BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 134 Page 1 Date of Hearing: May 11, 2011 ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS Felipe Fuentes, Chair AB 134 (Dickinson) - As Amended: April 15, 2011 Policy Committee: Water, Parks and Wildlife Vote: 9-1 Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: No Reimbursable: No SUMMARY This bill explicitly allows the Sacramento Regional County Sanitation District to apply to the State Water Resources Control Board for a permit to appropriate an amount of water for diversion from the Sacramento River or the Sacramento San-Joaquin Delta equal to the amount of treated wastewater discharged by the district. FISCAL EFFECT Minor costs, no more than tens of thousands of dollars, to the board to review the district's permit application, should it file one. (Special fund.) COMMENTS 1)Rationale . The Sacramento Regional County Sanitation District contends this bill provides the district the opportunity to apply for a permit, which, if approved, may allow the district to realize an important revenue stream. The district notes that it sorely needs such revenue, given the district and its ratepayers are facing $2.1 billion in mandatory treatment upgrades ordered by the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board in response to the district's release of ammonia and pathogens. The district describes much of the water it releases into the Sacramento River as having been pumped from groundwater and, therefore, foreign to the river. The district further notes this bill is consistent with and modeled after existing law, which affirms the district's right to its wastewater and which, according to a statute enacted in 1961, allows the City of Stockton to appropriate water from AB 134 Page 2 the San Joaquin River. 2)Support . This bill is supported by numerous private and public organizations in the Sacramento region concerned about the effect of the costs the region will face to upgrade its wastewater treatment systems. 3)Opposition . The bill is opposed by a long list of industry, agricultural and water districts that benefit from water exports from the delta. Analysis Prepared by : Jay Dickenson / APPR. / (916) 319-2081