BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 846
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Date of Hearing: June 28, 2011
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON WATER, PARKS AND WILDLIFE
Jared Huffman, Chair
SB 846 (Tom Berryhill) - As Amended: May 3, 2011
SENATE VOTE : 39-0
SUBJECT : The California Water Plan: water data technology
SUMMARY : Requires the Department of Water Resources (DWR) to
conduct a water data assessment in the next update of the
California Water Plan. Specifically, this bill :
1)Requires DWR to identify and evaluate water data tools that
would centralize, and analyze available water information
throughout the state in a timely manner.
2)Mandates the evaluation include a discussion of advanced data
acquisition technologies and strategies to use those
technologies to improve water resources management.
3)Specifies DWR must collaborate with state, federal and local
agencies to assess existing information and identify gaps.
EXISTING LAW
1)Requires DWR to plan for the orderly and coordinated control,
protection, conservation, development, and use of the water
resources of the state (the California Water Plan), and update
that plan every five years.
2)Prescribes the contents of the California Water Plan, and
requires DWR to include a discussion of various strategies in
the plan, including strategies relating to the development of
new water storage facilities, water conservation, water
recycling, desalination, conjunctive use, and water transfers
that may be pursued in order to meet the future needs of the
state.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to Senate Appropriations Committee
staff, the 2009 California Water Plan discussed the potential to
create a Water Planning Information Exchange System that would
provide a centralized, comprehensive system for tracking water
supply information and DWR implemented a limited pilot project.
SB 846
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Senate Appropriations Committee staff estimate that due to the
Department's existing familiarity with various sources of data
relating to water supplies and the work already done through
previous California Water Plans, DWR will need about one-quarter
of a position over the next two years ($45,000 per year of
General Fund) to prepare the formal assessment required under
the bill.
COMMENTS :
The most recent version of the California Water Plan was
released in 2009; the next update is due in 2013.
Supporting arguments: According to the author, current
information systems are accessible to resources managers;
however, the information is held by numerous state agencies.
This creates a perception that the state's water data systems
differ. The Little Hoover Commission, in its report Managing
Change: Modernizing California's Water Governance (August
2010), advocated bringing together the state's existing data
systems with the expectation that analysis of the combined
databases would begin to build an overall picture of the state's
water resources. The author states this bill will allow for a
clear assessment of those water data systems in hopes of
creating a coordinated data system plan between state agencies
and other entities.
The sponsor of this bill, the Northern California Water
Association, also states that "water resources managers benefit
from good information management as the foundation for their
decision-making, as well as providing confidence to the general
public that water resources are being managed in a sound and
thoughtful manner. We therefore encourage more concerted
efforts to advance information management as the core foundation
for improving water resources management in California."
There is no registered opposition to this bill.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Northern California Water Association (sponsor)
SB 846
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Association of California Water Agencies
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Tina Cannon Leahy / W., P. & W. / (916)
319-2096