BILL NUMBER: AB 903 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 12, 2011
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MARCH 31, 2011
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Bill Berryhill
FEBRUARY 17, 2011
An act to 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. Delta: dredging.
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.
Existing law establishes various policies of the state relative to
the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
This bill would make legislative findings relative to the
importance of dredging in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, and
would 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
to provide priority review for dredging permits in the Delta.
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. 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 United
States Army Corps of Engineers has 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.