BILL NUMBER: AB 903 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MARCH 31, 2011
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Bill Berryhill
FEBRUARY 17, 2011
An act to amend Section 12200 of add
Section 12206 to the Water Code, relating to the Sacramento-San
Joaquin Delta.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 903, as amended, Bill Berryhill. Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
Under existing law, legislative findings and declarations state,
among other things, that the water problems of the Sacramento-San
Joaquin Delta are unique within the state and that a general law
cannot be made applicable to the Delta.
This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to
those legislative findings and declarations
legislative findings relative to the importance of dredging in the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, and require the State Water Resources
Control Board, the Department of Water Resources, and the Department
of Fish and Game to take specified actions with regard to dredging
the Delta .
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no
yes . State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 12206 is added to the
Water Code , to read:
12206. (a) The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:
(1) Dredging is critical to all irrigated agricultural lands.
(2) Dredging created the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta region as we
know it today.
(3) Without continued dredging, the Delta as a community and an
economically productive region will eventually be destroyed.
(4) Dredging is critical to the Delta for flood control, levee
improvements, improving native marine habitat and reducing invasive
species, removing mercury, and improving southern water exports.
(5) The Army Corps of Engineers have been dredging the deep water
ship channel in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta for many years for
purposes of improving the economy and advancing economic security.
(b) In light of the above findings of the Legislature, the state
entities enumerated below shall do the following:
(1) The State Water Resources Control Board shall provide priority
review for any dredging permits pending in the Sacramento-San
Joaquin Delta as defined in Section 12200.
(2) The Department of Water Resources shall expedite the
implementation of the South Delta Improvements Program, including,
particularly, the dredging of the Middle River.
(3) The Department of Fish and Game shall expedite the completion
of any fish studies and biological opinions that may be required to
complete the South Delta Improvements Program.
SECTION 1. Section 12200 of the Water Code is
amended to read:
12200. (a) The Legislature hereby finds all of the following:
(1) The water problems of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta are
unique within the state.
(2) The Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers join at the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to discharge their fresh water flows
into Suisun, San Pablo, and San Francisco Bays, and from there into
the Pacific Ocean. The merging of fresh water with saline bay waters
and drainage waters, and the withdrawal of fresh water for beneficial
uses, creates an acute problem of salinity intrusion into the vast
network of channels and sloughs of the Delta.
(3) The State Water Resources Development System has as one of its
objectives the transfer of waters from water-surplus areas in the
Sacramento Valley and the north coastal area to water-deficient areas
to the south and west of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta via the
Delta. Water surplus to the needs of the areas in which it originates
is gathered in the Delta and thereby provides a common source of
fresh water supply for water-deficient areas.
(b) It is, therefore, hereby declared that a general law cannot be
made applicable to the Delta and that the enactment of this law is
necessary for the protection, conservation, development, control, and
use of the waters in the Delta for the public good.