BILL ANALYSIS
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| SENATE COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES AND WATER |
| Senator Fran Pavley, Chair |
| 2009-2010 Regular Session |
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BILL NO: SB 1169 HEARING DATE: August 27, 2010
AUTHOR: Lowenthal URGENCY: No
VERSION: August 20, 2010 CONSULTANT: Dennis O'Connor
DUAL REFERRAL: No FISCAL: Yes
SUBJECT: Water.
BACKGROUND AND EXISTING LAW
The State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) is a 5 member
board, appointed by the governor, which oversees the state's
water rights and water pollution prevention laws.
PROPOSED LAW
This bill would update cross-references, delete obsolete
provisions, remove gender specific references, and makes other
non-controversial technical changes to the water code.
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT:
According to the SWRCB: As statutes are enacted year-by-year,
conforming changes must be made to all affected code sections
that reference a newly updated or created law. In the process of
drafting bill language to accomplish this goal, some code
sections have not been properly updated. In addition, drafting
errors sometimes have been made in writing bill language at the
various stages of the legislative process. In some cases, code
sections need to be modified to reflect final judicial
interpretations of statutes that would otherwise be unclear.
This bill will make technical, non-controversial changes in
order to address these issues in the Water Code and the
Government Code. By doing so, this bill will help to prevent any
confusion and unnecessary legal action in the administration of
the State Water Board's duties and programs.
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION: None
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COMMENTS
Purpose of Bill . This bill is a technical water code cleanup
bill sponsored by SWRCB. It amends various water rights
provisions of the water code, which are in this committee's
jurisdiction, as well as to the water pollution prevention
provisions, which are in the Senate Environmental Quality
Committee's jurisdiction. The changes to the water rights
provisions are mostly technical, clarifying and non-substantive.
It updates cross-references, deletes obsolete provisions,
removes gender specific references, and makes other
non-controversial technical changes.
Related Bills. This bill contains language that was previously
in AB 2776 (Committee on Water Parks, and Wildlife.) Before
that bill was heard in this committee, AB 2776 was amended and
became a Huffman bill dealing with water transfers.
The Senate Environmental Quality Committee did consider the
water quality provisions of AB 2776 (Committee on Water Parks,
and Wildlife) on 6/14 (before it became a water transfers bill).
It passed out on a 7-0 vote.
SUGGESTED AMENDMENTS: None
SUPPORT
State Water Resources Control Board (Sponsor)
OPPOSITION
None Received
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