AB 1585, as introduced, Alejo. Monterey County Water Resources Agency: water conveyance.
Existing law establishes the Monterey County Water Resources Agency as a flood control and water agency within the County of Monterey. Existing law authorizes the agency to award a design-build contract for the combined design and construction of a project to connect Lake San Antonio, located in the County of Monterey, and Lake Nacimiento, located in the County of San Luis Obispo, with an underground tunnel or pipeline for the purpose of maximizing water storage, supply, and groundwater recharge.
This bill would require no less than $25,000,000 from an unspecified source to be allocated, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to the agency for the purpose of constructing a water conveyance tunnel between Lake Nacimiento and Lake San Antonio, as specified.
This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the Monterey County Water Resources Agency.
This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Vote: 2⁄3. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: no.
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
The Legislature finds and declares as follows:
2(a) Over the past four years, California has grappled with one
3of the worst ongoing droughts in the state’s history.
4(b) The Monterey County Water Resources Agency manages
5Lake Nacimiento and Lake San Antonio, two reservoirs that
6provide water supply, flood control, and recreation in the Salinas
7Valley.
8(c) Lake Nacimiento’s watershed fills the Lake Nacimiento
9reservoir nearly three times faster than Lake San Antonio’s
10watershed fills that reservoir. The Monterey County Water
11Resources Agency often releases water from Lake Nacimiento
12because it reaches its
capacity, even when Lake San Antonio still
13has excess storage available.
14(d) The Monterey County Water Resources Agency is planning
15to build a tunnel or pipeline between Lake Nacimiento and Lake
16San Antonio to redirect water from Lake Nacimiento that would
17otherwise be released out to sea and use it to fill excess capacity
18in Lake San Antonio.
19(e) The interlake tunnel project will mitigate the impact of the
20drought and improve the economic viability of the Salinas Valley,
21the environmental sustainability of the region, and agricultural
22production.
23(f) The Lake Nacimiento and Lake San Antonio region scores
2440 percent to 50 percent as a disadvantaged community under
25CalEnviroScreen.
26(g) The state is riddled with water supply and water quality
27challenges
posed by the relentless drought and is now facing
28weather forecasts of one of the most powerful El Niño storms ever
29recorded.
30(h) A major flood event in California has the potential to
31devastate communities, regional agriculture-based economies, and
32seriously impact the state’s economy.
33(i) In Monterey County alone, agriculture generates eight billion
34one hundred twenty million dollars ($8,120,000,000) into the local
35economy and supports more than 76,000 jobs. An additional 20,352
P3 1jobs are created as a direct result of the prosperous industry.
2Flooding of our agricultural lands could put all of that into
3jeopardy.
4(j) Given the Salinas Valley’s economic contribution to the
5state’s agricultural economy and the stress the El Niño storms will
6put on the region, the Lake Nacimiento and Lake San Antonio
7areas are
considered distressed communities and therefore are a
8priority for state funding.
Upon appropriation by the Legislature, no less than
10twenty-five million dollars ($25,000,000) from ____ shall be
11allocated to the Monterey County Water Resources Agency for
12the purpose of constructing a water conveyance tunnel, in
13accordance with the design-build process authorized by Section
1411.1 of the Monterey County Water Resources Agency Act
15(Chapter 1159 of the Statutes of 1990, as amended by Chapter 865
16of the Statutes of 2014), between Lake Nacimiento and Lake San
17Antonio within zone 2c in order to maximize water storage, water
18supply, and groundwater recharge at the lakes, within the Salinas
19River groundwater basin, and the Salinas Valley.
The Legislature finds and declares that a special law
21is necessary and that a general law cannot be made applicable
22within the meaning of Section 16 of Article IV of the California
23Constitution because of the emergency circumstances of the
24ongoing drought and the benefits this project between Lake
25Nacimiento and Lake San Antonio managed by the Monterey
26County Water Resources Agency will provide to the region.
This act is an urgency statute necessary for the
28immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety within
29the meaning of Article IV of the Constitution and shall go into
30immediate effect. The facts constituting the necessity are:
31In order to responsibly store water during California’s prolonged
32drought and to protect the Salinas Valley from flooding during a
33historic El Niño weather pattern, it is necessary that this act take
34effect immediately.
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