BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
SB 995 (Pavley) - Well standards
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|Version: February 10, 2016 |Policy Vote: N.R. & W. 9 - 0, |
| | E.Q. 7 - 0 |
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|Urgency: No |Mandate: No |
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|Hearing Date: May 9, 2016 |Consultant: Narisha Bonakdar |
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This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill
Summary:(1) SB 995 requires the Department of Water Resources
(DWR), on or before January 1, 2019, to update the well
standards for water wells, monitoring wells, and cathodic
protection wells. The bill also requires DWR to establish an
advisory panel to identify critical gaps in existing knowledge
about the best practices, and to conduct any necessary research
and submit a report, by January 1, 2022, to the State Water
Resources Control Board (SWRCB) outlining any recommendations.
Upon the receipt of recommendations, SWRCB must revise the model
water well, cathodic protection well, and monitoring well
drilling and abandonment ordinance adopted pursuant to Section
13801.
Fiscal
Impact: According to DWR, the well standards update required in
this bill will cost approximately $1.7 million (General Fund).
However, DWR notes that there are significant information gaps
that must be filled to develop the best possible standards. As
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such, the "true" cost of an appropriate update would be
approximately $6.6 million over a five-year period to perform
the task below.
Background: On average, California's groundwater provides approximately
30-46 percent of the state's total water supply and serves as a
critical buffer against droughts. During dry years, groundwater
may be used to meet nearly all of a community's water needs.
Some communities do not have access to surface water sources and
depend completely on groundwater sources to meet their needs.
California has four categories of water wells: (1) "water wells"
(sometimes called production wells are built to extract water
for human consumption, irrigation, or other purposes; (2)
"monitoring wells" are built to collect water samples and
monitor groundwater levels; (3) "cathodic protection wells" are
built to protect metallic objects buried in the ground from
corrosion; and (4) "geothermal heat exchange wells" (GHEWs) are
built to transfer heat to and from the soil as part of a
heating, ventilation and cooling systems (HVAC).
In the past, the Department of Water Resources (DWR) has been
responsible for developing standards for the construction,
maintenance, and destruction of all types of water wells. These
standards are necessary in order to protect groundwater from
contamination. If improperly built, maintained or destroyed,
water wells can act as a conduit for contaminants. New advances
in drilling materials and techniques have emerged since the
adoption of well standards (outlined in Bulletin 74-90).
Proposed Law:
This bill:
(2)Requires the DWR, on or before January 1, 2019, to update the
well standards contained in Bulletin 74-81 and Bulletin 74-90
based on existing knowledge of water wells, monitoring wells,
and cathodic protection wells.
(3)Requires DWR to establish an advisory panel to identify
SB 995 (Pavley) Page 2 of
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critical gaps in existing knowledge about the best practices
for well construction, alteration, maintenance, and
destruction for the types of wells. If the advisory panel
identifies knowledge gaps that need further research, DWR must
conduct scientific research to address those needs.
(4)On or before January 1, 2022, the advisory panel must make
recommendations for improvements in well regulations that DWR
must submit to the SWRCB.
(5)Upon the receipt of recommendations, the SWRCB must revise
the model water well, cathodic protection well, and monitoring
well drilling and abandonment ordinance.
Related
Legislation: AB 2334 (Cortese, Chapter 581, Statutes of 1996)
required DWR to develop and submit to the SWRCB a report
containing recommended standards for GHEWs.
Staff Notes: Staff notes that this bill excludes GHEWs DWR
issued a Draft of Standards for GHEWs in 1999, with the ultimate
goal of creating one bulletin (Bulletin 74-99) to cover all four
types of wells (water wells, monitoring wells, cathodic
protection wells and geothermal heat exchange wells). However,
due to delays, Bulletin 74-99 was never formalized and the GHEW
standards remain as a Draft. Recently, DWR has been working
through a review of the Draft 1999 GHEW standards and is nearly
finished. Because the GHEWs standards are almost finalized, this
bill does not include GHEWs.
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