BILL NUMBER: AB 956	AMENDED
	BILL TEXT

	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  APRIL 13, 2015
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  APRIL 6, 2015

INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Mathis
    (   Coauthor:   Assembly Member  
Travis Allen   )

                        FEBRUARY 26, 2015

   An act to add Section 21080.41 to the Public Resources Code,
relating to environmental quality.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 956, as amended, Mathis. California Environmental Quality Act:
exemption.
   The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead
agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify
the completion  of,  of  an environmental
impact report on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve
that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a
negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that
effect. The act also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated
negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect
on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or
mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the
project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the
environment.
   This bill would exempt from the requirements of CEQA activities
undertaken by a local agency in response to a drought that are
necessary  to acquire water supplies, extend service, or
  for water recycling projects that  provide water
for drinking and sanitation to specific individuals and communities.

   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee:  no
  yes  . State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  Section 21080.41 is added to the Public Resources Code,
to read:
   21080.41.  This division does not apply to any activities
undertaken by a local agency in response to a drought that are
necessary  to acquire water supplies, extend service, or
  for water recycling projects that  provide water
for drinking and sanitation to individuals and communities whose
groundwater wells have run dry or where the only available
groundwater exceeds  a  primary or secondary
drinking water standards, as defined in Section 116275 of the Health
and Safety Code.