BILL ANALYSIS
SB 51
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Date of Hearing: August 4, 2010
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
SB 51 (Ducheny) - As Amended: July 1, 2010
Policy Committee: Water, Parks and
Wildlife Vote: 10-3
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable: No
SUMMARY
This bill establishes the Salton Sea Restoration Council to
oversee restoration of the Salton Sea. Specifically, this bill:
1)Establishes the 16-member Salton Sea Restoration Council,
within the Natural Resources Agency, as the governing body to
oversee restoration of the Salton Sea.
2)Directs the council to evaluate various Salton Sea restoration
plans and to recommend a restoration plan in a report to the
governor and the Legislature by an unspecified date.
3)Requires personnel of the Department of Fish and Game (DFG)
and the Department of Water Resources (DWR) to staff the
council.
4)Tasks DFG with demonstration projects and investigations
relating to restoration that concern habitat and biology.
5)Tasks DWR with investigations relating to restoration that
concern water quality, sedimentation, inflows, air quality,
geotechnics, and access and utility agreements.
6)Limits funding for implementation of the bill's provisions to
funds in the Salton Sea Restoration Fund or nonstate funds.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)Annual costs to DFG and DWR, ranging from approximately
$300,000 to approximately $1,000,000, to staff the council and
to reimburse council members for necessary expenses. (Salton
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Sea Restoration Fund, nonstate funds)
2)Potential costs to DFG and DWR of an unknown amount, but
possibly in the millions of dollars, to conduct demonstration
projects and investigations related to restoration, habitat,
water quality, and other topics. (Salton Sea Restoration Fund,
nonstate funds) (DWR reports that investigative and
analytical work that went into producing the environmental
impact report as part of the Secretary for Resources
"preferred alternative" for Salton Sea restoration cost around
$15 million. It is conceivable that the council's
investigative and analytical work pursuant to this bill might
entail comparable costs.)
COMMENTS
1)Rationale . The author notes that, without restoration, the
Salton Sea will collapse in coming decades. The author
describes the negative consequences of this collapse as loss
of critical migratory bird habitat, severe air quality
impairment, declining water quality, fish die off, and
significant financial exposure to the state. The author
intends this bill to establish a governing body to oversee
Salton Sea restoration, consistent with recommendations in a
recent Natural Resources Agency report on how best to restore
the sea.
2)Background .
a) Creation . The Salton Sea is California's largest inland
lake. Every few hundred years or so, the Colorado River
spills water into a natural sink that houses the "sea."
Because it has no outlet, other than evaporation, the sea's
salinity rises until the sea dries up, awaiting
replenishment by another spill from the Colorado River.
Once such spill occurred in 1905. For months, water
overflowed an irrigation canal carrying Colorado River
water to the Imperial Valley. In subsequent decades,
agricultural runoff from farms in the Imperial Valley fed
the sea, preventing it from drying. Sport fish were
introduced. Tourism grew. As other California wetlands
were developed, the sea became an increasingly important
stopover for hundreds of thousands of migratory birds.
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b) Deterioration . As the decades past, the sea's health
declined. Its water became increasingly salty-saltier than
the ocean. Fertilizers and other agricultural runoff
accumulated. Fish died by the thousands. The shoreline
receded. Tourism waned.
And the sea will continue to decline. A 2003 agreement
between several public water agencies and the state
regarding use of Colorado River water-known as the
Quantification Settlement Agreement (QSA)-transfers
additional Colorado River water to Southern California,
thereby reducing the amount of water flowing into the sea.
c) Restoration . So, why restore the sea? Proponents point
to, among other things, the vital importance of the sea to
hundreds of thousands of migratory birds, as well as the
dust bowl that would replace the sea. In any case, the
terms of the QSA, which the state signed to prevent federal
reductions of Colorado River water flowing to California,
obligate the state to assume most of the financial
responsibility both for mitigating the negative
environmental impacts of the QSA and for the Salton Sea
restoration. In other words, the state is legally required
to restore the sea and to pay for it.
d) Legislation . SB 277 (Ducheny, Chapter 611, Statutes of
2003) required the Resources Secretary to undertake a
restoration study to determine a preferred alternative for
restoration of the Salton Sea ecosystem and protection of
wildlife. SB 277 created the Salton Sea Restoration Fund,
administered by DFG, and required money deposited in the
fund to be spent, upon appropriation, for
restoration-related studies, implementation of conservation
measures necessary to protect the ecosystem's wildlife,
implementation of the preferred alternative, and related
administrative, technical, and public outreach work.
In May of 2008, the secretary released a report identifying
the agency's preferred alternative for restoration of the
sea and a plan for funding that restoration. The preferred
alternative will be one of the restoration alternatives to
be considered by the Salton Sea Restoration Council created
by this bill.
3)Support . The policy committee analysis cites support from a
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diverse set of conservation groups and the Imperial Irrigation
District, among others.
4)There is no registered opposition to this bill .
Analysis Prepared by : Jay Dickenson / APPR. / (916) 319-2081