BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó





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          |                                                                 |
          |         SENATE COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES AND WATER         |
          |                   Senator Fran Pavley, Chair                    |
          |                    2011-2012 Regular Session                    |
          |                                                                 |
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          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. 

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          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 
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          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
























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