BILL ANALYSIS
AB 2092
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 13, 2010
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON WATER, PARKS AND WILDLIFE
Jared William Huffman, Chair
AB 2092 (Huffman) - As Amended: April 6, 2010
SUBJECT : Delta Stewardship Council: Planning and
Administration Fee
SUMMARY : Allows the Delta Stewardship Council (Council) to
levy a fee upon the State Water Project and Central Valley
Project contractors to pay a portion of the Council's planning
and administrative costs. Specifically, this bill :
1)Requires the Council, by March 31, 2011, to use an open and
transparent process to adopt a short-term fee on the State
Water Project (SWP) and the federal Central Valley Project
(CVP) water contractors to fund a portion of the Council's
annual administrative costs and the costs to develop and adopt
the Delta Plan and a long-term financing plan to implement the
Delta Plan.
2)Requires the short-term fee to be based upon a reasonable
estimate of the benefits received by the SWP/CVP contractors
from the Council's administration and development of the Delta
Plan and long-term financing plan.
3)Requires the State Board of Equalization to begin collecting
the short-term fee on July 1, 2011.
4)Authorizes the short-term fee to be imposed until July 1, 2014
and limits the costs which can be paid by the short-term fee
to those incurred between July 1, 2010 and July 1, 2013.
5)Requires the long-term financing plan to be developed by
January 1, 2013.
6)Requires the long-term financing plan to incorporate the
beneficiary pays principal and to identify and evaluate the
benefits to all groups of Delta Plan implementation, including
but not limited to the public, water users, Delta landowners
and local entities, Delta recreational users, wastewater
dischargers, and commercial fishing interests.
7)Prohibits adoption of long-term fees without further statutory
AB 2092
Page 2
authorization.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Declares the basic goals of the state for the Delta are to
achieve the two coequal goals of providing a more reliable
water supply for California and protecting, restoring, and
enhancing the Delta ecosystem.
2)Requires the coequal goals to be achieved in a manner that
protects and enhances the unique cultural, recreational,
natural resource, and agricultural values of the Delta as an
evolving place.
3)Establishes the Delta Stewardship Council, a seven member body
charged with Delta governance through the development and
implementation of a comprehensive Delta Plan to achieve the
co-equal goals.
4)Authorizes the Department of Water Resources (DWR) to charge
SWP water and power contractors an amount sufficient to repay
all costs incurred by DWR, directly or by contract with other
agencies, for fish and wildlife preservation costs which are
due to SWP impacts.
5)States that improving the operational flexibility of the CVP
and contributing to the State of California's interim and
long-term efforts to protect the San Francisco
Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Estuary is one of the
purposes of the federal Central Valley Project.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : The San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta
Estuary is the largest estuary on the West Coast. It is a maze
of tributaries, sloughs, and islands and a haven for plants and
wildlife supporting over 750 plant and animal species. The
Bay-Delta is comprised of over 738,000 acres in five counties
and is critical to California's economy, providing part of the
drinking water supplies for two-thirds of Californians and
irrigation water for over 7 million acres of highly productive
agricultural land. Since late 2004, scientific and public
attention has focused on the unexpected collapse of several
Delta pelagic (i.e. "open-water") fish species, the delta smelt,
longfin smelt, juvenile striped bass, and threadfin shad. These
AB 2092
Page 3
fish are considered indicators of the estuary's health. In 2008
and again in 2009, unprecedented declines in the Chinook salmon
populations which migrate through the Delta led to the complete
closure of the commercial and recreational salmon fisheries.
Solutions to balance the competing uses of the Delta and the
degradation of its ecosystem have been elusive. A 2007 report
by the Little Hoover Commission concluded that without a
long-term funding plan there was no future for any Delta
governance program or restoration effort. That same year the
Delta Vision Task Force, charged by the Governor to "develop a
durable vision for sustainable management of the Delta," made
twelve integrated recommendations. Three of those
recommendations were that protecting the Delta ecosystem and
ensuring a reliable water supply for California must be primary
co-equal goals for sustainable management of the Delta, a new
Delta governance entity is necessary, and this entity must have
secure funding.
SB 1, passed in the 7th Extraordinary Session, made the co-equal
goals law and established the Delta Stewardship Council as the
new Delta governance entity. There is broad recognition that
for the Delta Stewardship Council to succeed a sustainable
funding plan must be developed.
Groups supporting or representing the SWP/CVP water contractors
acknowledge that a sustainable long-term financing plan is
necessary but are concerned that the "beneficiary pays"
principal is not being applied fairly when SWP/CVP contractors
are the only beneficiaries being singled out to pay the
short-term fee. Local entities, who already provide many Delta
service, are concerned that they might be identified as
beneficiaries required to pay for a Delta Plan when they feel
they would, in actuality, be underwriting administrative,
structural, and ecosystem costs related to historic and ongoing
SWP/CVP operations.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Audubon California
AB 2092
Page 4
Natural Resources Defense Council
The Nature Conservancy
Opposition
American Society of Civil Engineers (Unless Amended)
Association of California Water Agencies
California Municipal Utilities Association
City of Roseville
Contra Costa Water District (Unless Amended)
Desert Water Agency
Eastern Municipal Water District
Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (Unless
Amended)
Regional Council of Rural Counties
San Diego County Water Authority (Unless Amended)
San Juan Water District
Valley Ag Water Coalition
Western Growers
Analysis Prepared by : Tina Leahy / W., P. & W. / (916)
319-2096