BILL ANALYSIS
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
681 (Pavley)
Hearing Date: 05/11/2009 Amended: 04/20/2009
Consultant: Brendan McCarthy Policy Vote: NR&W 6-4
SB 681 (Pavley)
Page 2
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BILL SUMMARY: SB 681 makes several changes to the regulation of
water rights in the state. The bill would give the State Water
Resources Control Board additional regulatory authority with
respect to water rights. It would require additional monitoring
of water diversions. It would establish a pilot program for
monitoring diversions of water in the Delta. It would also give
the Water Board the authority to initiate adjudications of
streams and rivers.
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Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 Fund
Monitoring water diversions $765 $1,400
$1,400General /
Special
*
Delta pilot program $400 $400 General
/
Special
*
Administering interim $50 $100 $100 General
/
relief measures Special
*
Issuing orders for violations Unknown General
/
of reporting requirements Special
*
Stream adjudications Unknown Special
**
* Water Rights Fund. Potentially offset by fees.
** Water Rights Fund. Fully offset by fees.
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STAFF COMMENTS: This bill meets the criteria for referral to the
Suspense file.
SB 681 (Pavley)
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Current law gives authority for the regulation of water rights
in the state to the State Water Resources Control Board. The
legal and regulatory system governing water rights in the state
is very complicated, with differing legal requirements governing
differing kinds of water rights. In general, water rights
holders are required to report their diversions of water to the
Water Board.
SB 681 would make several changes to the laws governing water
rights, particularly to the notification and monitoring
requirements and the Water Board's regulatory powers. The bill
requires the Water Board to develop and maintain a publicly
accessible database of water diversions and water use. While the
Water Board currently has a database that contains some of this
information, it is not accessible to the public. In addition,
the database is far from comprehensive. The Board estimates that
there will be significant costs to upgrade the database and to
ensure that water diversion data input to the database is
accurate.
The bill gives the Water Board additional power to require
monitoring and disclosure of water diversions and uses. The bill
increases administrative penalties for illegal diversions of
water.
The bill requires the Water Board to establish a pilot program
to monitor water diversions in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River
Delta and its tributaries. The Water Board estimates the costs
to develop such a system to be about $400,000 per year.
The bill gives the Water Board the authority to use "interim
relief measures" (similar to a temporary restraining order or
preliminary injunction issued by a court) to enforce existing
statutory and constitutional water quality protection
requirements. The Water Board has estimated the costs to use
this authority would be about $100,000 per year. However, it is
impossible to know for certain how often this authority would be
used.
The bill authorizes the Water Board to issue a cease and desist
order to any party that fails to comply with reporting or
monitoring requirements of the Water Board. The Water Board
estimates that this will cost more than $8 million per year to
adequately ensure compliance with existing reporting
SB 681 (Pavley)
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requirements. Staff notes that this section of the bill is
permissive, but does not require the board to institute an
expanded program to ensure compliance with reporting
requirements, therefore these costs have not been included as a
required cost of the bill in this analysis.
The bill gives the Water Board the authority to initiate stream
adjudications. Under current law, water rights holders who have
a dispute over water diversions can begin a process of
adjudication before the Water Board, to settle which parties
have rights to water in the stream. The process of adjudication
is very complex and time consuming. The Water Board estimates
that it would expend about $4 million per year in self-initiated
adjudications. Staff notes that the number of adjudications that
would occur in the future is unknown, but that the bill allows
the Water Board to recoup its costs from the parties to the
adjudication.
Staff notes that the water rights program at the Water Board is
largely funded by fees paid by water rights holders. Currently,
a case is pending before the California Supreme Court
challenging the fee structure previously adopted by the Water
Board. It is likely that the regulatory activities required or
authorized under this bill could ultimately be funded with
regulatory fees. However, until the court case is resolved,
additional costs in this program may have to be paid for with
General Fund money.