BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1095
Page 1
CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB
1095 (Eduardo Garcia)
As Amended July 7, 2015
Majority vote
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|ASSEMBLY: | 78-0 | (June 3, |SENATE: |39-0 | (August 31, |
| | |2015) | | |2015) |
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Original Committee Reference: W., P., & W.
SUMMARY: Requires the California Natural Resources Agency
(CNRA), on or before March 31, 2016, to submit to the
Legislature a list of shovel-ready Salton Sea restoration
projects, including information regarding project costs and
project completion timelines.
The Senate amendments define "shovel ready" as projects that are
in the final planning, environmental review, or permitting
phase.
EXISTING LAW:
1)Authorizes $7.545 billion in general obligation funding for
water-related projects and programs in Proposition 1 (2014),
the Safe Drinking Water, Quality, and Infrastructure Act of
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2014 (Proposition 1) including $475 million to fulfill State
obligations related to: the Klamath Agreements; Tahoe
Compact; San Joaquin River Restoration Agreement; Salton Sea
Restoration; and, Central Valley Project Improvement Act
refuge water supplies.
2)Establishes the Salton Sea Restoration Act (SSRA) with the
legislative intent of providing that the State of California
undertakes restoration of the Salton Sea ecosystem and the
permanent protection of the wildlife dependent on that
ecosystem based on a "preferred alternative" that is developed
as a result of a restoration study and alternative selection
process.
3)Requires the SSRA preferred alternative to provide the maximum
feasible attainment of specified environmental objectives,
including restoration of long-term stable aquatic and
shoreline habitat to historic levels and diversity of fish and
wildlife dependent on the Salton Sea, elimination of air
quality impacts from restoration projects, and protection of
water quality.
4)Requires the CNRA Secretary, in consultation with the
Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW), the Department of Water
Resources (DWR), the Salton Sea Authority (SSA), air quality
districts, and the Salton Sea Advisory Committee, undertake a
restoration study to determine a preferred alternative for
restoration of the Salton Sea, prepare a Programmatic
Environmental Impact Report analyzing the alternatives, and
submit a preferred alternative to the Legislature on or before
December 31, 2006.
5)Establishes the Salton Sea Restoration Fund, which is
administered by the DFW Director, upon Legislative
appropriation, for: environmental and engineering studies
related to restoration of the Salton Sea; implementation of
the preferred Salton Sea restoration alternative and
conservation measures necessary to protect fish and wildlife
dependent on the Sea; and, administrative, technical, and
public outreach costs related to development and selection of
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the preferred Salton Sea restoration alternative.
FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee, pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8, negligible state costs.
COMMENTS: The Senate amendments add language requested by the
author to clarify what constitutes a shovel ready project. The
author states that absent such clarity, the shovel ready project
list could potentially be cut short or minimal. The author adds
that clarifying that shovel ready means those projects in the
final design, permitting, or engineering phase will ensure that
more projects that will help the Salton Sea are identified and
therefore funded.
The need to identify projects that will help the Salton Sea is
urgent. The modern Salton Sea was accidentally created in 1905
when work on a canal led to a breach that allowed the entire
flow of the Colorado River to empty into the Salton Sink for two
years, filling the historic dry lake bed and creating one of the
largest lakes in California. The Salton Sea's water level is
currently maintained primarily by agricultural runoff which,
under the Quantification Settlement Agreement (QSA), will start
being reduced in 2017.
The QSA is related to California's dependence on imported
Colorado River water. The Colorado River Compact is a 1922
agreement among the seven Colorado River basin states as to how
they will apportion an annual average of 15 million acre-feet
(MAF) in Colorado River flows. As the rest of the southwest
grew, the six other basin states began to pressure the Secretary
of the Interior to give California a deadline to come up with a
plan to ratchet back to its original allocation of 4.4 MAF
rather than continuing to use about 5.2 MAF. In response, the
federal government threatened to discontinue declaring surpluses
and cut off the extra water supply until California came up with
a "4.4 Plan." Thereafter, the major Colorado River water rights
holders, Imperial Irrigation District (IID), the Metropolitan
Water District of Southern California, the San Diego County
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Water Authority, and the Coachella Valley Water District,
entered into the QSA to help meet the 4.4 Plan. The QSA is a
complex set of agreements to quantify water rights, engage in a
series of water transfers, and restore the Salton Sea.
The reason for including Salton Sea restoration is that,
beginning in 2017, QSA-related ag-to-urban water transfers will
reduce the agricultural runoff from IID that was providing
significant inflow to the Sea. As a result, the Sea will shrink
considerably in size, increasing in salinity and potentially
exposing more than 100 miles of dusty lakebed to the desert
winds. This will chronically and adversely affect both the
environment and human health. For example, the Salton Sea
supports over 400 species of birds, and is an internationally
significant stopover site for hundreds of thousands of birds
migrating along the Pacific Flyway. Fine particles could also
blow over the Coachella and Imperial Valleys with the latter
already suffering from the highest childhood asthma
hospitalization rate in the state and both areas containing high
numbers of seniors who are especially susceptible to poor air
quality.
Analysis Prepared by:
Tina Leahy / W., P., & W. / (916) 319-2096 FN:
0001388