BILL ANALYSIS �
SB 263
Page 1
Date of Hearing: June 28, 2011
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON WATER, PARKS AND WILDLIFE
Jared Huffman, Chair
SB 263 (Pavley) - As Amended: May 31, 2011
SENATE VOTE : 25-14
SUBJECT : Well completion reports: public availability
SUMMARY : Requires well completion reports to be made publicly
available. Specifically, this bill :
1)Requires the Department of Water Resources (DWR) to make
publicly available the reports that well drillers must submit
when a well is constructed, deepened, reperforated, or
destroyed.
2)Prohibits the Department of Public Health (DPH) from invoking
the "public interest" exemption in the state Public Records
Act to obstruct access to well location information in well
completion reports submitted to DWR.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Requires any person who digs, bores, or drills a water well,
cathodic protection well, or a monitoring well, or abandons or
destroys a well, or deepens or reperforates a well, to file a
report of completion with DWR.
2)Prohibits those well completion reports from being made
available to the public, except under certain circumstances.
FISCAL EFFECT : The Senate Appropriations Committee analysis
states that there would be minor General Fund costs to implement
this bill. Costs of up to $1,000,000 were associated with a
prior version of this bill that would have allowed well owners
to request that well completion reports be kept confidential.
That was because DWR would have had to develop a tracking system
that could locate well completion report relating to individual
owners. That provision is no longer included in this bill.
COMMENTS :
In 1949, to help prevent groundwater pollution caused by
SB 263
Page 2
improperly constructed water wells, the California Legislature
first required well drillers to file a well completion report
with the State of California for each well drilled. Well
completion reports, also known as drillers' logs or well logs,
provide a snapshot in time of the geology, groundwater table,
and conditions at the location where a well is constructed,
deepened, reperforated, or destroyed. Well completion reports
include, among other things, the location of the well, the depth
of the well, the type of soils encountered at each elevation as
drilling, depth to water, etc.
In 1965, the Legislature declared that "the people of the state
have a primary interest in the location, construction,
maintenance, abandonment, and destruction of water wells, which
activities directly affect the quality and purity of underground
waters." In doing so, the legislature expanded the well
drilling laws to authorize DWR to establish regulations
governing the proper construction of water wells; require all
well completion reports be filed with DWR; and restrict access
to those reports to government agencies.
The legislative record does not give any insight as to why the
reports were made confidential. The conjecture is that they
were made confidential at the request of the well drillers
because many well drillers consider the information in the well
completion reports to be proprietary. Knowing the soils and
geology of an area can provide a competitive advantage to
someone who wants to drill another well a short distance away.
In 2010, a community group who was seeking information about
existing and future groundwater contamination sought to compel
DPH to provide them with well location information after it
invoked the "public interest" exemption in the California Public
Records Act to deny them that data. In evaluating the case the
court found that the public interest was significant in knowing
exact well locations as necessary to "determine the source(s)
and extent of contamination in the water system, in determining
whether contamination in a water system is related to land-use
activities in the area of the well, in identifying contaminants
to sample from the land-use activities in the area of the well,
and in locating safe water in an area around an uncontaminated
well, and in determining the contaminants. In addition,
citizens who know the location of drinking water wells can
advocate for their protection from existing sources of
contamination or planned developments in the area." Ultimately,
SB 263
Page 3
however, the court deferred to DPH's security arguments in
support of its existing policy.
Supporting arguments: According to the Groundwater Resources
Association, "Well completion reports contain critical
information for groundwater managers, consulting hydrologists,
academics, and others interested in and conducting studies on
the geologic, hydrologic, and water quality characteristics of
groundwater basins, earthquake risk assessments, and other
geologic hazards. Unfortunately, those who would benefit from
and need this information for these critical studies cannot
currently have access to it.
"Well completion reports can also be used to construct detailed
underground aquifer maps. These maps along with hydrogeological
data are critical to developing and implementing groundwater
management plans. For example, such data can be used to
determine possible locations for efficient and effective
groundwater banking, identify key recharge areas, and to better
protect and improve groundwater quality.
"For over 50 years, the law has prohibited access to well
completion reports by the public except under certain
circumstances. �Moreover], information obtained from well logs
cannot be published in reports and studies, unless individual
well owners sign a release form. Unlike California, no other
western state restricts access to well completion reports to the
public; most western states even provide Internet access to well
logs. This bill would bring California's outdated law on well
completion report confidentiality up to the current industry
standard in western states and help meet the need for
transparency in groundwater information."
Opposing arguments: Opponents of this bill fear that making
well completion reports publicly available could provide
terrorists and saboteurs with well locations. For example, the
San Gabriel Valley Water Association states, "SB 263 contradicts
existing state and federal policies and would increase safety
risks to public water supplies. ?�W]ater systems must conduct
vulnerability assessments and implement homeland security
measures to help protect water supplies and facilities from
sabotage and attack. In support of these efforts, the
California Department of Public Health, which oversees
state-level homeland security initiatives for water systems, no
longer releases physical well location information to the
SB 263
Page 4
public. SB 263 is in direct conflict with local, state and
federal efforts to protect public water supplies." The Desert
Water Agency states, generally, that "the drinking and
wastewater sector is vulnerable to a variety of attacks,
including contamination with deadly agents" and emphasizes the
primacy of privacy.
Committee staff notes that opposition's arguments are hard to
reconcile in light of the fact that much general information
about well locations can be obtained from public water planning
documents freely available on the internet and that exact
locations can be easily determined by using images from Google
Earth or by driving or walking past well structures. It is
troubling that a water agency would believe that these
particular documents make its wells at risk for terrorist attack
simply by disclosing information such as the location and size
of a well. That infers that the agency itself believes its
wells are not adequately secured but is relying on a strategy of
assuming the well locations are secret as one means of
protection. An unintended consequence of this bill may be that
wells in fact become less vulnerable to sabotage because water
agencies who can no longer mistakenly assume well locations are
secret will be spurred to implement valid and effective security
measures to help protect water supplies.
SUPPORT :
Alameda County Water District
American Society of Civil Engineers
Applied Water Resources Corporation
Californian's Aware
Clean Water Action
Coastkeeper Alliance
Community Water Center
Diamond Well Drilling Company
Environmental Justice Coalition for Water
Groundwater Resources Association
League of Women Voters
Montara Water & Sanitary District
Orange County Water District
Orion Environmental Inc.
Planning and Conservation League
Self-Help Enterprises
SB 263
Page 5
Sonoma County Water Agency
The Nature Conservancy
Water Master Support Services
23 individual letters, mostly from geologists, hydrogeologists,
engineers, engineering contractors, professors, and
contamination remediation professionals
72 modified form letters, mostly from professional geologists,
hydrologists, and engineers
OPPOSITION :
California Groundwater Association
California Water Service Company (unless amended)
Central Basin Water Association (unless amended)
City of Lakewood
Long Beach Water Department
Los Angeles Gateway Region
San Gabriel Valley Water Association (unless amended)
Southeast Water Coalition
Analysis Prepared by : Tina Cannon Leahy / W., P. & W. / (916)
319-2096