BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 936
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 14, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON WATER, PARKS, AND WILDLIFE
Marc Levine, Chair
AB 936
(Salas) - As Introduced February 26, 2015
SUBJECT: Groundwater monitoring: eligibility for public funds
SUMMARY: Allows groundwater projects and programs that are
currently ineligible for state funding due to noncompliance with
groundwater basin monitoring requirements to become eligible if
the grant or loan project for which funding is requested
includes actions to cure the noncompliance.
EXISTING LAW:
1)Requires all groundwater basins to be monitored locally and
systematically for their groundwater elevations.
2)Requires reporting of groundwater basin elevation information
to the Department of Water Resources (DWR) California
Statewide Groundwater Elevation Monitoring Program (CASGEM).
3)Requires DWR to assume groundwater elevation monitoring
functions if no local agency is able or willing to and
prohibits DWR from charging for the cost of monitoring.
AB 936
Page 2
4)Prohibits basins where DWR has assumed monitoring functions
from being eligible for state water grants and loans unless an
entity can prove that its entire service area qualifies as a
disadvantaged community.
5)Requires DWR to evaluate groundwater basins and designate them
as high, medium, low or very low, according to various factors
including, but not limited to, level of dependence upon the
basin by municipal and agricultural users.
6)Provides the Governor broad powers during a state of
emergency.
FISCAL EFFECT: Unknown
COMMENTS: This bill requires DWR to determine that an entity is
eligible for a water grant or loan as long as the entity
proposes a project for State funding that would remedy its own
CASGEM noncompliance.
On January 17, 2014, as California entered its fourth
consecutive year of extremely dry conditions, Governor Brown
proclaimed a drought State of Emergency. That was followed on
April 25, 2014 by a continued State of Emergency and on April 3,
2015 by a seven-page Executive Order, B-29-15, with 31
directives to address the drought crisis.
Directive 15 states that local agencies in all high and medium
priority groundwater basins are to immediately implement all
CASGEM requirements or be referred to the State Water Resources
Control Board for possible enforcement action.
AB 936
Page 3
There are currently 127 high and medium priority basins in
California. Those groundwater basins account for 96% of all
groundwater use. Of the high and medium priority basins, DWR
has determined that 9 are fully unmonitored and 16 are partially
unmonitored. In other words, 102 are currently CASGEM compliant
and 25 are noncompliant.
In the 25 non-compliant basins, local agencies can still be
eligible for a water grant or loan if their whole area is a
disadvantaged community. That is because it is assumed that the
bar to compliance is that the entity's customers are financially
incapable of supporting a monitoring program.
SB 6 X7 and the CASGEM compromise
SB 6 (Steinberg), Chapter 1, Seventh Extraordinary Session
2009-10, created the CASGEM program and mandated a systematic
local approach to measuring groundwater basin levels. SB 6
incorporated the language from an earlier bill, SB 122
(Pavley/2009), which would have allowed DWR to charge fees if
the state was required to take over CASGEM monitoring duties for
the locals. SB 6 was negotiated during the Extraordinary
Session and the final compromise was that DWR would be expressly
prohibited from charging fees but, in return, if the state was
required to perform monitoring duties in a basin, other than an
area that is disadvantaged, then the locals would be ineligible
for state funding for groundwater projects and programs.
Supporting arguments. The author states this bill is needed
because the policy of denying CASGEM noncompliant basins state
funding is having the negative consequence of preventing local
AB 936
Page 4
agencies from receiving much needed water grants and loans in
order to set up groundwater monitoring programs. Other
supporters state that many small and rural counties have limited
staff and resources to implement new and ongoing programs
proscribed by the State and that this bill would ensure
necessary funding is available to bring more entities into
compliance with the CASGEM program.
Suggested Committee Amendments
Committee staff suggests narrowing this bill to allow DWR
discretion to fund a project for a currently ineligible basin if
there are special circumstances justifying the entity's
noncompliance, such as a significant portion of the entity's
service area qualifies as a disadvantaged community.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support
Association of California Water Agencies
Rural County Representatives of California
AB 936
Page 5
Valley Ag Water Coalition
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by:Tina Cannon Leahy / W., P., & W. / (916)
319-2096