BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 939
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CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB
939 (Salas)
As Amended July 8, 2015
Majority vote
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|ASSEMBLY: | 80-0 | (April 20, |SENATE: |40-0 | (August 31, |
| | |2015) | | |2015) |
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Original Committee Reference: W., P., & W.
SUMMARY: Clarifies deadlines under the Sustainable Groundwater
Management Act (SGMA) for a Groundwater Sustainability Agency
(GSA) to develop a Groundwater Sustainability Plan (GSP) in
those cases where a groundwater basin is reprioritized by the
Department of Water Resources (DWR) from low or very low to high
or medium priority. Extends, from 10 days to 20 days, the
review period during which data used for setting fees under SGMA
is publicly available.
The Senate amendments allow that if a groundwater basin is
reprioritized to medium or high before January 31, 2017, and
thus becomes subject to SGMA, and it is not in a critical
condition of overdraft then a GSA shall have until January 31,
2022, to develop and implement a GSP. The Senate amendments
also add chaptering language.
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EXISTING LAW:
1)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.
2)Requires that local agencies in high- and medium-priority
groundwater basins subject to SGMA form one or more GSAs by
June 30, 2017, in order to develop and implement GSPs to
sustainably manage the groundwater basin or subbasin, as
defined.
3)Requires that GSAs in basins with chronic overdraft develop
and adopt GSPs for their groundwater basin or subbasin by
January 31, 2020.
4)Requires that GSAs in all other high- and medium-priority
groundwater basins subject to SGMA develop and adopt GSPs by
January 31, 2022.
5)Allows a local agency to submit a groundwater management plan
developed before SGMA took effect on January 1, 2015, or a
groundwater adjudication that is completed after January 1,
2015, to DWR by January 1, 2017, for a determination as to
whether it meets SGMA objectives and is therefore functionally
equivalent under SGMA to a GSP. If so, the local agency is
not required to adopt a SGMA GSP.
6)Requires that adopted GSPs utilize a 50-year planning horizon
that will achieve sustainability in a basin or subbasin within
20 years and include identified milestones at five year
intervals.
7)Defines sustainable groundwater management in a GSP as
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avoiding undesirable results in the basin or subbasin from
groundwater pumping such as significant and unreasonable:
lowering of groundwater levels: reduction of groundwater
storage; seawater intrusion; degraded water quality; land
subsidence; and, depletions of interconnected surface waters.
8)Authorizes the State Water Board to declare a basin in
probationary status and adopt an interim plan for the basin,
subbasin, or portion of a basin or subbasin under three
circumstances: there is no GSA or GSP by the relevant
deadline or DWR deems a submitted GSP inadequate and the basin
is either in chronic overdraft or groundwater pumping is
causing a significant depletion of interconnected surface
waters.
9)Allows the State Water Board, in an area that has no GSA by
June 30, 2017, to require direct reporting of groundwater
extractions and to charge fees to administer that program
FISCAL EFFECT: None. This bill is keyed non-fiscal by the
Legislative Counsel.
COMMENTS: In the Senate, the language from AB 938 (Salas) of
the current legislative session, which made a technical
non-substantive change to SGMA, was amended into this bill,
which provided 10 more days than existing law to review
technical information used by a GSA to set fees under SGMA.
Both AB 938 and this bill, in its original form, passed out of
the Assembly on consent.
The Senate amendments also provide that if a basin is
reprioritized by DWR to medium- or high-priority and thus
becomes subject to SGMA, and the basin is not in a critical
condition of overdraft, then the GSA shall have until January
31, 2022, to develop and implement a GSP. This is the remainder
of the deadline that applied to basins that were prioritized as
medium and high by DWR as of January 31, 2015, and that were not
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in a critical condition of overdraft. In contrast, basins
reprioritized to high and medium and subject to SGMA that are in
a critical condition of overdraft, or all basins reprioritized
to high and medium and subject to SGMA after January 31, 2017,
will have five years from their date of reprioritization to
develop and implement GSPs.
This bill also includes chaptering language to prevent a
conflict with SB 13 (Pavley) of the current legislative session.
Senator Pavley authored SB 1168 (Pavley), Chapter 346, Statutes
of 2014, and SB 1319 (Pavley), Chapter 348, Statutes of 2014.
SB 1168 and SB 1319, together with SB 1739 (Dickinson), Chapter
347, Statutes of 2014, are the three-bill package that formed
SGMA and its related statutes. SB 13 is Senator Pavley's
omnibus SGMA technical cleanup bill and contains identical
language regarding the SGMA deadline for reprioritized basins
that are not in a critical condition of overdraft.
Analysis Prepared by:
Tina Leahy / W., P., & W. / (916) 319-2096 FN:
0001288