BILL ANALYSIS
AB 1520
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Date of Hearing: May 20, 2009
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Kevin De Leon, Chair
AB 1520 (Evans) - As Amended: May 5, 2009
Policy Committee: Natural
ResourcesVote:8-1
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable: No
SUMMARY
Establishes a Statewide Watershed Program in the Department of
Conservation (DOC). Specifically, this bill:
1)Establishes the watershed program as a voluntary,
non-regulatory program under the authority of the Secretary of
the Natural Resources Agency (NRA) and administration of the
Director of DOC.
2)Authorizes DOC to hire staff and contract with a public or
private entity, and authorizes the NRA secretary to contract
with any scientific body with expertise relating to the
conservation, restoration, protection, and management of the
state's watersheds, for research or other activities.
3)Requires the NRA secretary to create within DOC a State
Watershed Advisory Committee of at least 10, but not more than
25 members from each of the state's 10 hydrologic regions to
serve renewable two-year terms.
4)Restricts implementation of the Program to a fiscal year in
which funding is provided in the annual Budget Act.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)Costs, likely in the range of the low hundreds of thousands of
dollars annually, to DOC to support the work of the Watershed
Advisory Committee. (GF or special funds)
2)Cost pressure, potentially in the millions of dollars
annually, to fund assistance to local efforts to conserve,
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protect and restore the state's watersheds. (Special funds or
bond funds)
3)Cost pressure, likely in the range of a few hundred of
thousands of dollars annually, to DOC to administer the
watershed program. (Special funds.)
COMMENTS
1)Rationale. The author believes it necessary, in order to
manage chemical, physical, biological and socioeconomic
processes affecting the state's watersheds, to assume
leadership in advancing sustainable watershed-based management
statewide through community-based initiatives. The author
intends the program established by this bill to provide
assistance and funds to local community-based efforts to
conserve, protect, and restore the state's watersheds and
promote coordinated management of them.
2)Background.
a) California Watershed Protection and Restoration Act of
2003. The act authorizes local governments, special
districts, and other interested parties to participate in
local watershed partnerships for watershed management,
restoration and improvement. The act also authorizes state
agencies with jurisdiction over watershed planning and
protection to provide technical assistance to watershed
management partnerships through training, advice, and
manuals and other means consistent with watershed
protection laws and regulations.
b) Propositions 84 and Watershed Management. Proposition
84 (The Safe Drinking Water, Water Quality and Supply,
Flood Control, River and Coastal Protection Bond Act of
2006) did not include funds specifically for a general
watershed program, although watershed protection or
restoration projects are an eligible use of some of the
measure's funds, including funding allocated to the state
conservancies and for integrated regional water management.
c) DOC's Watershed Grant Coordinator Program was
established by the Legislature in the Budget Act of 2000 to
fund Watershed Coordinator positions throughout the state.
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DOC awards competitive grants to special districts,
nonprofit groups, and local governments to promote
watershed management and local watershed improvements. The
grant program supports watershed coordinator positions that
facilitate collaborative efforts to improve and sustain the
health of California's watersheds. According to DOC, the
program has been very successful at creating stakeholder
awareness and consensus and assisting locals at securing
funding. The 2008-09 Budget Act included $10 million
dollars in eligible Proposition 84 funds for DOC's
Watershed Grant Coordinator Program. (The program created
by this bill is, aside from the committee, very similar to
DOC's Watershed Grant Coordinator Program.)
3)Support . Supporters, such as the California State Association
of Counties (CSAC), seek to codify many aspects of DOC's
successful watershed program, in order to ensure that
watershed planning is science-based, coordinated,
collaborative, and, to the extent possible, funded.
There are no registered opponents to this bill.
Analysis Prepared by : Jay Dickenson / APPR. / (916) 319-2081