BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 758
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Date of Hearing: July 14, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON WATER, PARKS, AND WILDLIFE
Marc Levine, Chair
SB
758 (Block) - As Amended June 2, 2015
SENATE VOTE: 38-0
SUBJECT: Atmospheric Rivers Research and Mitigation Program.
SUMMARY: Establishes the Atmospheric Rivers program at the
Department of Water Resources (DWR) to research, contingent on
appropriation of special fund monies, the causes and effects of
atmospheric rivers in order to increase California's water
supply and water reliability and improve flood control.
EXISTING LAW:
1)Requires DWR to plan for the orderly and coordinated control,
protection, conservation, development, and utilization of the
resources of the State through the California Water Plan.
2)Requires, as part of the California Water Plan, that DWR study
the amount of water needed to meet the state's future needs
and recommend programs, policies, and facilities to meet those
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needs.
3)Establishes within DWR the Hydrology and Flood Operations
Office, which is responsible for directing DWR's flood and
water supply forecasting operations, hydrology and climatology
studies, emergency flood operations, and flood control project
inspections and encroachment permitting. The Flood Operations
Office also includes the California State Climatologist.
FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee:
1)One-time costs of $2.5 million to unspecified special funds
and private funds to DWR to expand its extreme precipitation
network.
2)Ongoing costs of $1.25 million to unspecified special funds
and private funds to operate and analyze the expanded extreme
precipitation network.
3)One-time costs of $500,000 to unspecified special funds and
private funds to DWR for a study to improve predictability of
the formation and strength of atmospheric rivers.
COMMENTS: This bill would, if special funds can be identified,
establish an Atmospheric Rivers (AR) program at DWR in order to
study the newly-recognized phenomenon that storm-driven water
vapor can concentrate in the atmosphere in relative narrow bands
and that understanding and predicting the behavior of these
"rivers" and their subsequent rainfall can lead to better water
supply management, including reservoir operations.
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1)Author's statement: The author states that California has the
most variable annual precipitation of any state in the U.S.,
ranging from severe drought to major floods. The author adds
that better forecasting of ARs has the potential to enable new
levels of both water supply and flood protection through the
use of "Forecast-Informed Reservoir Operations" (FIRO). The
author states that due to California's continued drought, now
is the time for this critical research to ensure California
accurately forecasts ARs and has the information needed to
impact water management decisions.
2)Background: As the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency
(NOAA) Earth System Research Laboratory explains, better
satellite imagery has enabled us to document that
storm-associated winds can draw together water vapor into
distinct long narrow bands that travel through the atmosphere
like a river. One such event, documented by researchers in
2006, concluded that an AR produced roughly 10 inches of rain
in 2 days and caused a flood on the Russian River in northern
California. NOAA advises that it "is now recognized that the
well-known 'Pineapple express' storms (a term that was used on
the U.S. West Coast for many years) correspond to a subset of
ARs, i.e. those that have a connection to the tropics near
Hawaii. In some of the most extreme ARs, the water vapor
transport is enhanced by the fact that they entrain (draw in)
water vapor directly from the tropics." NOAA concludes that
the "community of flood control, water supply and reservoir
operators of the West Coast states see ARs as a key phenomenon
to understand, monitor and predict as they work to mitigate
the risk of major flood events, while maintaining adequate
water supply" and that "better coupling of climate forecasts
with seasonal weather forecasts of ARs can improve water
management decisions."
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3)Prior legislation: AB 140 (Nunez), the Disaster Preparedness
and Flood Protection Bond Act of 2006 passed the November 2006
general election as Proposition 1E and made $4.09 billion
dollars available for flood protection improvements. The
ballot pamphlet argument in favor of Prop. 1E recognized the
"tragic lesson from Hurricane Katrina" and stated that a
"catastrophic flood would impact the entire state and disrupt
the supply of clean drinking water to major cities."
4)Supporting arguments: Supporters state that "only in recent
years have scientists come to recognize that between 30 and
50% of annual precipitation in California and more than 90% of
the major floods come from a very small number of storms each
year generated by a well-documented condition known as an
'Atmospheric River.'" Supporters advise that this bill "lays
out the foundation for developing a program to analyze and
accurately predict precipitation from these atmospheric river
events." Supporters add that "California experiences, on
average, $300 million per year in flood damages and billions
of dollars in economic and societal disruption during drought
events. Implementation of [this bill] would lead to more
accurate and quantitative prediction of precipitation form
atmospheric rivers enabling reservoir operators to safely
store additional water for use in drought periods."
5)Opposing arguments: None on file.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support
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Bay Area Flood Protection Agencies Association
Orange County Water District
San Diego County Water Authority
Santa Clara Valley Water District
Sonoma County Water Agency
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by:Tina Leahy / W., P., & W. / (916)
319-2096
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