on
progress toward its implementation of the Delta sustainability
program.
16)Provides for the Conservancy's expenses for administrative
costs, grants or direct expenditure, including allowance for
use of funds provided for particular purposes and acceptance
of:
a) Funds provided by participants in the Bay Delta
Conservation Plan or other habitat conservation plans
b) Gifts, donations, bequests, devises, subventions,
grants, rents and royalties.
17)Defines certain terms, including "Comprehensive Delta
Sustainability Program" (ecosystem function and economic
viability) and "Delta counties."
18)Makes legislative findings regarding the Delta and the need
for a Delta conservancy.
EXISTING LAW establishes the California Bay-Delta Authority and
allocates responsibility for the CALFED Bay-Delta Program's
Ecosystem Restoration Program (ERP) to the Department of Fish &
Game (DFG). The 2006 State Budget transferred funding and
responsibility for CALFED to the Secretary of the Natural
Resources Agency, with DFG retaining ERP.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : In the last decade, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta
has suffered a substantial ecosystem decline. The Delta is, at
once, the heart of California's water system and the most
valuable estuary ecosystem on the west coast of North and South
America. For several reasons, the populations of Delta fish
species have dropped to near-extinction levels, resulting in
court-ordered restrictions on water exports to the San Francisco
Bay Area, San Joaquin Valley and Southern California. Federal,
state and local agencies have worked on ecosystem restoration
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projects for more than 15 years. The CALFED Bay-Delta Program,
a project of existing federal and state agencies that included
an Ecosystem Restoration Program, has largely failed to make
sufficient progress to head off the ecosystem decline. After
fishery agencies reported the Delta ecosystem crisis in 2005,
ecosystem restoration efforts have accelerated, including an
effort by the Natural Resources Agency to create a "Bay-Delta
Conservation Plan" to get permits under the federal Endangered
Species Act for the state and federal water project exports.
This bill reflects an emerging consensus that the Delta needs
its own conservancy. While the Legislature has considered, in
the last decade, several bills related to the conservancy needs
for the Delta, the recent Delta ecosystem crisis has made that
need more urgent, promoting work by agencies and Delta
stakeholders to develop the outlines of what kind of conservancy
would work. The Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force (Task
Force) spent 18 months, studying the Delta and hearing from the
diversity of stakeholders, and proposed a Delta strategic plan
that included a recommendation that a Delta conservancy be
established as early as possible in the 2009 legislative session
and described some details as to how a Delta conservancy might
be crafted. The Task Force reported: "California has a long and
successful history with conservancies, and there is widespread
agreement that such an entity would succeed in the Delta." This
year, Senator Simitian convened several stakeholder workgroups,
including one to develop the details on a Delta conservancy.
The author of this bill relied on the results of that work to
develop the current version, which changes direction from
previous Delta conservancy bills. Senator Wolk has a separate
Delta conservancy bill proceeding in the Senate (SB 458).
Authority: This bill's Delta Conservancy has broad authority to
address the Delta's needs, broader than some other
conservancies. First, it has responsibility for both ecosystem
restoration and economic viability of the Delta and Suisun
Marsh, based on a Delta sustainability program, which is not yet
defined. This dual authority arises out of concerns from
in-Delta stakeholders that the Delta needs to be sustained for
more than just fish. The Delta is a unique place that enjoys
environmental, agricultural and recreational resources that
sustains an economy and legacy communities like nowhere else in
California. This Conservancy would promote projects that
protect all the Delta's resources.
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Second, the Conservancy's authority also allows for more than
just funding of projects, but actual long-term management of
Delta resources and property - both land and water. Such
authority is not typical of other conservancies. It reflects
the fact that several federal, state and local agencies
currently own land in the Delta, but do not necessarily manage
that land, either effectively or as a system. Several in-Delta
stakeholders expressed the preference for one entity that has
responsibility for managing public land and water resources in
the Delta.
Third, the inclusion of water resources reflects the unique
nature of the Delta as a place created by water, with sediment
deposited by the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers. Over the
millennia, this sediment created, by the time of statehood, a
shallow marsh with islands that emerged during the dry season.
Delta property rights were created by - and continue to depend
on - the construction and maintenance of levees that keep Delta
islands dry all year. This Conservancy would have authority to
manage water rights, which may be needed to maintain the tidal
or freshwater wetlands that are central to the Delta ecosystem.
Board Composition:The composition of the Conservancy's board
largely reflects the Task Force's proposal, which included
strong representation from the Delta itself, as reflected in the
five-of-eleven members representing the five Delta Counties that
contain a part of the Delta's "primary zone." The board
includes two State agency representatives (Natural Resources and
Finance) and four other "public" representatives, appointed by
the Governor and the Legislature. It also includes several
non-voting ex officio members from Delta/Suisun regulatory
agencies.
In-Delta representatives have expressed a preference that the
public members come from the Delta as well, although the bill
currently allows public members to reflect either Delta or
statewide interests. Allowing representation of statewide
interests reflects another unique quality of the Delta - its
importance and connection to the entire state. As the hub for
water transfers from the Sacramento Valley - whose watershed
produces 2/3 of the state's water resources - the Delta
contributes and is affected by the economy of much of the State
that depends on its water resources. The amount of water
exported from the Delta has a substantial impact on the Delta's
ecosystem, as reflected in the recent Delta ecosystem crisis.
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While water exports are only one of three categories of threats
to the Delta ecosystem, record-high exports in the first half of
this decade coincided with record-declines in Delta fishery
populations. This bill therefore leaves it to the appointing
authorities to determine the mix of statewide and in-Delta
representation among the public members of the Conservancy's
board.
April 1 Amendments. Recent amendments addressed comments sent
to the Committee just before the March 24 hearing. These
amendments:
Clarify that the Conservancy implements habitat
restoration pursuant to a plan adopted by the
yet-to-be-created California Delta Ecosystem and Water
Council (CDEW).
Narrow participation of ex officio non-voting board
members to the agencies with Delta regulatory authority -
DFG, DPC and BCDC.
Require coordination with an advisory committee
Allow appeals of consistency determinations to CDEW.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
Association of CA Water Agencies (if amended)
Audubon California
California Central Valley Flood Control Association (if amended)
Metropolitan Water District of So. Cal. (support & amend)
Natural Resources Defense Council
San Diego County Water Authority
The Nature Conservancy
Opposition :None submitted
Analysis Prepared by : Alf W. Brandt / W., P. & W. / (916)
319-2096