BILL ANALYSIS
AB 39
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 14, 2009
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON WATER, PARKS AND WILDLIFE
Jared William Huffman, Chair
AB 39 (Huffman) - As Amended: April 2, 2009
SUBJECT : Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta: Plan
SUMMARY : Requires development of a new plan for the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (Delta). Specifically, this bill :
1)Requires the California Water and Ecosystem Council to develop
a plan to implement the Delta Vision Strategic Plan issued by
the Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force.
2)Requires submission of the plan to the Legislature before
January 1, 2011.
3)Provides for definition of unspecified terms.
EXISTING LAW requires the Secretary of the Natural Resources
Agency to develop a strategic plan for the Delta, and authorizes
various state agencies, including the California Bay-Delta
Authority, to implement projects under the CALFED Bay-Delta
Program.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : For several years, the Delta has suffered a crisis -
ecosystem, water supply, levee stability, water quality, policy,
program, and litigation. In June 2004, a privately owned levee
failed and the State spent nearly $100 million to fix it and
save an island whose property value was far less. In August
2005, the Department of Fish & Game (DFG) reported a trend
showing severe decline in the Delta fishery. In 2006, the
Legislature reorganized Delta programs and funding under the
Resources Agency Secretary. In 2007, a federal judge, acting
under the federal Endangered Species Act, declared illegal
certain federal biological opinions about near-extinct fish and
restricted water exports from the Delta, to the San Francisco
Bay Area, the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California. The
Governor shortly thereafter called the Legislature into an
extraordinary session on water. In 2008 and 2009, the Delta
watershed has suffered a serious drought, with federal and state
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water projects withholding water leading to violations of water
quality standards.
Through this enduring Delta crisis, the legislature and the
Governor initiated, in 2006, a process to develop a new
long-term vision for the Delta. AB 1574 (Kuehl/2006) required a
cabinet committee to present recommendations for a Delta vision.
The Governor created a Delta Vision Blue-Ribbon Task Force to
advise the Cabinet Committee. The Task Force produced an
October 2008 Strategic Plan, which the Cabinet Committee largely
adopted and submitted the recommendations to the Legislature on
January 3, 2009. The primary exception to the Cabinet
Committee's adoption was the Task Force's recommendation for a
new comprehensive, independent "California Delta Water and
Ecosystem Council" (CDEW). The Strategic Plan provides a broad
framework for action in the Delta, with numerous recommendations
requiring action by the Legislature.
This bill would require CDEW, which has not been created, to
develop a plan to implement the Task Force's Strategic Plan.
Committee members received a copy of the Strategic Plan at the
Committee's February hearing on the Delta. While the bill does
not include details of the proposed plan, its reliance on the
Strategic Plan means that its outline can be derived from the
Strategic Plan's seven goals:
1) Legally acknowledge the co-equal goals of restoring the
Delta ecosystem and creating a more reliable water supply
for California.
2) Recognize and enhance the unique cultural, recreational
and agricultural values of the California Delta as an
evolving place, an action critical to achieving the
co-equal goals.
3) Restore the Delta ecosystem as the heart of a healthy
estuary.
4) Promote statewide conservation efficiency, and
sustainable use.
5) Build facilities to improve the existing water
conveyance system and expand statewide storage, and operate
both to achieve the co-equal goals.
6) Reduce risks to people, property, and state interests in
the Delta by effective emergency preparedness, appropriate
land uses, and strategic levee investments.
7) Establish a new governance structure with the authority,
responsibility, accountability, science support, and secure
funding to achieve these goals.
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The Strategic Plan also includes numerous strategies to achieve
those goals and specified actions to implement the strategies.
In some cases, the actions identified issues that still needed
further analysis and a final decision, which may include making
tradeoffs among the often competing Delta interests.
The author asserts that this bill is a work-in-progress that
will allow him to continue discussing direction for the Delta
with other members and pursue some sense of common purpose. He
has limited his amendments to this simple declarative sentence.
While this bill remains simple at this point, a few policies or
principles nevertheless emerge from the bill upon careful
reading. First, the foundation for moving forward in the Delta
is the Delta Vision Task Force's Strategic Plan. The bill, like
the Cabinet Committee, adopts the Strategic Plan as the way
forward. The Strategic Plan is so comprehensive that it may
include enough actions for every Delta stakeholder to support
and others to oppose. The depth and breadth of this plan allows
for public discussion of the changes ahead for the Delta, which
has proceeded in a variety of public meetings since October.
Second, a new, independent council will develop the plan in more
detail and submit the plan to the Legislature. While CDEW will
develop the plan, the bill does not specify the role of the
Legislature once it receives the plan. Further legislative
discussions may consider the role of the Legislature in making
decisions on the Delta. While some agencies do not like having
a new council to oversee agency Delta projects, recent failures
of existing agencies to resolve the Delta crisis amid
interagency conflict have led to an emerging consensus that
Delta governance must change. Existing governance has failed.
Finally, the plan is due to be completed at the end of 2010,
which is consistent with the Delta Vision Strategic Plan. The
Natural Resources Agency currently leads a process to develop a
Bay-Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) on a different timeline.
BDCP is designed to obtain federal permits to take certain
species listed as threatened or endangered under the federal
Endangered Species Act. The scope of the BDCP includes
decisions on whether and where to build a peripheral canal to
take water south and west of the Delta through the state and,
possibly, federal water projects. The Administration has
indicated it may complete the BDCP as early as the end of this
year, and has set a goal to break ground on new Delta water
conveyance in 2011.
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As amended, this bill remains a work-in-progress, which will
develop further through the legislative process. The author has
committed to work with interested members through the
legislative process and will return the bill to Committee upon
completion by the Senate. Similarly, several Delta bills are
now proceeding through the Senate, and this Committee will have
the opportunity to consider and amend those bills when the
Committee hears Senate bills in June. The author requests that
the Committee allow this bill to proceed, so the Assembly will
have a vehicle in the Senate for action on a comprehensive plan
for the Delta. The other Assembly Delta bill whose author has
committed to develop collaboratively is AB 13 (Salas) - the
Delta conservancy bill.
In addition to the goals and policies identified above, issues
that may require further analysis when a final Delta plan bill
is developed include:
policies and standards for Delta decisions
process to resolve the policy and legal issues
identified in the Strategic Plan
implementation and enforcement of plan
agency responsibilities for plan implementation
relationship to existing laws and institutions
financing of Delta projects and activities
role of the Legislature in decisions related to the plan
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support : Natural Resources Defense Council (in concept)
Watch : Metropolitan Water District of So. Cal.
Opposition :None submitted
Analysis Prepared by : Alf W. Brandt / W., P. & W. / (916)
319-2096