BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES AND WATER
Senator Fran Pavley, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular
Bill No: SB 814 Hearing Date: August 10,
2016
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|Author: |Hill | | |
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|Version: |June 21, 2016 |
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|Urgency: |No |Fiscal: |Yes |
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|Consultant:|Dennis O'Connor |
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Subject: Drought: excessive water use: urban retail water
suppliers
BACKGROUND AND EXISTING LAW
1.The California Constitution declares that:
The water resources of the state are to be put to
beneficial use to the fullest extent of which they are
capable.
The waste or unreasonable use or unreasonable method of
use of water is to be prevented.
The conservation of such waters is to be exercised with
a view to the reasonable and beneficial use of the waters
in the interest of the people and for the public welfare.
2.Existing law authorizes any public entity that supplies water
at retail or wholesale for the benefit of persons within the
service area or area of jurisdiction of the public entity to,
by ordinance or resolution, adopt and enforce a water
conservation program to reduce the quantity of water used for
the purpose of conserving the water supplies of the public
entity.
Existing law further provides that a violation of a
requirement of a water conservation program is a misdemeanor
punishable by imprisonment in a county jail for not more than
30 days, or by a fine not exceeding $1,000, or both.
3.Under the Urban Water Management Planning Act, urban water
agencies are to update their urban water management plans by
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December 31 in years ending in 0 or 5. Among other things,
the update is to include an urban water shortage contingency
analysis, which describes the actions the urban water agency
would take in response to water supply shortages.
4.Governor Brown has made a series of emergency declarations and
executive orders regarding the ongoing drought. In
particular, in April 2015, the Governor issued an executive
order that, among other things, directed the State Water
Resources Control Board to impose restrictions to achieve a 25
percent reduction in potable urban water usage through
February 28, 2016. The State Board has adopted regulations
regarding achieving that reduction, including the
establishment of penalties for failure to comply.
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PROPOSED LAW
1)Prohibit, during specific types of drought emergencies,
excessive water use by metered residential customers.
Applicable drought emergencies are:
a) Periods for which the Governor has issued a proclamation
of a state of emergency based on statewide drought
conditions for which an urban retail water supplier has
moved to a stage of action under the water supplier's
contingency plan that requires mandatory water use
reductions.
b) Periods for which an urban retail water supplier has
moved to a stage of action in response to a local water
supply shortage condition under the water supplier's
contingency plan that requires mandatory water use
reductions.
c) Periods for which the Governor has issued a proclamation
of a state of emergency based on local drought conditions.
2)Require each urban retail water supplier, except those not
fully metered, to establish a method to identify and
discourage excessive water use, through one of the following
options:
a) Establishing a rate structure that includes block tiers,
water budgets, or rate surcharges over and above base rates
for excessive water use by a residential water customer.
b) Establishing an excessive water use ordinance, rule, or
tariff condition, or amending an existing ordinance, rule,
or tariff condition, that includes a definition of or a
procedure to identify and address excessive water use by
metered residential customers. Under this option, urban
retail water suppliers:
i) Must measure excessive water use in terms of either
gallons or hundreds of cubic feet of water used during
the urban retail water supplier's regular billing cycle.
ii) May consider, in establishing the definition of
excessive use, factors that include, but are not limited
to, all of the following:
Average daily use.
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Full-time occupancy of households.
Amount of landscaped land on a property.
Rate of evapotranspiration.
Seasonal weather changes.
i) Must issue an infraction or administrative civil
penalty for violations of an excessive use ordinance etc.
The penalty for a violation may be based on conditions
identified by the urban retail water supplier and may
include, but is not limited to, a fine of up to five
hundred dollars ($500) for each hundred cubic feet of
water, or 748 gallons, used above the excessive water use
threshold established by the urban retail water supplier
in a billing cycle.
ii) Must, consistent with due process, establish a
process and conditions for the appeal of a fine imposed
pursuant to an excessive use ordinance etc. whereby the
customer may contest the imposition of the fine for
excessive water use.
1)Provide that an urban retail water supplier that is not fully
metered:
a) Is exempt from having to establish a method to identify
and discourage excessive water use (as described above in
2). An urban retail water supplier would be required to
comply with those provisions when all of the water
supplier's residential water service connections are being
billed based on metered water usage.
b) Is required to prohibit water use practices by an
ordinance, resolution, rule, or tariff condition that
imposes penalties for prohibited uses of water supplied by
the water supplier. The urban retail water supplier may
include a process to issue written warnings prior to
imposing penalties as well as increased penalty amounts for
successive violations.
2)Provide that the provisions of this bill are in addition to,
and do not supersede or limit, any other measures or remedies
implemented by an urban retail water supplier.
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT
According to the author, "SB 814 ensures that no one can buy
their way out of the drought during a statewide drought
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emergency. At the peak of the drought most Californians reduced
their water use and faced stiff penalties for waste, but some
Californians used as much water as they wanted without any
repercussions. Statewide, hundreds of households used more than
1 million gallons of water in a year, far above the average
level of use. The biggest user consumed almost 12 million
gallons in one year. With a couple of exceptions, water agencies
do not have policies to target and reduce this excessive water
use. SB 814 fixes this gap by simply requiring every water
agency to have a policy in place to curb excessive water use."
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION
According to the Association of California Water Agencies
(ACWA), "with the relaxation in the severity of California's
current drought emergency, and the adjustment of emergency
conservation regulations by the State Water Resources Control
Board (State Water Board), ACWA [has] reevaluated the need for
this bill and has concluded that SB 814 would institute an
unnecessary mandate and must therefore oppose the bill."
"[T]he State Water Board approved modifications to the existing
emergency water conservation regulation on May 18. The
modifications replace the state-imposed mandatory conservation
standards with a locally driven, supply-based assessment
process. The new regulation recognizes that urban water
suppliers have the expertise to self-certify their water supply
availability and determine appropriate levels of conservation.
ACWA maintains that local control is the most effective path to
mitigating the effects of drought and cannot support a top-down
statewide approach as proposed in this bill."
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COMMENTS
Assembly amendments. Amendments taken in the Assembly included
both policy and technical/clarifying changes. Key amendments
include:
Expanding the types of drought emergencies triggering this
bill to include:
A local water supply shortage condition that requires
mandatory water use reductions under the water supplier's
contingency plan.
Periods for which the Governor has issued a proclamation
of a state of emergency based on local drought conditions.
Adding provisions governing required actions of urban retail
water suppliers which are not fully metered.
Adding administrative civil penalties as an allowable
consequence of violating an excessive use ordinance.
Adding a requirement that, as part of the appeal process, the
urban retail water supplier must provide documentation
demonstrating the excessive water usage.
Clarifying that the provisions of this bill are in addition
to, and do not supersede or limit, any other measures or
remedies implemented by an urban retail water supplier.
Fining major water users seems to work. For example, a article
in the LA Times last spring documented how despite educational
campaigns, usage restrictions, and written notices for people
suspected of wasting water, Beverly Hills missed its mandatory
25 percent reduction in water use, triggering state fines.
However, once the city began penalizing wasteful water users,
city water usage fell by 26 percent.
Not the last severe drought. While it is true that for at least
some areas of the state the drought has eased somewhat, it is
also true that there will be severe droughts in the future.
Possibly even next year. This bill proposes putting in place
prohibitions on excess urban water use before the next severe
drought hits.
SUPPORT
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California League of Conservation Voters
Clean Water Action
East Bay Municipal Water District
Sierra Club California
OPPOSITION
Association of California Water Agencies
City of Roseville
Desert Water Agency
El Dorado Irrigation District
Mesa Water District
Municipal Water District of Orange County
Placer County Water Agency
Rincon del Diablo Municipal Water District
San Diego County Water Authority
San Juan Water District
Santa Margarita Water Agency
Valley Center Municipal Water District