BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 798|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
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UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Bill No: SB 798
Author: Committee on Natural Resources and Water
Amended: 7/8/15
Vote: 21
SENATE NATURAL RES. & WATER COMMITTEE: 8-0, 4/28/15
AYES: Pavley, Stone, Allen, Hertzberg, Hueso, Jackson,
Monning, Wolk
NO VOTE RECORDED: Vidak
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: Senate Rule 28.8
SENATE FLOOR: 38-0, 5/22/15 (Consent)
AYES: Allen, Anderson, Bates, Beall, Berryhill, Block,
Cannella, De León, Gaines, Galgiani, Hall, Hancock, Hernandez,
Hertzberg, Hill, Hueso, Huff, Jackson, Lara, Leno, Leyva, Liu,
McGuire, Mendoza, Mitchell, Monning, Moorlach, Morrell,
Nguyen, Nielsen, Pan, Pavley, Roth, Runner, Stone, Vidak,
Wieckowski, Wolk
NO VOTE RECORDED: Fuller
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 78-0, 8/27/15 (Consent) - See last page for
vote
SUBJECT: Natural resources
SOURCE: Author
DIGEST: This bill makes clarifying and technical changes to
the Fish and Game Code and Water Code. It combines the public
hearing and State Lands Commission hearings for proposed
government retrocessions. This bill updates membership
requirements for the Watershed Fire Council of Southern
California and meeting requirements for the California Coastal
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Page 2
Commission to meet at least 11 times annually rather than once a
month. This bill also clarifies the rights and responsibilities
of the State Water Resources Control Board and the timelines for
complaints and permits for the diversion of water.
Assembly Amendments update changes to the Coastal Act,
authorizing mayors to be appointed to the California Coastal
Commission and requiring the Commission meet no fewer than 11
times annually, with each meeting occurring no more than 45 days
after the previous meeting.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
1) Authorizes the Fish and Game Commission to establish by
regulation an automatic process to conform its sport fishing
regulations to federal regulations.
2) Establishes different procedures for issuance of licenses
and permits from the California Department of Fish and
Wildlife (DFW) for fishing and hunting, both through a paper
process, and through the DFW's Automated License Data System
(ALDS), which is designed to replace the DFW's paper license
inventory system.
3) Establishes conditions by which the Legislature accepts
jurisdiction over lands within the state currently under the
jurisdiction of the United States, including that the State
Lands Commission (SLC) holds a hearing to determine if the
acceptance, known as "retrocession" is in the best interest
of the state, pursuant to regulatory procedures adopted by
the SLC.
4) Requires the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection to
appoint a Range Management Advisory Committee and requires
two public members to be appointed to the Board, including
one member nominated by the Watershed Fire Council of
Southern California.
5) Establishes the California Coastal Commission (CCC),
prescribes the membership of the CCC, and requires the CCC to
meet at least once per month.
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Page 3
6) Authorizes the State Water Resources Control Board (Water
Board) to issue a complaint to a person who violates certain
use and diversion of water requirements and impose
administrative civil liability on the violator. Requires
that the complaint be served and inform the party served that
they may request a hearing within 20 days from the date of
service.
7) Authorizes the Water Board to issue temporary permits for
diversion and use of water that automatically expire after
180 days.
8) Requires the Water Board to adopt general conditions for
small irrigation use for facilities used for frost protection
by June 30, 2012.
9) Establishes the Water Rights Fund and the Water Resources
Control Board Revolving Fund.
This bill makes numerous technical changes to update the Fish
and Game, Public Resources and Water Codes. Specifically, this
bill:
1) Clarifies that actions taken by the Fish and Game Commission
to conform sport fishing regulations to federal regulations
are not subject to the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).
2) Repeals several obsolete provisions of the Fish and Game
Code relating to sales of licenses and permits that are no
longer applicable now that all licenses, permits,
reservations, tags and other entitlements are issued through
the DFW's ALDS, which replaced DFW's paper license inventory
system. Makes other conforming changes.
3) Deletes several obsolete references to the former Bay Delta
Sport Fishing Enhancement Stamp which sunset.
4) Clarifies the process and conditions for state acceptance of
jurisdiction over land within the state currently under the
jurisdiction of the United States by the SLC.
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Page 4
5) Changes the number of public members on the Range Management
Advisory Committee to the State Board of Forestry and Fire
Protection from two to three, and provides that one member
shall be nominated by the California Association of Resource
Conservation Districts instead of the Watershed Fire Council
of Southern California.
6) Amends the Coastal Act to authorize mayors be appointed to
the CCC and require that the CCC meet at least 11 times
annually instead of once per month.
7) Repeals a provision in the Coastal Act providing that
nothing in law shall preclude or prevent the appointment of a
public member to the CCC who is not a locally elected
official.
8) Amends the Water Code to delete several obsolete and
outdated provisions and to update references.
9) Clarifies that complaints served by the Water Board imposing
administrative civil liability must inform the party served
of the requirements and deadlines for requesting a hearing in
writing, and that the Board may adopt an order setting
administrative civil liability without a hearing if a written
request for a hearing is not delivered to, received by mail,
or served on the board within 20 days.
10)Makes clarifying changes regarding temporary water diversion
and use permits that automatically expire 180 days after the
authorization takes effect, including that the 180 day period
does not include time required for monitoring, reporting, or
mitigation before or after the authorization.
11)Repeals sections of the Water Code relating to the Water
Resources Control Board Revolving Fund.
12)Makes other technical and grammatical changes.
Comments
Auto-conformance of sport-fishing regulations. The state must
ensure that California sport fishing regulations conform to
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federal regulations. This must be done in a timely manner to
ensure consistency between rules applicable in state and federal
ocean waters, to maintain uniform management and enforcement,
and to avoid confusion among recreational anglers. The
requirement to follow the full rulemaking process as outlined in
the APA often results in a lag in the effective date of
conforming actions, which, in turn, results in inconsistency
between state and federal regulations and confusion among
recreational anglers.
This bill provides an express exemption from the APA for
conforming state sport fishing regulations to federal
regulations (similar to that provided to commercial-fishing
regulations). Eliminating the duplicative federal and state
rulemakings will result in additional fiscal savings to DFW and
the Fish and Game Commission, and will result in timelier
conformance between state and federal regulations.
Automated Data Licensing System. In 2010, DFW transitioned from
a manual paper inventory license issuance system to an automated
system, known as the Automated Data Licensing System. The
Legislature enacted code sections for ALDS-issued licenses
identical to those for manual paper licenses; however, the code
sections related to manual paper licenses were never deleted.
This bill deletes those obsolete code sections.
Why only one retrocession hearing? Historically SLC has
interpreted Government Code Section 113 as requiring a public
hearing in addition to the hearing at which SLC formally accepts
the retrocession. This bill amends Section 113 to remove the
requirement of a public hearing separate and apart from the one
at which the acceptance is made. Such an amendment will conform
the processes for cessions and retrocessions.
The purpose of the public hearing is to give notice of the
proposed retrocession and to solicit comments from local
government and its citizens. Since the enactment of Section
113, SLC has accepted a retrocession from the United States 65
times, the last in June 2014. During this time, the members of
the public have rarely attended the public hearing; however,
citizens often attend SLC meetings to discuss retrocessions. In
these instances, SLC will hear all public comments, and defer
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decisions until concerns are addressed.
Changes to water diversion regulations. Section 1055 of the
Water Code is revised to explicitly state that the SWRCB must
provide a party served with a complaint 20 days, from the date
of being served, to request a hearing in regards to the
complaint. Sections 1430 and 1440 (respectively) of the Water
Code are amended to clarify that the time required to implement
changes in monitoring or reporting requirements do not count
against the 180 days that the temporary permit is in effect.
The revised language is consistent with Water Code Section 1728.
Water Resources Control Board Revolving Fund. This bill repeals
the Water Code Section 2862, Section 2863, Section 2866, as the
Fund it refers to no longer exists.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:YesLocal: No
According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee, there are no
additional state costs.
SUPPORT: (Verified8/27/15)
Sierra Club California
State Lands Commission
OPPOSITION: (Verified8/27/15)
None received
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT: The State Lands Commission states that
the amendment to Government Code Section 113 "preserves a
party's right to object" to a proposed retrocession "while
simultaneously streamlining the process."
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ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 78-0, 8/27/15
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Baker, Bigelow, Bloom,
Bonilla, Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke, Calderon, Campos, Chang,
Chau, Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper, Dababneh, Dahle,
Daly, Dodd, Eggman, Beth Gaines, Gallagher, Cristina Garcia,
Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray,
Grove, Hadley, Harper, Roger Hernández, Holden, Irwin, Jones,
Jones-Sawyer, Kim, Lackey, Levine, Linder, Lopez, Low,
Maienschein, Mathis, Mayes, McCarty, Medina, Melendez, Mullin,
Nazarian, Obernolte, O'Donnell, Olsen, Patterson, Perea,
Quirk, Rendon, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas, Santiago,
Steinorth, Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber,
Wilk, Wood, Atkins
NO VOTE RECORDED: Frazier, Williams
Prepared by:Angee Doerr / N.R. & W. / (916) 651-4116
8/28/15 14:00:55
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