BILL ANALYSIS
AB 1834
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CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB 1834 (Solorio)
As Amended August 17, 2010
Majority vote
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|ASSEMBLY: |74-0 |(June 2, 2010) |SENATE: |30-1 |(August 20, |
| | | | | |2010) |
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Original Committee Reference: W.,P. & W.
SUMMARY : Allows a landowner to install a rainwater recapture
system to irrigate landscaping or recharge groundwater.
Specifically, this bill :
1)Establishes the Rainwater Capture Act of 2010 recognizing
rainwater flowing off of buildings, parking lots, roads and
other impervious surfaces has increased, thereby reducing the
water allowed to infiltrate into groundwater aquifers and
increasing the water and pollution flowing to the ocean.
Recognizes properly captured and managed rainwater could
contribute significantly to local water supplies and meet
water conservation goals, including recharging groundwater or
replacing potable water used for landscaping irrigation.
2)Allows a landowner to install, maintain, and operate a
rainwater capture system for outdoor nonpotable water uses on
the property where the rainwater was captured or for
groundwater recharge. Requires a landowner to comply with a
local agency's program to promote rainwater or stormwater
capture, if such a program exists, but does not impose a duty,
or impair the authority of a local agency to establish or
implement a rainwater capture program.
3)Allows a property owner to finance a rainwater recapture
system through a voluntary contractual assessment on their own
property.
4)Exempts nonpotable uses of rainwater from drinking water
standards but requires those uses to meet Porter-Cologne Water
Quality Control Act (Porter-Cologne) standards for nonpotable
water and any additional state, regional, or local
requirements for the protection of groundwater quality from
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contamination by stormwater drainage.
5)Encourages collaboration to promote the greater capture of
rainwater and stormwater for water supply purposes among
state, regional and local agencies with responsibilities for
building standards, flood protection, water supply, land use,
and other requirements.
6)Specifies the circumstances under which a licensed landscape
contractor may install a rainwater capture system and
encourages the Building Standards Code, including the Green
Building Standards Code, to provide building standards
guidelines for the installation and use of rainwater capture
systems for outdoor nonpotable uses, groundwater recharge, and
stormwater capture by public agencies.
7)Allows a public agency, including the Metropolitan Water
District of Southern California (MWD) or the California State
University Water Resources and Policy Initiatives (WRPI), to
initiate a statewide stakeholder process to develop guidelines
to address legal and policy issues arising out of stormwater
and rainwater recapture. Allows the State Water Resources
Control Board (SWRCB) to develop its own policies or
guidelines.
The Senate Amendments :
1)Specify that the bill will not alter or impair existing rights
or change existing water rights law.
2)Specify that the definition of a rainwater capture system as
one upon developed or developing lands does not include
agricultural lands.
3)Specify rainwater must meet Porter-Cologne standards for water
quality and additional state, regional or local requirements
to protect groundwater quality from stormwater drainage.
4)Allow a public agency, including, but not limited to MWD or
WRPI, to initiation a statewide stakeholder process to address
issues arising out of the expansion of rainwater and
stormwater capture. Costs of the stakeholder process would be
borne by the public agency initiating it. Participants would
be responsible for their own costs.
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5)Add water quality, including first rain contamination hazards
and changes in concentrations of runoff, downstream effects,
including in-stream flow volumes and native fish and wildlife,
and financial feasibility to the list of issues a statewide
stakeholder process may consider.
EXISTING LAW:
1)Allows property owners to enter into contractual agreements to
pay an assessment on their property in order to finance
permanently affixed energy and water efficiency improvements.
2)Requires the state to achieve a 20% reduction in per capita
water use by 2020.
AS PASSED BY THE ASSEMBLY , this bill recognized rainwater, if
recaptured from impermeable surfaces and properly managed, could
contribute significantly to local water supplies when used for
outdoor nonpotable uses as a substitute for potable water. Such
systems could be financed through voluntary contractual
assessments and installed by a landscape contractor if part of a
landscape irrigation system. The SWRCB was required to initiate
a stakeholder process to develop recommendations for policies of
state and local agencies that would encourage and facilitate the
use of rainwater recapture systems. The SWRCB could also
develop its own rainwater recapture policies and guidelines.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to Senate Appropriations Committee,
negligible state costs.
COMMENTS : This bill was amended in the Senate to address the
potential costs to the SWRCB and other agencies from a
conducting, participating in, and incorporating the possible
recommendations of, a mandated statewide stakeholder process.
Subsequently, MWD, at its August 17, 2010 Board meeting voted
unanimously to support this bill as amended, including the
recommendation of a voluntary MWD or WRPI-run statewide
stakeholder process. MWD's staff recommendation concluded that
the personnel and facility costs of initiating such a process
were already within MWD's existing budget.
Analysis Prepared by : Tina Cannon Leahy / W., P. & W. / (916)
AB 1834
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319-2096
FN: 0006270