BILL NUMBER: AB 2443 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 9, 2012
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Williams
FEBRUARY 24, 2012
An act to add Section 9853.9 to the Vehicle Code,
Article 1.3 (commencing with Section 675) to Chapter
5 of Division 3 of the Harbors and Navigation Code, relating
to vessels.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 2443, as amended, Williams. Vessels: registration fee:
mussels. Quagga and Zebra Mussel Infestation
Prevention Program.
Existing law establishes various programs administered by, among
other agencies, the Department of Fish and Game and the State Lands
Commission, to prevent aquatic invasive species introduction and
manage the spread and impacts of aquatic invasive species in state
waters. Existing law prohibits, except as authorized by the
Department of Fish and Game, a person from possessing, importing,
shipping, or transporting in the state, or from placing, planting, or
causing to be placed or planted in any water within the state,
dreissenid mussels, which are regulated by the department as an
invasive species.
Existing law requires the owner of a vessel, as described, to
register the vessel with the Department of Boating and Waterways, in
accordance with prescribed requirements. Existing
law establishes a registration fee for vessels and applies certain
fee increases to that registration fee.
This bill , beginning July 1, 2013, would authorize a
county to assess a would impose an additional
fee in an unspecified amount on a vessel registered in that
county required to pay that registration fee .
The bill would require funds from the fee to be used to
establish and operate implement and administer a
dreissenid mussel monitoring, inspection, and eradication program
in the county , as prescribed. The bill would
require the department to adopt an emergency regulation to prescribe
procedures for the collection and use of the fee .
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no
yes . State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares all
of the following:
(a) Quagga and zebra mussels, nonnative dreissenid mussels
introduced in the United States from Europe in 1988, pose an
immediate and significant threat to California's water supply, flood
control, power generation, and aquatic recreation infrastructure.
Once established in a body of freshwater, quagga and zebra mussels
latch onto pipes, valves, screens, irrigation canals, and gates,
often in quantities that severely impede the movement of water and
the necessary operation of other critical water management
infrastructure.
(b) Quagga and zebra mussel infestation poses tremendous financial
burdens on local governments and local economies. Between 2000 and
2010, widespread zebra mussel infestation of the Great Lakes region
resulted in over $5 billion in economic impacts. Were it to become
infested, California's Lake Tahoe alone would likely incur economic
impacts of over $20 million annually.
(c) Quagga and zebra mussel infestations have been identified in
25 bodies of freshwater in California, most within the southern
California region. These infestations threaten additional water
management and recreational facilities throughout southern California
as well as facilities across the state. Facilities threatened with
infestation include, but are not limited to, agricultural water
management infrastructure in the central valley, drinking water
facilities in the central coast and north coast regions, power
generation infrastructure in the Sierra Nevada, and flood control
facilities throughout California's watersheds.
(d) Existing law prohibits the possession, importation, shipment,
transportation, planting, or placement of quagga and zebra mussels in
any water within the state.
(e) An urgency exists due to the tremendous water management
impacts and state and local government costs associated with quagga
and zebra mussel infestation.
(f) The fees required by Article 1.3 (commencing with Section 675)
of Chapter 5 of Division 3 of the Harbors and Navigation Code as
determined by the Department of Boating and Waterways are solely for
the reasonable regulatory costs incident to performing investigations
and inspections necessary to prevent and control the infestation of
California waters by quagga and zebra mussels.
(g) It is therefore the intent of the Legislature that fees
required by Article 1.3 (commencing with Section 675) of Chapter 5 of
Division 3 of the Harbors and Navigation Code, as determined by the
Department of Boating and Waterways shall not exceed the cumulative
reasonable regulatory costs incident to performing investigations and
inspections necessary to prevent quagga and zebra mussel
infestation.
SEC. 2. Article 1.3 (commencing with Section 675)
is added to Chapter 5 of Division 3 of the Harbors and
Navigation Code , to read:
Article 1.3. Quagga and Zebra Mussel Infestation Prevention
Fee
675. (a) In addition to the fees imposed pursuant to paragraphs
(1) and (2) of subdivision (b) of Section 9853 of the Vehicle Code,
there shall also be imposed an additional quagga and zebra mussel
infestation prevention fee in an amount of ____ dollars ($____),
which shall be imposed annually on every vessel subject to the fees
imposed by Section 9853.
(1) The department shall adopt an emergency regulation to
prescribe procedures for the collection and use of the quagga and
zebra mussel infestation prevention fee for the purposes of this
article. The Legislature finds and declares that a fee of not more
than ____ dollars ($____) is a reasonable amount for the necessary
quagga and zebra mussel infestation prevention activities of state
and local public entities.
(2) In determining the amount of the fee imposed pursuant to
subdivision (a), the department shall establish a technical advisory
group, comprised of interested persons, including, but not limited
to, recreational boating and reservoir operation representatives. The
members of the technical advisory committee shall be appointed by
the director.
(b) All revenues collected from the fee shall be deposited into
the Quagga and Zebra Mussel Infestation Prevention Account
established pursuant to Section 676, and shall be expended solely for
the purposes set forth in that section.
(c) The fee established by this section shall not apply to vessels
that are used exclusively in marine waters.
676. (a) The Quagga and Zebra Mussel Infestation Prevention
Account is hereby established in the General Fund. All moneys
deposited in the account shall be used solely for the purposes of
this section. Funds from the account shall be available, upon
appropriation by the Legislature, to the department for grants
according to the following schedule:
(1) An amount of ____ percent of the total revenues deposited into
the account established pursuant to this subdivision shall be made
available for grants to special districts, cities, counties, and city
and county governments, and joint powers authorities for the
reasonable regulatory costs incident to the implementation of an
adopted dreissenid mussel infestation prevention plan that is
consistent with the requirements of Section 2302 of the Fish and Game
Code.
(2) An amount of ____ percent of the total revenues established
pursuant to this subdivision deposited into the account shall be made
available to the Department of Fish and Game for reasonable
regulatory costs incident to the implementation of subdivision (a) of
Section 2301 of the Fish and Game Code in those areas of the state
where a dreissenid mussel infestation prevention plan has not been
adopted.
(b) For the purposes of awarding grants pursuant to paragraph (1)
of subdivision (a), the department shall give priority to adopted
dreissenid mussel infestation prevention plans that are consistent
with Section 2302 of the Fish and Game Code and that also include
visual and manual inspection standards and other infestation
prevention procedures consistent with either the Department of Fish
and Game's Invasive Mussel Guidebook for Recreational Water Managers
and Users, dated September 2010, or the Natural Resource Agency's
Aquatic Invasive Species Management Plan, dated January 2008, or
subsequently adopted guidebooks and management plans.
(c) For purposes of this article, reasonable regulatory costs
include costs associated with the investigation and inspection of a
conveyance for the presence of dreissenid mussels prior to contact
with a reservoir, as defined in Section 6004.5 of the Water Code.
None of the revenues deposited in the account established by
subdivision (a) shall be used for any purpose other than those
explicitly authorized by this section.
(d) For the purposes of this section, conveyances include boats
and other watercraft, and associated vehicles, containers, and
trailers that may carry or contain adult or larval dreissenid
mussels.
SECTION 1. Section 9853.9 is added to the
Vehicle Code, to read:
9853.9. (a) The Legislature finds and declares that the fee
authorized by this section is for the reasonable regulatory costs for
inspection and administrative enforcement of a program to reduce and
eliminate invasive species in the waters of the state.
(b) Beginning July 1, 2013, in
addition to the fees described inparagraphs (1) and (2) of
subdivision (b) of Section 9853, a county may assess a fee in the
amount of ____ dollars ($____) on a vessel registered in that county.
(c)
The funds from the fee shall be used to establish and operatea
dreissenid mussel monitoring, inspection, and eradication program in
the county.