BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 1755 Page 1 ASSEMBLY THIRD READING AB 1755 (Dodd) As Amended May 11, 2016 Majority vote ------------------------------------------------------------------ |Committee |Votes|Ayes |Noes | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |----------------+-----+----------------------+--------------------| |Water |12-1 |Levine, Bigelow, |Gallagher | | | |Dodd, Eggman, | | | | |Cristina Garcia, | | | | |Eduardo Garcia, | | | | |Gomez, Lopez, Medina, | | | | |Olsen, Salas, | | | | |Williams | | | | | | | |----------------+-----+----------------------+--------------------| |Appropriations |19-0 |Gonzalez, Bigelow, | | | | |Bloom, Bonilla, | | | | |Bonta, Calderon, | | | | |Chang, Daly, Eggman, | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |Eduardo Garcia, | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |Roger Hernández, | | | | |Holden, Jones, | | AB 1755 Page 2 | | |Obernolte, Quirk, | | | | |Santiago, Wagner, | | | | |Weber, Wood | | | | | | | | | | | | ------------------------------------------------------------------ SUMMARY: Establishes the Open and Transparent Water Data Act. Specifically, this bill: 1)Requires the Department of Water Resources (DWR), the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) and the Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW) to coordinate and integrate existing water and ecological data to provide adequate information to implement the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), improve water resource management, and bring greater transparency to the water transfer market. 2)Requires the DWR, SWRCB, and DFW to develop water data protocols to promote open-source platforms and decision support tools. a) Requires recipients of state grant and research funds to comply with the protocols in order to be eligible for funding. b) Requires the three agencies to submit a report to the Legislature before establishing the platform. 1)Requires DWR to create a data platform to integrate local, state, and federal data by January 2018. Allows DWR to contract with an existing nonprofit or create a nonprofit to manage the platform. Specifies minimum requirements and data AB 1755 Page 3 sets to be included in the integrated data platform. 2)Creates the Data Administration Fund and makes funds available, upon appropriation to DWR, SWRCB, and DFW. Allows the three agencies to receive public or private funds, as specified to be deposited in the Fund. EXISTING LAW: 1)Provides the DWR with responsibilities over data associated with the State Water Project, groundwater monitoring, urban water management, and land use. 2)Provides the SWRCB with responsibilities over data associated with water rights, water diversions, and water quality. 3)Provides the DFW with responsibilities over data associated with fish populations and locations. FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee, this bill would have: 1)Ongoing annual implementation and administrative costs of $1.6 million including an ongoing annual professional services costs of between $600,000 and $750,000 associated with creating and maintaining the platform. AB 1755 Page 4 2)Increased DFW annual costs of $930,000 for eight permanent intermittent staff to coordinate with DWR and SWRCB, collect and coordinate data, develop standards and policies, and build and manage data systems. Increased ongoing annual costs of $840,000 for SWRCB to coordinate with DWR and DFW to develop protocols for data sharing, report to the Legislature, and organize, mine, and analyze data. Increased contracting costs of $450,000 one-time and $200,000 ongoing for professional services. This bill creates a fund and identifies potential funding sources, but does not include any actual funding. It is also possible that since this bill does not clearly delegate responsibilities among the three agencies, the cost may be less due to duplicative estimates. COMMENTS: California keeps numerous data sets on water from urban use to environmental use and everything in between. Those data sets are not coordinated and as a result do not produce a complete water information picture. The value of these numerous data sets is diminished by the fact that they are piecemeal and while they may address overlapping problems of supply, use, and efficiency, they are only valuable to the extent they touch on any specific area. Having all water data in the state compiled and publicly available in a useable fashion could drive water policy innovation and produce many of the benefits that robust useable data have had on energy policy. Analysis Prepared by: AB 1755 Page 5 Ryan Ojakian / W., P., & W. / (916) 319-2096 FN: 0003209