BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1242
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Date of Hearing: April 27, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES
Das Williams, Chair
AB 1242
(Gray) - As Introduced February 27, 2015
SUBJECT: Water quality: impacts on groundwater basins:
mitigation measures
SUMMARY: Requires the State Water Resources Control Board
(SWRCB), before requiring instream flows, to evaluate impacts on
groundwater, consider alternatives, and mitigate any significant
adverse impacts to a groundwater basin. Prohibits the SWRCB
from adopting a statement of overriding considerations or
adopting a water quality control plan (WQCP) if there is a
significant adverse impact to a groundwater basin.
EXISTING LAW:
1)Maintains that the waters of the state are held in trust for
the people of California and cannot be privately owned but can
only be reasonably and beneficially used.
2)Tasks the SWRCB with protecting and enforcing water rights and
water quality laws, included delegated water quality
authorities under the federal Clean Water Act. Places nine
Regional Water Quality Control Boards (Regional Boards) under
the SWRCB.
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3)Requires the Regional Boards, or SWRCB under specified
circumstances, to formulate and adopt WQCPs for all areas
within each region of the state that protect beneficial uses
of water and meet water quality objectives.
4)Defines beneficial uses of the waters of the state to include
domestic, municipal, agricultural, and industrial supply;
power generation; recreation; aesthetic enjoyment; navigation;
and preservation and enhancement of fish, wildlife, and other
aquatic resources or preserves.
5)Requires the WQCP to include objectives that will ensure the
reasonable protection of all beneficial uses, protection of
water quality, and the prevention of nuisance while
considering factors such as past, present and probably future
beneficial uses of water, environmental characteristics,
regional economics, the need to develop housing, and the need
to expand and use recycled water.
6)Requires the Department of Water Resources (DWR) to prioritize
California's groundwater basins in order to focus state
resources. The basins are prioritized as either high, medium,
low, or very low based on a combination of factors including,
but not limited to, overlying population, level of dependence
for urban and agricultural water supplies, and impacts on the
groundwater from overdraft, subsidence, saline water
intrusion, and water quality degradation.
7)Requires, by June 30, 2017, the formation of one or more
Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSAs) in all high and
medium priority basins subject to the Sustainable Groundwater
Management Act (SGMA).
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8)Requires, by January 31, 2020, that GSAs in all high and
medium priority basins subject to a chronic condition of
overdraft develop and adopt Groundwater Sustainability Plans
(GSPs) that provide for the sustainable management of the
groundwater basin, as defined.
9)Requires, by January 31, 2022, that GSAs in all other high and
medium priority basins subject to SGMA develop and adopt GSPs.
10)Allows the SWRCB to impose an interim plan for management of
a groundwater basin if no GSA is formed by the deadline, no
GSP is adopted by the appropriate deadline, or a GSP is
adopted which DWR deems insufficient and where the basin is in
a chronic condition of overdraft or in a condition where
groundwater pumping is causing a significant depletion of
interconnected surface waters.
THIS BILL:
1)Requires the SWRCB to consider GSPs when formulating state
policy for water quality control and adopting or approving a
WQCP.
2)Requires, before adopting instream flows that protect
beneficial uses of water, that the SWRCB evaluate impacts on
groundwater basins (i.e., from increased groundwater pumping
in reaction to increased instream flow requirements) and
consider alternatives and mitigation measures to avoid or
mitigate any adverse impacts on groundwater quality or supply
to the extent feasible.
3)Requires the SWRCB to adopt and implement mitigation measures
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for any significant adverse impacts to a groundwater basin
caused by increased groundwater pumping.
4)Prohibits the SWRCB from adopting a WQCP if there is a
significant adverse impact to a groundwater basin caused by
increased groundwater pumping.
FISCAL EFFECT: Unknown
COMMENTS:
1)Background. For 30 years the State Water Project and federal
Central Valley Project and others have been required to help
meet flow requirements in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta
(Delta), but the tributaries to the San Joaquin River avoided
any requirements other than experimental flows. The SWRCB is
now engaged in a long-delayed process to determine what level
of flows should be provided by the tributaries. This bill
would prohibit the SWRCB from imposing in-stream flow
requirements on tributaries to the San Joaquin River unless
the SWRCB pays for actions to mitigate when local water users
pump more groundwater in response to the loss of surface water
dedicated to in-stream flows.
The Merced, Tuolumne and Stanislaus Rivers are tributaries to
the San Joaquin River. The San Joaquin River flows northward
to join the Sacramento River in the Delta. The Delta's flow
provides part of the drinking water supply for two-thirds of
the state's population and water for a multitude of other
urban uses as well as supplying some of the state's most
productive agricultural areas both inside and outside of the
Delta. The Delta is also one of the largest ecosystems for
fish and wildlife habitat production in the United States,
including commercial runs of salmon.
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The SWRCB is responsible for protecting and managing both
water rights and water quality in California. As part of its
duties, the SWRCB developed a Delta WQCP in 1995 that included
requirements as to how much water must be left in-stream at
different times to protect and balance all beneficial uses of
water including municipal and industrial, agricultural,
recreational, and fish and wildlife. After adopting the Delta
WQCP, the SWRCB commenced a water rights proceeding to
determine the responsibilities of water rights holders to
implement the flow-dependent objectives in the Delta WQCP.
The water rights proceeding was massive and included parties
with water rights on the Sacramento River and its tributaries,
San Joaquin River and its tributaries, and in the Delta. The
hearing was divided into 8 regional phases and the SWRCB
encouraged parties to reach settlement agreements with other
water rights holders and interested parties as a way of
proposing allocations of responsibility to meet the
flow-dependent objectives.
During Phase 2 of the hearing, parties on the San Joaquin
River and its tributaries submitted the San Joaquin River
Agreement proposing an allocation of responsibility for
releasing "pulse flows" to the Delta during the April-May and
October periods, which are most critical to migrating salmon.
The parties argued there wasn't sufficient information to
determine how much water was needed instream for fish and,
therefore, they would also conduct an experiment during the
April-May period called the Vernalis Adaptive Management Plan
(VAMP). Under VAMP, parties on the tributaries to the San
Joaquin River were paid a fixed amount of money by the federal
government in return for maintaining low, medium, and high
releases during different years that would be tied to low,
medium, and high levels of export water by the State Water
Project and federal Central Valley Project pumping plants in
the Delta. The objective was to evaluate the relative
relationship between flows down the San Joaquin and export
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pumping in the Delta on fish survival. VAMP ended in 2011
after more than a decade during which the full range of flows
and export limitations were never provided to complete the
experiment and, meanwhile, populations of at-risk fish species
crashed in the Delta.
The Delta WQCP received a minor update in 2006 but identified,
as part of that update, four "emerging issues" including the
decline of pelagic or "open water" fish such as smelt and
threadfin shad; climate change impacts; Delta and Central
Valley salinity; and, San Joaquin River flows. With regard to
San Joaquin River flows, the SWRCB referenced data that showed
various fish species within the Delta and San Joaquin River
basin that had not shown significant signs of recovery since
adoption of the VAMP experiment and recommended additional
study. Thereafter, in 2009, the SWRCB commenced a triennial
update of the WQCP that is ongoing and will include a
determination of what responsibility parties on the individual
tributaries to the San Joaquin River have for contributing to
Delta flows.
Parties on the tributaries to the San Joaquin River have
advised that if they are required to leave more flows
in-stream they will simply pump more groundwater. As a
result, they maintain, it is the SWRCB's potential action that
will be responsible for additional degradation of their
groundwater basins. In this bill they seek to have the SWRCB
analyze the potentially significant impact of a local increase
in groundwater pumping on the basin and then require the SWRCB
and not local entities mitigate for any increased degradation.
The most likely mitigation that the SWRCB would require in
accordance with this bill is adoption of a GSP pursuant to
SGMA. However, all basins on the eastern side of the San
Joaquin River are already ranked as high priority and thus are
already required to adopt a SGMA plan or submit an alternative
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plan that meets SGMA's requirements by the appropriate
deadlines.
2)Author's statement:
For the past year, the SWRCB has considered a proposal to
develop new unimpaired flow requirements on the Tuolumne,
Merced, and Stanislaus rivers. The proposed plan would require
an additional 350,000 acre feet of water annually to be diverted
from the rivers to flow out to the San Francisco Bay Delta.
If adopted, the Board's proposal will devastate the groundwater
basins in the Valley by reducing surface water recharge
opportunities and eliminating surface water deliveries to
domestic and agricultural water users. The Board recognizes
these impacts would have significant "but unavoidable" adverse
impacts to the region.
In 2014, the Legislature passed the Sustainability Groundwater
Management Act which promised to empower local communities with
the tools to achieve sustainable management goals. The adoption
of the Board's proposal without mitigating measures would deny
Central Valley basins one of the most important tools in that
tool box: the ability to recharge the depleted groundwater table
with surface flows.
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AB 1242 would ensure that the Board consider and mitigate the
adverse impact of any new water quality control plan. It would
also require the Board to implement mitigation measures to
reduce identified significant adverse impacts, and would
prohibit the adoption of plans with adverse impacts that cannot
be sufficiently mitigated.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support
Agricultural Council of California
Building and Construction Trades Council of Stanislaus, Merced,
Tuolumne and Mariposa
Counties
California Women for Agriculture
California Farm Bureau Federation
City of Atwater City Council
City of Ceres, Office of the Mayor
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City of Dos Palos, Office of the Mayor
City of Gustine City Council
City of Livingston, Office of the Mayor
City of Los Banos, Office of the Mayor
City of Merced, Office of the Mayor
City of Modesto, Office of the Mayor
City of Patterson, Office of the Mayor
City of Turlock, Office of the Mayor
Coalition of California Utility Employees
Electrical Workers of Stanislaus, Merced, Tuolumne and Mariposa
Counties
Glenn-Colusa Irrigation District
Greater Merced Chamber of Commerce
Harris Farms
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IBEW Local 1245
Latino Community Roundtable
League of California Cities Central Valley Division
Merced County Board of Supervisors
Merced County Farm Bureau Board of Directors
Merced Irrigation District
Modesto Chamber of Commerce
Modesto Irrigation District
Northern California Water Association
Stanislaus Business Alliance
Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors
Stanislaus County Chapter of California Women for Agriculture
Stanislaus County Farm Bureau
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Stevinson Water District
Turlock Chamber of Commerce
Turlock Irrigation District
Western Growers Association
Yosemite Community College District
Yosemite Farm Credit Association
One individual
Opposition
California League of Conservation Voters
Center for Biological Diversity
Coastal Environmental Rights Foundation
Clean Water Action
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Community Water Center
Friends of the River
Klamath Riverkeeper
Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability
Natural Resources Defense Council
Sierra Club California
The Nature Conservancy
Union of Concerned Scientists
Analysis Prepared by:Lawrence Lingbloom / NAT. RES. / (916)
319-2092
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