BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular
SB 20 (Pavley) - Wells: reports: public availability
-----------------------------------------------------------------
| |
| |
| |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|--------------------------------+--------------------------------|
| | |
|Version: December 1, 2014 |Policy Vote: N.R. & W. 7 - 2 |
| | |
|--------------------------------+--------------------------------|
| | |
|Urgency: No |Mandate: No |
| | |
|--------------------------------+--------------------------------|
| | |
|Hearing Date: April 27, 2015 |Consultant: Marie Liu |
| | |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill
Summary: SB 20 would require the Department of Water Resources (DWR) to
make well log reports for water wells available to the public.
Fiscal
Impact: One-time costs of $625,000 from the General Fund to DWR
to establish an electronic database.
Background: Under existing law, a person who drills, destroys, deepens, or
alters a water well is required to file a report with DWR. These
reports are referred to as "well logs" and include information
on the location of the well, the underlying soils, the depth of
water, and other aspects of the well. DWR is prohibited from
making well logs available to the public, unless the well owner
provides permission. California is the only western state to
restrict access to well longs.
DWR has more than 700,000 well logs on record and receives
10,000 to 20,000 new well logs per year. These reports exist
SB 20 (Pavley) Page 1 of
?
either as hard copies or in a very rudimentary database.
Proposed Law:
This bill would require DWR to make well logs available to the
public upon request. The well log must be accompanied with a
statement that explains the limitations and the appropriate uses
of the information. DWR would be authorized to charge a fee to
recover all its costs in providing the report.
Related
Legislation: SB 1146 (Pavley) 2012 was identical to this bill
but failed to pass the Senate Floor.
SB 263 (Pavley) 2011 was similar to this bill but it was
ultimately vetoed by the Governor
Staff
Comments: In past iterations to make well log information
public, implementation costs varied between zero to $300,000 in
upfront costs and $100,000 ongoing, depending on what
information was being kept confidential and whether DWR would
charge a fee. Specifically, in the last version of SB 1146,
which is identical to this bill, DWR estimated that it would
cost approximately $300,000 to develop regulations to establish
a fee to access well logs, and $100,000 in ongoing costs to
response to requests.
However, because well log information is going to be critical to
the implementation of the Sustainable Groundwater Management
Act, DWR is now looking to establish an internal electronic
database of well logs. This approach would involve more upfront
startup costs, specifically $625,000 General Fund, to scan the
hundreds of thousands of existing well logs, key in critical
information, and redact personal information. However, by
creating the database, ongoing costs will be essentially
eliminated as searching the database to fulfill requests for
public information would be simple. Staff notes that despite the
larger upfront costs, this approach is more efficient in the
long term.
SB 20 (Pavley) Page 2 of
?
-- END --