SB 20, as introduced, Pavley. Wells: reports: public availability.
Existing law requires a person who digs, bores, or drills a water well, cathodic protection well, or a monitoring well, or abandons or destroys a well, or deepens or reperforates a well, to file a report of completion with the Department of Water Resources. Existing law prohibits those reports from being made available to the public, except under certain circumstances.
This bill would instead require the department to, upon request, make the reports available to the public. The bill would require the department to provide specified disclaimers when providing the reports to the public. The bill would authorize the department to charge a fee for the provision of a report to recover the department’s costs, that does not exceed the reasonable costs to the department of providing the report. The bill would require the release of a report to comply with the Information Practices Act of 1977 and would require the department to redact from the report specified information pertaining to the well owner. The bill would require a person who requests a report to provide his or her name, address, identification number from a government-issued source, as provided, and reason for making the request.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: no.
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
Section 13752 of the Water Code is repealed.
Reports made in accordance with paragraph (1) of
3subdivision (b) of Section 13751 shall not be made available for
4inspection by the public, but shall be made available to
5governmental agencies for use in making studies, or to any person
6who obtains a written authorization from the owner of the well.
7However, a report associated with a well located within two miles
8of an area affected or potentially affected by a known unauthorized
9release of a contaminant shall be made available to any person
10performing an environmental cleanup study associated with the
11unauthorized release, if the study is conducted under the order of
12a regulatory agency. A report released to a person conducting an
13environmental cleanup study shall not be used for any purpose
14other than for the purpose of conducting the study.
Section 13752 is added to the Water Code, to read:
(a) Upon request, the department shall make available
17to the public a report made in accordance with paragraph (1) of
18subdivision (b) of Section 13751.
19(b) When providing a report to the public pursuant to subdivision
20(a), the department shall also provide a statement that includes all
21of the following:
22(1) The information provided in a report varies in accuracy,
23scale, origin, and completeness.
24(2) The information is provided without warranty of the
25suitability of the information for any particular purpose.
26(3) Use of the information in the report may
require professional
27interpretation or judgment.
28(4) Any use of the information provided in a report is at the
29user’s own risk.
30(c) (1) The department may charge a fee for the provision of a
31report to recover the department’s costs, that does not exceed the
32reasonable costs to the department of providing the report pursuant
33to this section. These costs may include the costs of promulgating
34regulations to implement this section.
35(2) The release of a report in possession of the department shall
36comply with the Information Practices Act of 1977 (Chapter 1
37(commencing with Section 1798) of Title 1.8 of Part 4 of Division
383 of the Civil Code).
P3 1(3) Prior to releasing a report pursuant to this section, the
2department shall redact from the
report the name and address of
3the well owner.
4(d) (1) A person making a request pursuant to subdivision (a)
5shall, on a form provided by the department, provide his or her
6name, address, identification number from an identification card
7issued pursuant to Section 13000 of the Vehicle Code, driver’s
8license, or passport, and reason for making the request.
9(2) The department shall maintain copies of the forms submitted
10pursuant to paragraph (1) for five years.
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