BILL ANALYSIS Ó ----------------------------------------------------------------- |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 426| |Office of Senate Floor Analyses | | |1020 N Street, Suite 524 | | |(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | | |327-4478 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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, CONTINUED AB 426 Page 2 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 CONTINUED AB 426 Page 3 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, CONTINUED AB 426 Page 4 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 **** END **** CONTINUED