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 1146 HEARING DATE: April 10, 2012
AUTHOR: Pavley URGENCY: No
VERSION: April 9, 2012 CONSULTANT: Dennis O'Connor
DUAL REFERRAL: Environmental QualityFISCAL: Yes
SUBJECT: Wells: Reports: Public Availability
BACKGROUND AND EXISTING LAW
1.In 1949, to help prevent groundwater pollution caused by
improperly constructed water wells, the California legislature
first required well drillers to file a well completion report
with the State of California for each well drilled.
Well completion reports, aka drillers' logs or well logs, are
a record of the drilling and construction of the well. Well
logs provide the record necessary to demonstrate that the well
was properly constructed, modified, or decommissioned, and
further provides the necessary construction detail should the
well need to be modified at some later date. They include,
among other things, the location of the well, the depth of the
well, the type of soils encountered at each elevation as
drilling, depth to water, etc.
In 1965, the legislature declared that "the people of the
state have a primary interest in the location, construction,
maintenance, abandonment, and destruction of water wells,
which activities directly affect the quality and purity of
underground waters." In doing so, the legislature expanded
the well drilling laws to (1) authorize DWR to establish
regulations governing the proper construction of water wells,
(2) require all well completion reports be filed with DWR, and
(3) restricted access to those reports to government agencies.
The legislative record does not give any insight as to why the
logs were made confidential. The conjecture is that they were
made confidential at the request of the well drillers. Many
well drillers consider the information in the well logs to be
proprietary. For example, let's say Driller A has just
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drilled a well, and someone wants to have another well to be
drilled a short distance away. Driller A, by virtue of
knowing the soil conditions in the immediate vicinity, would
have a competitive advantage over any other driller.
2.The Information Practices Act of 1977, among other things,
prohibits any state agency from disclosing any personal
information "in a manner that would link the information
disclosed to the individual to whom it pertains," with certain
exceptions. The Act defines "personal information" as "any
information that is maintained by an agency that identifies or
describes an individual, including, but not limited to, his or
her name, social security number, physical description, home
address, home telephone number, education, financial matters,
and medical or employment history."
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PROPOSED LAW
This bill would:
Make well logs available to the public.
Require persons requesting a report to do so on a form
identifying the name and address of the requestor, and the
reason for the request.
Require the release of the well logs to comply with the privacy
and other provisions of the Information Practices Act.
Require a disclosure statement regarding the appropriate use of
the data.
Authorize DWR to charge a fee for providing the well logs.
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT
According to the author, "Every time a water well is drilled,
the driller is required by law to provide DWR a well completion
report with the State of California for each well drilled."
"These reports contain critical information for groundwater
managers, consulting hydrologists, academics, and others
interested in the geologic and hydrologic characteristics of
groundwater basins. Unfortunately, those who would benefit from
this information cannot have access to it.
Farmers can't know how deep they need to drill their wells.
Academics cannot develop sophisticated maps and models without
the sponsorship of the government.
Local community activists cannot gain the information they
need to better protect drinking water quality of disadvantaged
communities.
The list goes on."
"The Governor directed DWR to work with me 'to ensure
responsible public access to well logs.' SB 1146 is the result
of those negotiations with DWR, along with the Department of
Health Services (DHS) and CalEMA, which is California's official
homeland security agency. This bill addresses and resolves the
various security concerns raised by DHS and CalEMA, and I
understand that DWR is now in the process of getting a SUPPORT
position approved through the Governor's Office."
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION
According to the City of Lakewood, "We oppose the bill due to
the following reasons:
"Well reports contain detailed information not otherwise
available to the public. Providing the information could
result in devastating consequences to the health and safety of
people in this state.
SB 1146 opens up the floodgates to everyone and anyone who
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requests the reports, regardless of qualifications and
reason."
"The bill contradicts existing state and federal polices and
would increase safety risks to public water supplies. For the
above reasons, the City of Lakewood opposes SB 1146."
COMMENTS
Prior Legislation: Last year, Senator Pavley carried SB 263 to
make well completion reports available to the public. To
address the opposition's concerns, the bill was amended on the
Assembly floor to restrict access to persons with specific
qualifications and added penalty provisions for disclosing
information. The Governor vetoed that bill because of those
provisions, and directed DWR to work with the author "to ensure
responsible public access to well logs."
What Is Responsible Public Access? The Governor's direction to
ensure responsible public access to well logs raises the
question, how do we determine what responsible public access is?
Three ways may be to look to what other states do, look to see
how California deals with similar issues, and look to what local
water agencies do.
What Do Other States Do? No other western state restricts
access to well logs as in California. Indeed, 10 of 11
western states provide internet access to well logs. This
bill does not propose to place the information on the internet
- it merely propose to make the information available upon
request, such as in Wyoming.
How Does California Deal With Similar Issues? Every time an
oil or gas well is drilled, the driller must provide a copy of
the well log to the Department of Conservation. Those logs
are deemed public records for purposes of the California
Public Records Act. (There are exceptions, logs for
exploratory wells, for example, are considered confidential
for a specific period of time.) The Department of
Conservation provides public access to those logs through a
GIS map on the internet.
What Do Other Water Agencies Do? A review of urban water
management plans and capital improvement plans shows that over
160 water agencies have published the location of their wells,
usually on maps, but sometimes the actual addresses. This
represents locations of over 2,200 water system wells, of
which the author's staff has located 96 percent through online
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maps.
Adjudicated groundwater basins have court appointed
watermasters, a number of whom have published maps showing the
location of production wells within their jurisdiction. For
example, the Main San Gabriel Basin Watermaster published a
fairly detailed 2008 map showing the location of 99 active
production wells.
The drilling of a new water system well is usually a project
subject to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).
CEQA, among other things, requires the disclosure of the
location of the project. A review of CEQA Clearinghouse's
online database shows the location of over 70 wells.
What Would The Fee Cover? It is not clear how large the fee for
a copy of a well log would be. However, the fee would likely
include a share of the following:
Costs to create and maintain a copy of the log that redacts
personal information pursuant to the Information Practices Act
of 1977.
Costs of duplicating the redacted well log.
Cost to develop and disseminate the disclosure statement
regarding the appropriate use of the data.
Costs to develop and maintain the form identifying the name
and address of the requestor, and the reason for the request.
Any additional administrative costs associated with
implementing this bill.
SUGGESTED AMENDMENTS: None
SUPPORT
California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation
Clean Water Action
Community Water Center
East Bay Municipal Utility District
Groundwater Resources Association
Planning and Conservation League
Sierra Club California
Sonoma County Water Agency
The Nature Conservancy
OPPOSITION
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California Police Chiefs Association
City of Lakewood
City of Torrance
San Gabriel Valley Water Association
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