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 1478                   HEARING DATE: April 13, 2010   

          AUTHOR: Natural Resources and WaterURGENCY: No  
          VERSION: April 5, 2010             CONSULTANT: Dennis O'Connor    

          DUAL REFERRAL: No                  FISCAL: No  
          SUBJECT: Water conservation: urban water management.  
          
          BACKGROUND AND EXISTING LAW
          One of the bills in the water package passed last November in  
          the 7th Extraordinary Session was SBX7 7 (Steinberg).  That  
          bill, among other things, requires the state to achieve 20%  
          reduction in urban per capita water use by December 31, 2020.   
          The bill provided three specific methods for urban retail water  
          suppliers to meet the 20% reduction goal, and a 4th method to be  
          developed by the Department of Water Resources (DWR).

          To allow urban retail water suppliers to use the to-be-developed  
          DWR 4th method, urban retail water suppliers were granted a six  
          month extension, to July 1, 2011, to adopt their statutorily  
          required urban water management plan (UWMP).

          The bill also required urban wholesale water suppliers to  
          include in their UWMP an assessment of their present and  
          proposed future measures, programs, and policies to help achieve  
          the water use reductions required by this bill.  However, the  
          bill inadvertently neglected to grant wholesale water suppliers  
          the same six month extension to adopt UWMPs that was granted to  
          their retail customers.  

          PROPOSED LAW
          This bill would grant urban wholesale water suppliers the same a  
          six month extension to adopt UWMPs that was granted to retail  
          water suppliers.

          The bill also corrects a reference to a federal executive order  
          on how the military should be treated in the water conservation  
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          bill.

          ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT
          According to the Casitas Municipal Water District, "This bill  
          would change the due date for the Urban Water Management Plan to  
          be submitted by wholesale providers to July 1, 2011 instead of  
          December 31, 2010.  Given the many changes in the requirements  
          of the Urban Water Management Plan and the expected late  
          response from the California Department of Water Resources on  
          the guidelines for this plan, it would be prudent to extend the  
          deadline so that all water agencies are able to fully comply in  
          a timely manner to the additional requirements of this plan."



































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          ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION: None

          COMMENTS: None

          SUGGESTED AMENDMENTS: None
          
          SUPPORT
          Casitas Municipal Water District
          Metropolitan Water District of Southern California

          OPPOSITION
          None Received


































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