BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1390
Page 1
Date of Hearing: May 13, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Jimmy Gomez, Chair
AB
1390 (Alejo) - As Amended April 30, 2015
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|Policy |Water, Parks and Wildlife |Vote:|14 - 0 |
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| |Judiciary | |10 - 0 |
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Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: YesReimbursable:
No
SUMMARY:
This bill streamlines procedures used in a legal action to
obtain a basin-wide adjudication of groundwater rights.
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FISCAL EFFECT:
No additional state costs.
COMMENTS:
1)Purpose. According to the author, this bill will address the
time sinks that occur in current groundwater adjudications by
clarifying and streamlining the processes that must be
followed.
2)Background. Groundwater is either a subterranean stream
flowing through a known and definite channel or percolating
groundwater. Groundwater that is a subterranean stream is
subject to the same State Water Resources Control Board
(SWRCB) water right permitting requirements as surface water.
There is no statewide permitting requirement for percolating
groundwater, which is the majority of groundwater in the
state.
The Department of Water Resources (DWR) is required to
prioritize groundwater basins based on multiple factors
including, but not limited to, the level of population and
irrigated acreage relying on the groundwater basin as a
primary source of water and the current impacts on the
groundwater basin from overdraft, subsidence, saline intrusion
and other water quality degradation.
The groundwater basins identified in DWR's Groundwater Report,
Bulletin 118, are required to be regularly and systematically
monitored locally and the information is required to be
readily and widely available. DWR is required to perform the
groundwater elevation monitoring function if no local entity
AB 1390
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will do so, but then bars the county and other entities
eligible to monitor that basin from receiving state water
grants or loans.
3)The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA). Last year,
AB 1739 (Dickinson, Chapter 347, Statutes of 2014) and SB 1168
(Pavley, Chapter 346, Statutes of 2014), established landmark
state policy and requirements for groundwater sustainability
and management. By January 31, 2020, SGMA requires groundwater
sustainability plans (GSPs) in all groundwater basins
experiencing critical conditions of overdraft that DWR
determines to be of medium or high priority. SGMA requires
sustainable groundwater management plans for all other medium
or high priority basins by January 31, 2022, unless the basin
is legally adjudicated or the local agency establishes it is
otherwise sustainably managed.
SGMA requires local agencies to identify or form a groundwater
sustainability agency (GSA) by January 1, 2017. Counties are
presumed to be the default agency if no other agency
identifies itself. Water corporations regulated by the PUC
are able to participate in the GSA if other agencies approve.
During last year's Committee hearings on groundwater
management, California Court of Appeal Judge Ronald Robie
suggested that even with comprehensive sustainable management
plans, the state would still need to streamline its
groundwater adjudication procedures. Governor Brown made the
same point when he signed the SGMA legislation.
This bill would make several changes in the manner in which
basin-wide adjudications are initiated, noticed, and
conducted.
AB 1390
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Analysis Prepared by:Jennifer Galehouse / APPR. / (916)
319-2081