BILL ANALYSIS
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 681|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: SB 681
Author: Pavley (D)
Amended: 6/1/09
Vote: 21
SENATE NATURAL RES. & WATER COMMITTEE : 6-4, 4/28/09
AYES: Pavley, Kehoe, Leno, Simitian, Wiggins, Wolk
NOES: Cogdill, Benoit, Hollingsworth, Huff
NO VOTE RECORDED: Padilla
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : 7-5, 5/28/09
AYES: Kehoe, Corbett, DeSaulnier, Hancock, Leno, Oropeza,
Yee
NOES: Cox, Denham, Runner, Walters, Wyland
NO VOTE RECORDED: Wolk
SUBJECT : Water diversion and use
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill enacts the recommendations of the
Delta Vision Committee on water rights and water use
reporting. Specifically, this bill gives the State Water
Resources Control Board (SWRCB) additional regulatory
authority with respect to water rights. It requires
additional monitoring of water diversions. It establishes
a pilot program for monitoring diversions of water in the
Delta. It also gives the SWRCB the authority to initiate
adjudications of streams and rivers.
CONTINUED
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ANALYSIS : During its 2005-2006 Regular Session, the
Legislature passed and the Governor signed AB 1200 (Laird),
SB 1574 (Kuehl), and
AB 1803 (Assembly Budget Committee). Together, these bills
required an assessment of the potential impacts on water
supplies of catastrophic failures in the Delta,
identification and evaluation of options to protect water
supplies and the ecosystem of the Delta, the development of
a vision for a sustainable Delta, and a strategic plan to
achieve a sustainable Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
Specifically, SB 1574 created a Delta Vision Committee to
develop the vision and strategic plan. The Committee is
composed of the Secretary of the Resources Agency as chair,
and the Secretaries of the Business, Transportation and
Housing Agency, Department of Food and Agriculture, and the
California Environmental Protection Agency, and the
President of the Public Utilities Commission.
On September 28, 2006, the Governor issued an Executive
Order that, among other things, established a Blue Ribbon
Task Force and directed the Task Force to:
1. Develop a vision for the sustainable management of the
Delta.
2. Report to the to the Delta Vision Committee and Governor
its findings and recommendations on its vision for the
Delta by January 1, 2008.
3. Develop a strategic plan to implement the delta vision
by October 31, 2008.
The Executive Order further directed the Delta Vision
Committee to report to the Governor and the Legislature by
December 31, 2008, with recommendations for implementing
the Delta Vision and Strategic Plan.
This bill enacts the recommendations of the Delta Vision
Committee on water rights and water use reporting. It:
1. Streamlines SWRCB's waste and unreasonable use authority
and improve enforcement for failure to meet water
conservation requirements, resulting in water
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conservation improvements.
2. Improves monitoring and reporting, including authority
to collect and disseminate information on all surface
water diversions in the state, eliminate exemptions from
requirements for filing of statements of diversion and
use, and establish enforcement authority for monitoring
and reporting violations.
3. Improves enforcement, including authority to directly
enforce water right terms and conditions, interim relief
authority, and increased administrative penalties.
4. Provides authority to initiate stream system
adjudications and collect adjudication costs.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: Yes
According to the Senate Appropriations Committee:
Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 Fund
Monitoring water $765 $1,400 $1,400
General/
diversions
Special*
Delta pilot program $400 $400
General/
Special*
Administering interim $50 $100
$100General/
relief measures
Special*
Issuing orders for violations Unknown
General/
of reporting requirements
Special*
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Stream adjudications Unknown
Special**
* Water Rights Fund. Potentially offset by fees.
**Water Rights Fund. Fully offset by fees.
SUPPORT : (Verified 6/1/09)
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OPPOSITION : (Verified 6/1/09)
Association of California Water Agencies
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author, "At our
recent hearing on Delta vision, I was shocked to find out
that the State Water Resources Control Board had concluded
that water users have been promised 8.4 times the average
annual unimpaired flows in the Delta watershed! Not only
that, the face value of these permits is 3.4 times more
than the highest annual unimpaired flows! Then, at our
subsequent hearing on California Water Rights law, we found
out that pending water right applications would divert an
additional 4.2 million acre-feet of water within the Delta
watershed. The author also stated that, "We learned that
the Blue Ribbon Task Force, led by Phil Isenberg, and the
Delta Vision Committee, led by Secretary Mike Chrisman,
have done the state a great service in both identifying
critical problems with our state's water rights system and
recommending solutions to those problems."
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION : Responding to the previous
version of this bill, that dealt only with statutory
adjudication, the Association of California Water Agencies
wrote, "SB 681 would authorize the SWRCB to undertake such
investigations and determinations of water rights on its
own motion. The SWRCB would be able to initiate
adjudications of any streams it found interesting and then
charge water users for the full costs of them - including
salaries - under Water Code sections 2851-2852. This bill
would open the door for the SWRCB to fund the Division of
Water rights through charges on water-users without working
on any applications or petitions that water users
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themselves have filed."
CTW:mw 6/1/09 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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