BILL ANALYSIS �
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SJR 17|
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UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Bill No: SJR 17
Author: Corbett (D), et al.
Amended: 4/25/12
Vote: 21
SENATE NAT. RESOURCES & WATER COMMITTEE : 5-1, 3/27/12
AYES: Pavley, Kehoe, Padilla, Simitian, Wolk
NOES: Fuller
NO VOTE RECORDED: La Malfa, Cannella, Evans
SENATE FLOOR : 28-9, 3/29/12
AYES: Alquist, Berryhill, Calderon, Cannella, Corbett,
Correa, De Le�n, DeSaulnier, Emmerson, Hancock, Harman,
Hernandez, Kehoe, Leno, Lieu, Liu, Lowenthal, Negrete
McLeod, Padilla, Pavley, Price, Rubio, Simitian,
Steinberg, Vargas, Wolk, Wright, Yee
NOES: Anderson, Dutton, Fuller, Gaines, Huff, La Malfa,
Strickland, Walters, Wyland
NO VOTE RECORDED: Blakeslee, Evans, Runner
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : Read and adopted, 6/28/12
SUBJECT : Coastal resources: San Francisco Bay
SOURCE : The Bay Institute
DIGEST : This resolution declares the Legislatures
endorsement of S. 97 (Feinstein) and House Resolution 3034
(Speier), and urges the United States Congress to enact the
San Francisco Restoration Act at the earliest possible
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time.
Assembly Amendments add co-authors and are clarifying.
ANALYSIS :
Resolution findings:
1. San Francisco Bay is the largest estuary on the west
coast of the United States.
2. San Francisco Bay is an ecologically rich and productive
estuary, but its ecological values have declined
significantly as a result of physical alteration and
pollution over the past 160 years.
3. San Francisco Bay is the hub of commercial activity and
is home to the third largest commercial port on the west
coast of the United States, has three international
airports, and is vital to the economic vitality of
California and of the United States.
4. Nearly $100 billion (in year 2000 dollars) worth of
property along California's coast, measured as the
replacement value of buildings and contents, is at risk
of flooding from a 100-year event with a 1.4 meter
sea-level rise if no adaptation actions are taken. An
overwhelming two-thirds of that property is concentrated
on San Francisco Bay.
5. Building or strengthening levees and seawalls simply to
protect existing highvalue development along the San
Francisco Bay shoreline was estimated to require an
immediate capital investment of approximately $1 billion
(in year 1990 dollars) and requires an additional $100
million per year in ongoing maintenance.
6. Restoration of San Francisco Bay wetlands can
dramatically improve the effectiveness of flood
management efforts in San Francisco Bay by performing
the functions of man-made structures in key locations.
7. Restoration of San Francisco Bay wetlands can
dramatically reduce the costs of providing flood
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protection for the developed shoreline by supplanting
the need for man-made structures in key locations.
8. California Senator Dianne Feinstein has introduced S. 97
and California Congresswoman Jackie Speier has
introduced H.R. 3034, the San Francisco Bay Restoration
Act, to provide federal matching funds to accelerate the
restoration of San Francisco Bay's wetlands for, among
others, the purpose of adapting to ongoing sea level
rise.
Background
The San Francisco Bay Restoration Act (SFBRA) has been
introduced both in S.97 (Feinstein) and H.R. 3034 (Speier),
and is currently under consideration in the U.S. Congress.
The San Francisco Bay Restoration Act amends the Federal
Water Pollution Control Act (Clean Water Act) to establish
a San Francisco Bay Restoration Grant Program.
Under this program, an annual list would be compiled by the
administrator of the EPA that would prioritize activities,
projects, and studies to be funded that would advance the
goals stated in the San Francisco Estuary Partnership's
Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan. The San
Francisco Estuary Partnership (SFEP), the state of
California, and affected stakeholders would be consulted
during development of the priority list.
Federal grant funding for activities, projects or studies
under the program will not exceed 75 percent of the total
cost of the activity, project or study. The current
versions of the two bills provide federal funding of either
$5,000,000 (Senate version) or $20,000,000 (House version)
for each fiscal year 2012-2016.
The SFEP (formerly The San Francisco Estuary Project) was
established by Congress in 1987 and is one of the original
national estuary programs designated by the EPA following
the creation of Section 320: The National Estuary Program
(NEP). The goal of the SFEP is to "restore and maintain
the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the
Estuary" through the development and implementation of a
Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan (CCMP).
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The San Francisco Estuary CCMP is a collaboratively
produced, consensus-based agreement about what should be
done to protect and restore the estuary. The initial CCMP
was completed by the SFEP in 1993 and was most recently
updated in 2007. The CCMP outlines nine program areas with
specific goals and actions for each program area. These
program areas include:
Aquatic Resources
Wildlife
Wetlands Management
Water Use
Pollution Prevention and reduction
Dredging and Waterway Modification
Land Use and Watershed Management
Public Involvement and Education
Research and Monitoring
This resolution declares the Legislature's endorsement of
S. 97 and H.R. 3034, and urges the United States Congress
to enact the San Francisco Restoration Act at the earliest
possible time.
FISCAL EFFECT : Fiscal Com.: No
SUPPORT : (Verified 6/28/12)
The Bay Institute (source)
Marin Audubon Society
PRBO Conservation Science
San Francisco Estuary Partnership
Save the Bay
The San Francisco Bay Joint Venture
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : The Bay Institute states that "the
greatest threat to low-lying development around the Bay
over the next 50 years will be from storms as sea level
rises." The natural marshes that once existed in the Bay
were such effective barriers against the erosive forces of
wind and wave that early settlers mistook them for islands.
Employing the concept of nature's "horizontal levee," over
100,000 acres of the Bay's historic tidal marshes would
serve as an offshore barrier against rising tides. The San
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Francisco Bay Restoration Act would provide the needed
funding to help implement such actions in the CCMP as
enabling the Bay's marsh restoration project to be
completed quickly so that the horizontal levee can start to
perform its critical role in flood protection over the
coming decades.
The other supporters of this resolution cite the importance
of the San Francisco Bay to fish and wildlife and the
disparity in federal funding between San Francisco Bay and
other watershed programs.
CTW:do 6/28/12 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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