BILL ANALYSIS
AB 1886
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Date of Hearing: April 14, 2010
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
AB 1886 (Yamada) - As Amended: March 17, 2010
Policy Committee: Water, Parks and
Wildlife Vote: 9-2
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable: No
SUMMARY
This bill requires the Department of Water Resources (DWR) to
include in its California Water Plan a report on progress
towards the state's statutory goal of reducing reliance on Delta
water.
FISCAL EFFECT
One-time costs, likely no more than a few hundred thousand
dollars, to DWR to compile and analyze data and produce the
report. (General Fund)
COMMENTS
1)Rationale . Supporters of this bill-several local governments
located in and around the Delta-contend inclusion of a report
on reducing reliance on Delta water in the California Water
Plan will better integrate that goal in California's water
planning efforts, thereby increasing the likelihood of
achieving that goal.
2)Background . DWR is responsible for planning the orderly and
coordinated control, protection, conservation, development,
and utilization of the water resources of the state. As part
of that responsibility, DWR must update every five years its
California Water Plan, which provides information about
California's existing water supply and use and projects future
water supply and demand.
State law establishes the policy to reduce reliance on the
Delta in meeting California's future water supply needs.
AB 1886
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3)Reduced Reliance on Delta Water Is Achieved by Reduced Water
Use. According to DWR, the state will reduce its reliance on
Delta water mainly by reducing its use of water. In other
words, according to DWR, reduced water use results in reduced
reliance on Delta water. Existing law already requires DWR to
report on reducing water use.
Chapter 4, Statutes of 2009 (SB 7-7X, Steinberg), requires DWR
to report to the Legislature, by December 31, 2016, on
progress towards achieving a 20% reduction in urban water use
by December 31, 2020, and overall progress toward achieving
the 20% water use reduction by 2020. DWR therefore concludes
this bill requires inclusion of information in the 2020 Water
Plan that duplicates what DWR will report to the Legislature
in 2016. If DWR's characterization is correct and the
information is duplicative, then there should be negligible
costs to update its 2016 information on reduced water use for
inclusion in the 2020 Water Plan.
DWR, however, contends the bill might result in costs ranging
from a few hundred thousand dollars to nearly $2 million
dollars. The lower figure assumes that the state's roughly
430 urban water suppliers provide DWR adequate information as
part of their 2011 water conservation progress update. The
latter amount is based on the unlikely, though not
unreasonable, assumption that DWR staff would need to contact
each of the state's roughly 430 urban water suppliers to
obtain the information needed for the report.
4)Supporters of the bill include several local governments
located in and around the Delta.
5)There is no registered opposition to this bill .
Analysis Prepared by : Jay Dickenson / APPR. / (916) 319-2081