BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 1707|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 1707
Author: Wilk (R), et al.
Amended: 8/6/14 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY COMMITTEE : 7-0, 6/18/14
AYES: Hill, Gaines, Fuller, Hancock, Jackson, Leno, Pavley
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : Senate Rule 28.8
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 73-0, 5/23/14 (Consent) - See last page for
vote
SUBJECT : Water quality: scientific peer review
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill requires the State Water Resources Control
Board (SWRCB) to post on its Internet Web site a copy of the
external scientific peer review conducted for proposed rules of
the state board or a California regional water quality control
board (regional board).
Senate Floor Amendments of 8/6/14 add Senator Knight as coauthor
and make a technical change.
ANALYSIS :
Existing law:
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1.Requires, under the federal Clean Water Act, the state to
identify those waters within its boundaries that are not
sufficiently protected by state and federal water quality
standards (identified as "impaired water bodies"), to rank
such waters based upon the severity of their pollution, and to
establish total maximum daily loads for pollutants found in
those waters.
2.Requires, under the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Act, the
SWRCB and the nine regional boards to protect and maintain the
beneficial uses of the state's waters.
3.Requires each regional board to adopt a water quality control
plan for its region that provides for the reasonable
protection of the beneficial uses of waters in that region.
Requires the implementation of water quality objectives to
include a broad description of the actions necessary to
achieve such objectives.
4.Establishes external scientific peer review process of the
scientific basis of any proposed regulatory requirements by
boards, departments and offices in the California
Environmental Protection Agency (Cal/EPA). Requires the
external scientific peer review to specifically include those
policies adopted by the SWRCB to implement regional basin
water quality plans.
This bill requires the SWRCB to post on its Internet Web site a
copy of the external scientific peer review conducted for
proposed rules of the state board or a regional board.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: No
SUPPORT : (Verified 8/7/14)
Association of California Water Agencies
California Association of Sanitation Agencies
California Farm Bureau Federation
City of Simi Valley
County Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County
Partnership for Sound Science in Environmental Policy
San Diego County Board of Supervisors
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ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author:
AB 1707 will require all external scientific peer
reviews-whose performance is already mandatory-to be posted
on the SWRCB Web site. This will improve transparency and
accountability by having these peer reviews easily
accessible to the public.
Posting all regional and state peer reviews on one central
website will allow for a comprehensive look at the peer
reviews being performed throughout the state. Existing law
requires an external scientific peer review to be prepared
for rules, regulations, and policies adopted by any board,
department, or office within the Cal/EPA. However, copies
of these reviews are often extremely difficult to find,
begging the question if they were ever even performed.
Additionally, the Board already has an existing Web site,
so this addition should be simple and the cost should be
absorbable. Finally, the performance of the peer reviews
is already mandated by law, so the only change AB 1707
makes is that the reports be posted for public access.
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 73-0, 5/23/14
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Allen, Ammiano, Bigelow, Bloom,
Bocanegra, Bonta, Bradford, Brown, Buchanan, Ian Calderon,
Campos, Chau, Chávez, Chesbro, Conway, Cooley, Dababneh,
Dahle, Daly, Dickinson, Donnelly, Eggman, Fong, Fox, Frazier,
Beth Gaines, Garcia, Gatto, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gorell,
Gray, Grove, Hagman, Hall, Holden, Jones, Jones-Sawyer,
Levine, Linder, Logue, Lowenthal, Maienschein, Mansoor,
Medina, Mullin, Muratsuchi, Nazarian, Olsen, Pan, Patterson,
Perea, John A. Pérez, Quirk, Quirk-Silva, Rendon,
Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas, Skinner, Stone, Ting, Wagner,
Waldron, Weber, Wieckowski, Wilk, Williams, Yamada, Atkins
NO VOTE RECORDED: Bonilla, Harkey, Roger Hernández, Melendez,
Nestande, V. Manuel Pérez, Vacancy
RM:e 8/7/14 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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