BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
SB 664 (Hertzberg) - Water: urban water management planning.
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|Version: April 30, 2015 |Policy Vote: N.R. & W. 8 - 0 |
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|Urgency: No |Mandate: No (see staff comment) |
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|Hearing Date: May 11, 2015 |Consultant: Marie Liu |
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This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill
Summary: SB 664 would require an urban water supplier to include a
seismic risk assessment and mitigation plan for their water
system in their urban water management plan.
Fiscal
Impact:
Minor and absorbable costs to the Department of Water
Resources (DWR) to update their guidelines to reflect the new
requirements under this bill.
Cost pressures in the millions of dollars to various bond
funds (General Fund) for seismic mitigation projects.
Background: Urban water suppliers are required under the Urban Water
Management Act to produce an Urban Water Management Plan (UWMP)
every five years (in years ending in five and zero). Projects in
an UWMP can be included in an Integrated Regional Water
Management Plan (IRWMPs).
SB 664 (Hertzberg) Page 1 of
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The creation and Implementation of IRWMPs are eligible for
funding under various water bonds, including most recently,
Proposition 1.
Proposed Law:
This bill would require UWMPs to include a seismic risk
assessment and mitigation plan to assess the vulnerability of
its facilities and to mitigate those vulnerabilities. This bill
would give the urban water suppliers until July 1, 2017 to
submit the assessment for the 2015 plan.
Staff
Comments: As this bill will indirectly allow for the inclusion of seismic
upgrade projects in IWRMPs, this bill imposes additional cost
pressures on existing limited bond funds to fund such projects.
Staff notes that UWMP are required documents of urban water
suppliers. Thus, this bill creates a state mandate by requiring
additional information to be included in the UWMP. Water
suppliers are likely to incur significant costs to comply with
the bill's requirements, especially given the relatively short
frame to complete the first risk assessment. However, because
water suppliers have fee authority to recover its costs from its
customers, this mandate is not reimbursable.
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