BILL ANALYSIS
SB 1450
Page 1
Date of Hearing: June 29, 2010
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON WATER, PARKS AND WILDLIFE
Jared William Huffman, Chair
SB 1450 (Simitian) - As Amended: June 24, 2010
SENATE VOTE : Not relevant
SUBJECT : Delta Stewardship Council: contracting
SUMMARY : Allows the Delta Stewardship Council (DSC) to use an
expedited contracting process for development of management plan
for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Estuary (Delta Plan), which
is due January 1, 2012. Specifically, this bill :
1)Allows the DSC to use a streamlined competitive bid process to
hire consultants, engineers or architects.
2)States that those contracts will be for the purposes of:
a. preparing the Delta Plan and associated
environmental review;
b. performing its responsibilities, or the
responsibilities of the Delta Independent Science
Board, with regard to the Bay-Delta Conservation Plan
(BDCP);
c. determining the consistency of state and local
public agency actions with the Delta Plan; or,
d. performing scientific review to inform water
and environmental decision-making in the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Estuary (Delta).
EXISTING LAW :
1)Establishes the DSC to develop and implement a plan to achieve
the co-equal goals of providing a more reliable water supply
for California and protecting, restoring, and enhancing the
SB 1450
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Delta ecosystem.
2)Requires the DSC to act as a responsible agency under the
California Environmental Quality Act with respect to the BDCP
environmental impact report.
3)Requires the DSC to include the BDCP in the Delta Plan if the
Department of Fish and Game (DFG) determines that the BDCP
meets the requirements of the Natural Community Conservation
Planning Act (NCCPA).
4)Requires the DSC to determine if state and local public agency
actions are consistent with the Delta Plan.
5)Places the DSC in an oversight role regarding implementation
of the BDCP by requiring the Department of Water Resources, or
any successor agency charged with BDCP implementation, to
report to the DSC on the implementation of the BDCP.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : The Delta 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. It is also 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 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. On September
17, 2006, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger created a new effort by
Executive Order, the Delta Vision, to "develop a durable vision
for sustainable management of the Delta." In 2007, the Delta
Vision Task Force made twelve integrated recommendations
including the recommendations that protecting the Delta
ecosystem and ensuring a reliable water supply for California
must be primary co-equal goals and that sustainable management
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of the Delta requires a new Delta governance entity.
SB 1 (Simitian), Chapter 5, Statutes of 2009-10 Seventh
Extraordinary Session, implemented many of the Delta Vision
strategies by setting the co-equal goals in statute and creating
the DSC as the governing body mandated to develop the Delta
Plan, a comprehensive long-term management strategy for the
Delta. Because of the pressing condition of the Delta, the
Legislature required the DSC to adopt and begin implementing the
Delta Plan by January 1, 2012.
During a May 11, 2010, Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife
Committee oversight hearing on the DSC and the Bay Delta
Conservation Plan, the issue was raised as to whether
traditional contracting procedures are adequate given the
expedited time frames for the DSC to develop and implement the
Delta Plan and carry out of its various oversight functions.
This bill is intended to provide a streamlined contracting
process to help meet those expedited time frames.
Finally, because of the above-stated need for the DSC to
contract in an expedited manner, the author's office is
considering adding an urgency clause to this bill.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
None on file.
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Tina Cannon Leahy / W., P. & W. / (916)
319-2096