BILL NUMBER: AB 2125 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN SENATE JULY 15, 2010
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 15, 2010
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 5, 2010
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Ruskin
FEBRUARY 18, 2010
An act to add Sections 35620 and 35621 to the Public Resources
Code, relating to coastal resources.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 2125, as amended, Ruskin. Coastal resources: marine spatial
planning.
Existing law declares it is the policy of the state to assess the
long-term values and benefits of the conservation and development of
ocean resources and uses with the objective of restoring or
maintaining the health of the ocean ecosystem and ensuring the proper
management of renewable and nonrenewable resources.
Existing law requires the Ocean Protection Council to coordinate
activities of state agencies that are related to the protection and
conservation of coastal waters and ocean ecosystems to improve the
effectiveness of state efforts to protect ocean resources within
existing fiscal limitations, to establish policies to coordinate the
collection, evaluation, and sharing of scientific data related to
coastal and ocean resources among agencies, and to identify and
recommend to the Legislature changes in law needed to achieve these
goals.
This bill would, consistent with the above goals and subject to
the availability of funding, require the Ocean Protection Council, to
support state agencies' use and sharing of scientific and geospatial
information for coastal- and ocean-relevant decisionmaking,
including marine spatial planning, by taking specified actions, to
assess the needs of California's public agencies with respect to
their abilities to gather, manage, use, and share information and
decision-support tools relevant to ecosystem-based management in the
coastal and ocean environment, and to make a report to the
Legislature on, among other things, the advantages and disadvantages
of marine spatial planning with respect to coastal and ocean
management.
The bill would require each state agency, board, department, or
commission with ocean or coastal management interests or regulatory
authority to cooperate with the council to achieve all of the
specified goals, subject to available funding and consistent with
each entity's individual mandate. The bill would authorize the
council to award grants, enter into interagency agreements, and
provide assistance to public agencies and nonprofit organizations to
support the achievement of these goals and would require the council
to give preference to public agencies that are meeting these goals.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:
(a) California's ocean and coastal waters are unique and valuable
natural resources that the state holds in trust for the people of
California.
(b) The preservation of the state's ocean resources depends on
healthy, productive, and resilient ocean ecosystems.
(c) California's coastal and ocean resources are critical to the
state's environmental and economic security, and integral to the
state's high quality of life and culture.
(d) Long-term protection and enhancement of California's ocean
resources depends on comprehensive and coordinated ocean management.
(e) (1) Relevant, accessible, and shared scientific and geospatial
information is essential to effective ecosystem-based ocean
management.
(2) President Barack Obama has established an Interagency Ocean
Policy Task Force (task force) to develop a national framework for
improved ocean stewardship and a process for effective coastal and
marine spatial planning. The task force has identified scientific
information as a strategic asset that should be developed and managed
on an ongoing basis to meet planning needs.
(3) Marine spatial planning as defined by the task force is "a
comprehensive, adaptive, integrated, ecosystem-based, and transparent
spatial planning process, based on sound science, for analyzing
current and anticipated uses of the ocean or coastal environment.
Marine spatial planning identifies areas most suitable for various
types or classes of activities in order to reduce conflicts among
uses, reduce environmental impacts, facilitate compatible uses, and
preserve critical ecosystem services to meet economic, environmental,
security, and social objectives."
(4) California public agencies need better access to relevant
scientific and geospatial information when making permitting
decisions and conducting long-term planning for the management of
California's coastal and ocean ecosystems. Marine spatial planning is
a potential tool for more effective and comprehensive
ecosystem-based management of California's oceans.
(f) Future uses of state waters present new threats and increased
cumulative impacts. The state seeks appropriate information and
management measures to ensure that these uses contribute positively
to the state and do not cause unnecessary user conflicts or adverse
impacts to our valuable coastal and marine resources.
(g) Effective ecosystem-based ocean management is enhanced by the
state's use of scientific and geospatial information related to
California's coastal and ocean ecosystems.
(h) Effective ecosystem-based ocean management is advanced by
human and technological resources that support the strategic use of
scientific and geospatial information by public agencies, users of
coastal and ocean ecosystems, and the public. These resources
include, but are not limited to, all of the following:
(1) Education and training of existing staff.
(2) New and retained staff members with training in geographic
information systems and other relevant disciplines.
(3) Information discovery and search tools that facilitate
information gathering and sharing.
(4) Decision-support tools that convey planning-relevant
information to decisionmakers, users, and the public, and assist them
with making planning decisions.
(i) The Ocean Protection Council was created to, among other
things, coordinate activities of state agencies that are related to
the protection and conservation of coastal waters and ocean
ecosystems to improve the effectiveness of state efforts to protect
ocean resources.
SEC. 2. Section 35620 is added to the Public Resources Code, to
read:
35620. (a) Consistent with this chapter, and subject to the
availability of funding, the council shall support state agencies'
use and sharing of scientific and geospatial information for coastal-
and ocean-relevant decisionmaking, including marine spatial
planning, by taking all of the following actions:
(1) Assess the needs of California's public agencies with respect
to their abilities to gather, manage, use, and share information and
decision-support tools relevant to ecosystem-based management in the
coastal and ocean environment.
(2) Subject to a determination of need in paragraph (1) and in
consultation with the relevant coastal or ocean management agency,
increase the amount of baseline scientific and geospatial information
that is available to public agencies in a publicly accessible,
electronic, and geospatial format with respect to the following
aspects of coastal and ocean ecosystems:
(A) Ecosystem health structure , functioning,
productivity, resilience, and vulnerability to threats.
(B) The effects of climate change.
(C) The cumulative effects of human-caused and natural sources of
stress.
(D) Existing and predicted patterns of human activities, including
activities that present conflicting or compatible demands on coastal
and ocean ecosystems or those that require the use of a
precautionary approach.
(E) Social, economic, and cultural values, including the value of
coastal and ocean ecosystems for providing ecosystem services.
(F) Distinguishing ecological characteristics, including habitat
heterogeneity, species abundance, and biodiversity.
(F)
(G) Other physical, biological, economic, social, and
cultural information that the council determines is relevant to
marine spatial planning.
(3) Support public agencies' collaborative management and use of
scientific and geospatial information relevant to ecosystem-based
management.
(4) Help identify decision-support tools relevant to
ecosystem-based management, and, where appropriate, support the
adaptation of those tools or the creation of new tools to serve the
state's needs.
(b) Subject to the availability of funding, but no later than 12
months following the receipt of sufficient funding, the council shall
report to the Legislature on all of the following:
(1) The advantages and disadvantages of marine spatial planning
with respect to coastal and ocean management, including, but not
limited to, consideration of the possible role of marine spatial
planning in all of the following:
(A) Improving ecosystem health, functioning, productivity,
resilience, and vulnerability to threats.
(B) Addressing the effects of climate change.
(C) Evaluating and mitigating the cumulative effects of
human-caused and natural sources of stress.
(D) Assessing existing and predicted patterns of human activities,
including activities that present conflicting or compatible demands
on coastal and ocean ecosystems.
(E) Understanding social, economic, and cultural values, including
the value of coastal and ocean ecosystems for providing ecosystem
services.
(F) Evaluating other physical, biological, economic, social, and
cultural issues that the council determines are relevant.
(2) Whether marine spatial planning is expected to enhance coastal
and ocean resource planning, management, or regulation and leads to
greater efficiencies or cost savings for the state or regulated
community.
(3) Whether marine spatial planning is expected to enhance the
sustainability, conservation, or protection of coastal and ocean
resources.
(4) The implications of federal marine spatial planning policies
and their impact on state or local coastal and ocean management.
(5) Recommendations to the Legislature to facilitate marine
spatial planning.
(6) Other matters deemed relevant by the council.
(c) The requirement for submitting a report imposed under
subdivision (b) is inoperative four years after the report is due,
pursuant to Section 10231.5 of the Government Code, and shall be
submitted in compliance with Section 9795 of the Government Code.
(d) Subject to available funding, and consistent with their
individual mandates, each agency, board, department, or commission of
the state with ocean or coastal management interests or regulatory
authority shall cooperate with the council to achieve all of the
goals described in subdivisions (a) and (b).
SEC. 3. Section 35621 is added to the Public Resources Code, to
read:
35621. Consistent with the council's authority and responsibility
under this chapter to coordinate activities of state agencies with
ocean or coastal management interests or regulatory authority, to
improve the effectiveness of state efforts to protect ocean
resources, and to establish policies to coordinate the collection and
sharing of scientific data related to coastal and ocean resources
among agencies, the council may award grants, enter into interagency
agreements, and provide assistance to public agencies and nonprofit
organizations to support this effort, including grants to improve
geospatial data collection, interagency data sharing and
collaboration, and tools for visualizing and analyzing these data. In
allocating grants and assistance, the council shall give preference
to public agencies that are meeting the goals described in Section
35620.