BILL NUMBER: AB 1749	AMENDED
	BILL TEXT

	AMENDED IN SENATE  AUGUST 1, 2016
	AMENDED IN SENATE  JUNE 15, 2016
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  APRIL 27, 2016
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  APRIL 20, 2016
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  MARCH 28, 2016

INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Mathis
   (Coauthors: Assembly Members Harper and Olsen)
   (Coauthor: Senator Cannella)

                        FEBRUARY 2, 2016

   An act to add and repeal Section 21080.06 of the Public Resources
Code, relating to environmental  quality.  
quality, and declaring the urgency thereof, to take effect
immediately. 



	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 1749, as amended, Mathis. California Environmental Quality Act:
exemption: City of Porterville.
   Existing law, the California Environmental Quality Act, requires a
lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and
certify the completion 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. The act exempts from
its requirements projects consisting of the construction or expansion
of recycled water pipeline and directly related infrastructure
within existing rights of way, and directly related groundwater
replenishment, if the project does not affect wetlands or sensitive
habitat, and where the construction impacts are fully mitigated, and
undertaken for the purpose of mitigating drought conditions for which
a state of emergency was proclaimed by the Governor on a certain
date. The act provides that this exemption remains operative until
the state of emergency has expired or until January 1, 2017,
whichever occurs first.
   This bill, until January 1, 2021, would exempt from the act's
requirements a water treatment project determined by the City of
Porterville as the best option based on a certain feasibility study,
as provided.
   This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to
the necessity of a special statute for the City of Porterville. 
   This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as
an urgency statute. 
   Vote:  majority   2/3  . Appropriation:
no. Fiscal committee: no. State-mandated local program: no.


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

  SECTION 1.  Section 21080.06 is added to the Public Resources Code,
to read:
   21080.06.  (a) This division does not apply to a project that is
determined by the City of Porterville as the best option based on a
feasibility study conducted by the city seeking long-term solutions
to the lack of water in East Porterville. The project may be one of
the following:
   (1) The construction of a series of satellite water treatment
facilities located adjacent to existing water distribution line.
   (2) The construction of an advanced water recycling treatment
facility located either adjacent to the city's existing wastewater
treatment facility or at a preferred location, as determined by the
results of the city's feasibility study.
   (3) Upgrades to the city's existing wastewater treatment facility
to allow for tertiary treatment of the city's wastewater.
   (b) This section shall remain in effect only until January 1,
2021, and as of that date is repealed, unless a later enacted
statute, that is enacted before January 1, 2021, deletes or extends
that date.
  SEC. 2.  The Legislature finds and declares that a special law is
necessary and that a general law cannot be made applicable within the
meaning of Section 16 of Article IV of the California Constitution
because of the unprecedented drought conditions  that  have
resulted in more than 600 homes in the City of Porterville without a
functioning domestic water well.
   SEC. 3.    This act is an urgency statute necessary
for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety
within the meaning of Article IV of the Constitution and shall go
into immediate effect. The facts constituting the necessity are:
 
   To ensure the expeditious construction of recycled water treatment
facilities and directly related pipelines to mitigate drought
conditions for which the Governor has declared a state of emergency,
it is necessary for this measure to take effect immediately.