BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó




                   Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
                           Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair


           SB 1306 (Blakeslee) - State Water Resources Control Board.
          
          Amended: May 2, 2012            Policy Vote: EQ 5-1
          Urgency: No                     Mandate: No
          Hearing Date: May 21, 2012      Consultant: Marie Liu
          
          This bill does not meet the criteria for referral to the 
          Suspense File.
          
          
          Bill Summary: SB 1306 would expand the requirement for the State 
          Water Resources Control Board (board) to conduct an external 
          scientific peer review to include general permit application 
          requirements for stormwater discharges and a conditional waiver 
          of waste discharge requirements from irrigated lands except 
          under some conditions.

          Fiscal Impact: On-going costs of $30,000 to $60,000 from the 
          Waste Discharge Permit Fund (special fund) for additional peer 
          review. Existing annual fees are likely sufficient to cover 
          these costs.

          Background: Existing law requires the board to enter into an 
          agreement with the National Academy of Sciences, the University 
          of California, the California State University, or similar 
          scientific institution in order to conduct an external 
          scientific peer review of any rule proposed by the board.

          General permits and conditional waiver requirements are not 
          themselves rules or regulations but rather implement adopted 
          rules and regulations thus they are not currently subject to 
          peer review. However, for the most part, a peer review is 
          conducted on the scientific basis of the regulation which the 
          permit or waiver is implementing. 

          Proposed Law: This bill would expand the peer review 
          requirements to general permits, specifically stormwater and 
          agricultural discharge permits, if there are fees available for 
          such a review. This bill would specify that this requirement is 
          considered fulfilled if a scientific peer review was done on the 
          scientific basis of an adopted rule. 









          SB 1306 (Blakeslee)
          Page 1


          Staff Comments: This bill is attempting to address the small 
          portion scientific information that may be used in adopting a 
          stormwater or agricultural discharge permit that may not have 
          been peer reviewed. The board estimates that this bill would 
          necessitate three to five additional peer reviews a year at an 
          annual cost of $30,000 to $60,000. Even though this bill only 
          requires peer review of general permits if there is a fee 
          available to pay for the review, this requirement imposes a cost 
          pressure on the board. However, the board estimates that 
          existing annual fees discharge permits are sufficient to fulfill 
          the provisions of the bill. 

          Recommended Amendments: Staff recommends technical amendments to 
          clarify that the lack of sufficient fees to cover the cost of a 
          peer review only exempts the peer review requirement in the case 
          of a general permit application for stormwater discharges or a 
          conditional waiver of waste discharge requirements.