BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 1152
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Date of Hearing: April 26, 2011
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON WATER, PARKS AND WILDLIFE
Jared Huffman, Chair
AB 1152 (Chesbro) - As Amended: April 14, 2011
SUBJECT : Groundwater monitoring
SUMMARY : Allows alternate monitoring techniques (AMT) to be
used to monitor groundwater elevations under certain specified
circumstances. Specifically, this bill :
1)Allows a monitoring entity, if approved by the Department of
Water Resources (DWR), to use information other than
monitoring wells to measure the elevations in groundwater
basins and subbasins where:
a) Groundwater elevations are unaffected by land use
activities or planned land use activities or naturally
occurring dissolved solids make the groundwater unusable.
b) Overlying lands are wholly owned or controlled by state,
federal, or tribal authorities and groundwater monitoring
information is unavailable.
c) The groundwater basin or subbasin underlies an area
where geographic or geologic features make monitoring
impracticable, including but not limited to a basin or
subbasin that is inaccessible to well-drilling equipment.
2)Requires the monitoring entity, prior to using AMT, to submit
a report to DWR that is signed by a professional geologist and
sets forth a factual basis with supporting documentation
establishing why the basin or subbasin qualifies for AMT.
3)Establishes that DWR shall determine whether information
submitted as AMT is sufficient and that DWR's determinations
of both eligibility and informational sufficiency are
conclusive.
4)Specifies that continuing eligibility to use AMT must be
reestablished every three years.
5)Defines that AMT may include, but is not limited to, the
following, as DWR deems appropriate:
a) Hydrologic records for the basin or subbasin.
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b) Well permits or similar reports from within the area
overlying the basin or subbasin.
c) Aerial phtographs.
d) Remote sensing data.
EXISTING LAW
1)Requires all of the groundwater basins identified in DWR's
Bulletin 118 to be regularly and systematically monitored and
the information to be readily and widely available.
2)Makes the county, groundwater management agencies, water
replenishment districts, and other local agencies within that
county ineligible for state water grants and loans if DWR is
required to assume the groundwater monitoring functions for
any of the basins or subbasins in that county.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS :
This bill would make changes to the language codifying SB 6
(Steinberg) Chapter 1, Statutes of 2009-10 Seventh Extraordinary
Session. SB 6 was part of the Legislature's historic
legislative water package and requires that, on or before
January 1, 2012, the elevations in all groundwater basins and
subbasins must be regularly and systematically monitored locally
and the resulting groundwater information made readily and
widely available. Under SB 6, if DWR is required to perform the
monitoring functions then the county and specified local
entities that could assume those functions become ineligible for
water grants or loans administered by the state.
This Committee's analysis of SB 6 stated that in five years
prior to 2009, the Legislature approved three bills to improve
the State's access to groundwater information, but the Governor
at the time vetoed all three. In intervening years, groundwater
problems grew worse, largely because California is the last
western state without any state groundwater management and has
very little information about the conditions of the state's
groundwater basins. Excessive pumping in the last century led
to substantial subsidence, as much as 55 feet in some areas.
Because of the 2007-2009 drought, for example, on the west side
of the San Joaquin Valley, when surface water allocations were
minimal, farmers responded by pumping more groundwater.
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Currently, DWR considers monitoring wells the exclusive
technique for monitoring groundwater elevations. This bill
would allow DWR to grant a local entity the right to use AMT,
such as relying upon well records or remote sensing data, for a
basin or subbasin in an area of the county where groundwater
levels are unaffected by land uses or geologic or geographic
features make well drilling impracticable. Collins English
Dictionary defines impracticability as "incapable of being put
into practice or accomplished; not feasible." One example,
cited by proponents of this bill, of where it would be
impracticable to drill a monitoring well is where a basin
underlies a reservoir. In addition, this bill allows DWR to
grant a local entity the right to use AMT where the land
overlying the basin or subbasin is exclusively in state, federal
or tribal ownership and monitoring information is unavailable.
Because of sovereignty issues, that may be necessary where the
local jurisdiction does not have the legal right to enter onto
the land.
Supporters of this bill state that SB 6 did not include a
mechanism for DWR to designate remote, unpopulated basins that
may be adequately monitored via modified techniques. They state
that overall this bill will be most critically important to
"counties that have large rural areas that contain very remote,
effectively unused basins and/or have basins underlying lands
that are out of the county's jurisdiction."
There is no opposition on file.
Committee Amendments:
Staff suggest a technical amendment to Water Code Section
10933(e)(4) of the Groundwater Monitoring statutes codifying SB
6. Currently, the language of that subsection states:
"(4) If the department determines that the monitoring wells
identified pursuant to paragraph (1) provide insufficient
information to demonstrate seasonal and long-term trends in
groundwater elevations, and the State Mining and Geology Board
concurs with that determination, the department shall perform
groundwater monitoring functions pursuant to Section 10934."
The State Mining and Geology Board (SMGB) represents the State's
interest in the development, utilization and conservation of
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mineral resources, reclamation of mined lands, and development
of geologic and seismic hazard information. The SMGB does not
perform groundwater monitoring, so it is not in a position to
concur. Staff recommends striking "and the State Mining and
Geology Board concurs with that determination" from Water Code
Section 10933(e)(4).
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
California Groundwater Coalition (sponsor)
Groundwater Resources Association of California
Regional Council of Rural Counties
Sonoma County Water Agency
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Tina Cannon Leahy / W., P. & W. / (916)
319-2096