BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    �



                                                                  AB 134
                                                                  Page  1

          Date of Hearing:   May 11, 2011

                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                                Felipe Fuentes, Chair

                  AB 134 (Dickinson) - As Amended:  April 15, 2011 

          Policy Committee:                              Water, Parks and 
          Wildlife     Vote:                            9-1

          Urgency:     No                   State Mandated Local Program: 
          No     Reimbursable:              No

           SUMMARY  

          This bill explicitly allows the Sacramento Regional County 
          Sanitation District to apply to the State Water Resources 
          Control Board for a permit to appropriate an amount of water for 
          diversion from the Sacramento River or the Sacramento 
          San-Joaquin Delta equal to the amount of treated wastewater 
          discharged by the district. 

           FISCAL EFFECT  

          Minor costs, no more than tens of thousands of dollars, to the 
          board to review the district's permit application, should it 
          file one.  (Special fund.)

           COMMENTS  

           1)Rationale  .  The Sacramento Regional County Sanitation District 
            contends this bill provides the district the opportunity to 
            apply for a permit, which, if approved, may allow the district 
            to realize an important revenue stream.  The district notes 
            that it sorely needs such revenue, given the district and its 
            ratepayers are facing $2.1 billion in mandatory treatment 
            upgrades ordered by the Central Valley Regional Water Quality 
            Control Board in response to the district's release of ammonia 
            and pathogens.  The district describes much of the water it 
            releases into the Sacramento River as having been pumped from 
            groundwater and, therefore, foreign to the river.  The 
            district further notes this bill is consistent with and 
            modeled after existing law, which affirms the district's right 
            to its wastewater and which, according to a statute enacted in 
            1961, allows the City of Stockton to appropriate water from 








                                                                  AB 134
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            the San Joaquin River.

           2)Support  .  This bill is supported by numerous private and 
            public organizations in the Sacramento region concerned about 
            the effect of the costs the region will face to upgrade its 
            wastewater treatment systems.

           3)Opposition  .  The bill is opposed by a long list of industry, 
            agricultural and water districts that benefit from water 
            exports from the delta.

           Analysis Prepared by  :    Jay Dickenson / APPR. / (916) 319-2081