BILL ANALYSIS
AB 13
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ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 13 (Salas)
As Amended April 29, 2009
Majority vote
WATER, PARKS & WILDLIFE 10-2 NATURAL
RESOURCES 6-3
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|Ayes:|Huffman, Anderson, |Ayes:|Skinner, Brownley, |
| |Chesbro, Blumenfield, | |Chesbro, |
| |Caballero, Krekorian, | |De Leon, Hill, Huffman |
| |Bonnie Lowenthal, John A. | | |
| |Perez, Salas, Yamada | | |
| | | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
|Nays:|Fuller, Tom Berryhill |Nays:|Gilmore, Knight, Logue |
| | | | |
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APPROPRIATIONS 12-5
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|Ayes:|De Leon, Ammiano, Charles | | |
| |Calderon, Davis, Fuentes, | | |
| |Hall, | | |
| |John Perez, Price, | | |
| |Skinner, Solorio, | | |
| |Torlakson, Krekorian | | |
| | | | |
|-----+--------------------------+----+--------------------------|
|Nays:|Nielsen, Duvall, Harkey, | | |
| |Miller, Audra Strickland | | |
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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) Restore, maintain, and enhance Delta ecosystems, including
habitats, wildlife corridors, native species, and open space,
to ensure their viability, diversity, and sustainability,
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pursuant to Delta sustainability plan adopted by the Delta
Ecosystem and Water Council; and,
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;
and,
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.
4)Provides for five-year, staggered terms for the Board members
representing the Delta counties, and four-year, staggered terms
for the public Board members.
5)Requires public members to reflect 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 executive
officer, quorum, arrangement for Conservancy office and staff.
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);
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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)Denies the power of eminent domain to the Conservancy and 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
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Conservation Plan and other habitat conservation plans;
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;
and,
vii) Address the impacts from the implementation of the Delta
sustainability program.
f) Coordinate with appropriate scientific entities to conduct
necessary scientific studies; and,
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; and,
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f) Implement projects to address related flood issues.
13)Requires the Conservancy to use easements and cooperative
agreements to achieve ecosystem restoration goals, to the extent
practicable.
14)Requires annual reports to the Legislature and Governor on
progress toward its implementation of the Delta sustainability
program, on or before December 1.
15)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; and,
b) Gifts, donations, bequests, devises, subventions, grants,
rents and royalties.
16)Defines certain terms, including "Comprehensive Delta
Sustainability Program" (ecosystem function and economic
viability) and "Delta counties."
17)Makes legislative findings regarding the Delta and the need for a
Delta conservancy.
EXISTING LAW establishes the California Bay-Delta Authority and
assigns 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 : According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee:
1)Ongoing annual costs of about $300,000 to $1 million starting in
2010-11, to the conservancy to administer its programs, including
restoration, conservation, and long-term management projects.
2)Ongoing annual costs of about $250,000, starting in fiscal year
2009-10, to the Resources Agency to oversee the activities of the
conservancy.
COMMENTS : In the last decade, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta has
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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 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.
Need :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 Delta's conservancy needs,
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 for this bill, which changes direction from previous Delta
conservancy bills.
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
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communities like nowhere else in California. This Conservancy would
promote projects that protect all the Delta's resources.
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, to reflect statewide interests in the Delta. It
also includes several non-voting ex officio members from
Delta/Suisun regulatory agencies.
Analysis Prepared by : Alf W. Brandt / W., P. & W. / (916)
319-2096
FN: 0001182