BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 814|
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UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Bill No: SB 814
Author: Hill (D)
Amended: 6/21/16
Vote: 21
SENATE NATURAL RES. & WATER COMMITTEE: 7-2, 3/29/16
AYES: Pavley, Allen, Hertzberg, Hueso, Jackson, Monning, Wolk
NOES: Stone, Vidak
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: Senate Rule 28.8
SENATE FLOOR: 23-11, 5/9/16
AYES: Allen, Block, De León, Hall, Hancock, Hernandez,
Hertzberg, Hill, Hueso, Jackson, Lara, Leno, Leyva, Liu,
McGuire, Mendoza, Mitchell, Monning, Pan, Pavley, Roth,
Wieckowski, Wolk
NOES: Anderson, Berryhill, Cannella, Fuller, Huff, Moorlach,
Morrell, Nguyen, Nielsen, Stone, Vidak
NO VOTE RECORDED: Bates, Beall, Gaines, Galgiani, Glazer,
Runner
SENATE NATURAL RES. & WATER COMMITTEE: 6-1, 8/10/16 (Pursuant
to Senate Rule 29.10)
AYES: Pavley, Allen, Hertzberg, Jackson, Monning, Wolk
NOES: Vidak
NO VOTE RECORDED: Hueso Stone
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 45-29, 8/4/16 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT: Drought: excessive water use: urban retail water
suppliers
SOURCE: Author
SB 814
Page 2
DIGEST: This bill prohibits excessive water use by a
residential customer during specified emergency drought
conditions. Additionally, if specified conditions are met,
requires urban retail water suppliers to establish a method to
identify and discourage excessive water use.
Assembly Amendments included both policy and
technical/clarifying changes. Key amendments include:
1)Expanding the types of drought emergencies triggering this
bill to include:
a) A local water supply shortage condition that requires
mandatory water use reductions under the water supplier's
contingency plan.
b) Periods for which the Governor has issued a proclamation
of a state of emergency based on local drought conditions.
2)Adding provisions governing required actions of urban retail
water suppliers which are not fully metered.
3)Adding administrative civil penalties as an allowable
consequence of violating an excessive use ordinance.
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4)Adding a requirement that, as part of the appeal process, the
urban retail water supplier must provide documentation
demonstrating the excessive water usage.
5)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.
ANALYSIS:
Existing Law:
1)Declares, in the California Constitution, that:
a) The water resources of the state are to be put to
beneficial use to the fullest extent of which they are
capable.
b) The waste or unreasonable use or unreasonable method of
use of water is to be prevented.
c) 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)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
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to reduce the quantity of water used for the purpose of
conserving the water supplies of the public entity.
3)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.
4)Requires, under the Urban Water Management Planning Act, urban
water agencies to update their urban water management plans by
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.
5)Directs, under emergency declarations and executive orders
issued by Governor Brown, specific actions state agencies are
to make to address the current 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.
This bill:
1)Prohibits, 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
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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)Requires 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:
(1) Average daily use.
(2) Full-time occupancy of households.
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(3) Amount of landscaped land on a property.
(4) Rate of evapotranspiration.
(5) Seasonal weather changes.
iii) 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.
iv) 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.
3)Provides 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.
4)Provides that the provisions of this bill are in addition to,
and do not supersede or limit, any other measures or remedies
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implemented by an urban retail water supplier.
Comments
Fining major water users seems to work. For example, an 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.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:YesLocal: Yes
According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee: Negligible,
if any state costs.
SUPPORT: (Verified8/9/16)
California League of Conservation Voters
Clean Water Action
East Bay Municipal Water District
Sierra Club California
OPPOSITION: (Verified8/9/16)
Association of California Water Agencies
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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
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 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.
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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."
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 45-29, 8/4/16
AYES: Alejo, Arambula, Atkins, Bloom, Bonilla, Bonta, Brown,
Burke, Calderon, Campos, Chau, Chiu, Chu, Dababneh, Dodd,
Cristina Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez,
Gonzalez, Gordon, Holden, Irwin, Jones-Sawyer, Levine, Lopez,
Low, McCarty, Medina, Mullin, Nazarian, O'Donnell, Quirk,
Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas, Santiago, Mark Stone,
Thurmond, Ting, Weber, Williams, Wood, Rendon
NOES: Achadjian, Travis Allen, Baker, Bigelow, Brough, Chang,
Dahle, Daly, Beth Gaines, Gallagher, Gray, Grove, Hadley,
Harper, Jones, Kim, Lackey, Linder, Maienschein, Mathis,
Mayes, Melendez, Obernolte, Olsen, Patterson, Steinorth,
Wagner, Waldron, Wilk
NO VOTE RECORDED: Chávez, Cooley, Cooper, Eggman, Frazier,
Roger Hernández
Prepared by:Dennis O'Connor / N.R. & W. / (916) 651-4116
8/10/16 15:35:02
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