BILL ANALYSIS Ó ----------------------------------------------------------------- | | | SENATE COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES AND WATER | | Senator Fran Pavley, Chair | | 2011-2012 Regular Session | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- BILL NO: SB 133 HEARING DATE: April 12, 2011 AUTHOR: Wolk URGENCY: No VERSION: April 5, 2011 CONSULTANT: Bill Craven DUAL REFERRAL: No FISCAL: Yes SUBJECT: Natural resources: Cache Creek Resource Management Plan. BACKGROUND AND EXISTING LAW The Cache Creek Resource Management Plan (Plan) was initially approved by the Legislature in 1999 and the sunset provision was twice extended, most recently in 2007 by AB 646 (Wolk). The current sunset date is 2012. Sec 2715.5 of the Public Resources Code states that the Plan shall be considered a functional equivalent of a reclamation plan that would otherwise be required by the California Surface Mining and Reclamation Act (SMARA). That section also requires, as conditions of the statute, that Yolo County approve a site specific plan and that other erosion, channel stabilization, habitat, and flood control measures be included in the site specific plan that is approved by that county's board of supervisors. Other requirements of reclamation plans, such as an annual report to the Department of Conservation, remain in effect. Additionally, all surface mining operations are required to obtain financial assurances as required by SMARA. Yolo County succeeded in creating the Plan as a way to shift commercial mining activities to off-channel mining while developing an integrated approach to maintain sufficient capacity in the creek to convey flood waters which is supported, to a certain extent, by the private firms that conduct off-stream mining. The Plan anticipates that sand and gravel would be removed from the channel of the creek only to maintain and restore adequate capacity. 1 The State Mining and Geology Board approved the local ordinance and deemed it consistent with state policy in 2009. In addition to the Plan, Yolo County has obtained a series of general permits from federal and state regulatory agencies for purposes of meeting regulatory requirements from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Central Valley Regional Water Board, and the Department of Fish and Game. These general permits authorize activities pursuant to the Plan and avoid the need for project specific permitting. PROPOSED LAW This bill would extend the sunset provision until December 2017 and deletes the provision requiring the approval of the local ordinance by the State Mining and Geology Board. ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT Yolo County states that the bill is necessary for environmental restoration and channel stabilization projects in Cache Creek and to continue to implement the Plan's essential compromise which was to move commercial mining off-stream. The local Sierra Club group and Tuleyome, a local conservation group, support the bill but encourage the author to expand the bill to deal with mercury accumulation from upstream sources. ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION None received COMMENTS The sponsor, Yolo County, to its credit, very early on informed the Committee that through a mistake, its federal general permits for the Plan had not been renewed. It is in the process of correcting that error. Commercial mining off-stream is not affected by this development, and any in-stream activities that the county wants to pursue will be done through project-specific permits. In discussions with the county and the author, an agreement was reached to extend the sunset for five more years and for the county to provide the Legislature with the annual programmatic report. Early on in this period, all the parties expect that the county will obtain the reauthorization of its federal general 2 permits and that fact will be reflected in the annual report. While it is too early to predict what a future Legislature might do, it seems reasonable to mention that the sunset might be extended in 2017 until 2026, which is year that the off-channel permits also expire. SUPPORT County of Yolo (Sponsor) Yolo County Resource Conservation District Teichert Aggregates CalCIMA Yolo County Flood Control and Water Conservation District Cache Creek Conservancy City of Woodland Granite Construction Company Water Resources Association of Yolo County Tuleyome Sierra Club, Yolano Group OPPOSITION None Received 3