BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 426|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 426
Author: Salas (D)
Amended: 4/23/13 in Assembly
Vote: 21
SENATE NATURAL RESOURCES AND WATER COMMITTEE : 9-0, 6/25/13
AYES: Pavley, Cannella, Evans, Fuller, Hueso, Jackson, Lara,
Monning, Wolk
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : Senate Rule 28.8
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 51-23, 5/23/13 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Water transfers: water right decrees
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill deletes the requirement that a court decree
be issued after January 1, 1981, thereby allowing the State
Water Resources Control Board (Board) to approve a water
transfer involving any water right determined through a
statutory adjudication.
ANALYSIS :
Existing law:
1. Authorizes any water rights claimant may petition the Board
to commence a "statutory adjudication" of a stream system in
which a right is claimed. Upon conclusion of the proceeding,
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the Board adopts an order of determination that is then filed
with the court, which issues the decree. The decree declares
the water rights of each party, including the priority and
amount, point of diversion, and season, purpose and place of
use.
2. Authorizes the Board to approve a water transfer involving a
water right determined through a statutory adjudication, if
the court decree was issued after January 1, 1981.
This bill:
1. Allows a holder of a pre-1981 water right decreed through a
statutory adjudication to voluntarily use an alternative
method for seeking a water rights transfer.
2. Eliminates the requirement to issue a court decree for water
rights transfers after January 1, 1981, and instead, allows
the water rights holder to seek a change through the Board.
This option is currently available to holders of post-1981
statutorily adjudicated water rights or other parties holding
permits or licenses. Applies to temporary, long-term, or
permanent water rights transfers.
Background
The original statute first allowing the holder of rights under a
statutorily adjudicated decree to transfer them by voluntarily
going to the Board, instead of a court, was enacted on January
1, 1981. The statute, by its own terms, only applied to decrees
that were issued after its enactment.
A severe drought and significant water shortages between 1976
and 1977 highlighted the strengths and weaknesses of the state's
water rights laws, then-Governor Jerry Brown created the
Governor's Commission to Review California Water Rights Law
(Commission) and mandated it review existing law and propose
modifications. The "Final Report" issued by that Commission
contained detailed legal analyses and recommendations for both
administrative actions and statutory changes to the Water Code
(WAT).
One major area of the "Final Report" focused on improving
efficiencies in water use, including encouraging voluntary
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short-term and long-term transfers. Those sections were
enacted, together with several other provisions, in AB 1147
(Filante, Chapter 933, Statutes of 1980). AB 1147 addressed
water rights; clarified the ownership of waste water and waste
water facilities; and allowed for the transfer of water rights,
including rights held subject to a statutory adjudication
decree. In the March 19, 1979, digest to AB 1147, the Office of
Legislative Counsel stated that AB 1147 would permit the
transfer of any water right, including riparian rights, which
has been quantified after the effective date of the bill
pursuant to a statutory adjudication.
Eight years later, AB 982 (Costa, Chapter 1145, Statutes of
1988) amended, repealed, and reordered several of the WAT
Sections created under AB 1147. In the reorder, AB 982 moved
the provisions related to transferring rights subject to a
statutory adjudication decree from WAT Section 1745 to WAT
Section 1740 but left the statutory language virtually
unchanged, including the old effective date. That date was
carried forward by deleting "subsequent to the enactment of this
legislation" and inserting "after January 1, 1981."
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: No
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author's office, this
bill provides an optional, voluntary process for water right
holders to gain permission from the State of California to
transfer their water rights to other parties but does not
mandate that such water rights holders go to the Board for
permission. The author's office states that by authorizing an
additional, voluntary process through an administrative agency,
that this bill encourages water transfers because it allows
those with old water rights to participate in the transfer
market through a simpler process than petitioning a court to
reopen an entire adjudication. The author's office adds that
the effect of the limitation to post-1981 decrees has severely
limited the applicability of this water transfer section to all
but a few adjudication decrees that were entered before that
date.
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 51-23, 5/23/13
AYES: Alejo, Ammiano, Atkins, Bloom, Blumenfield, Bocanegra,
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Bonilla, Bonta, Bradford, Brown, Ian Calderon, Campos, Chau,
Chesbro, Cooley, Daly, Dickinson, Eggman, Fong, Fox, Frazier,
Garcia, Gatto, Gomez, Gordon, Gray, Hall, Roger Hernández,
Jones-Sawyer, Levine, Lowenthal, Medina, Mitchell, Mullin,
Muratsuchi, Nazarian, Pan, Perea, V. Manuel Pérez, Quirk,
Quirk-Silva, Rendon, Salas, Skinner, Stone, Ting, Weber,
Wieckowski, Williams, Yamada, John A. Pérez
NOES: Achadjian, Allen, Bigelow, Buchanan, Chávez, Conway,
Dahle, Donnelly, Beth Gaines, Gorell, Hagman, Harkey, Linder,
Logue, Maienschein, Mansoor, Melendez, Morrell, Nestande,
Olsen, Patterson, Wagner, Wilk
NO VOTE RECORDED: Grove, Holden, Jones, Waldron, Vacancy,
Vacancy
RM:k 8/13/13 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: NONE RECEIVED
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