BILL ANALYSIS �
SB 263
Page 1
SENATE THIRD READING
SB 263 (Pavley)
As Amended September 2, 2011
Majority vote
SENATE VOTE :25-14
WATER, PARKS & WILDLIFE 8-4 GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATION 9-5
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|Ayes:|Huffman, Blumenfield, |Ayes:|Hall, Atkins, Block, |
| |Fong, Gatto, Roger | |Gatto, Hill, Ma, Perea, |
| |Hern�ndez, Hueso, Lara, | |V. Manuel P�rez, Torres |
| |Yamada | | |
| | | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
|Nays:|Halderman, Bill |Nays:|Nestande, Cook, Garrick, |
| |Berryhill, Jones, Olsen | |Jeffries, |
| | | |Silva |
| | | | |
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APPROPRIATIONS 11-6
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|Ayes:|Fuentes, Blumenfield, | | |
| |Bradford, Campos, Davis, | | |
| |Gatto, Hall, Hill, Lara, | | |
| |Mitchell, Solorio | | |
| | | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
|Nays:|Harkey, Charles Calderon, | | |
| |Donnelly, Nielsen, Norby, | | |
| |Wagner | | |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Requires the Department of Water Resources (DWR) to
make the reports that well drillers must submit when a well is
constructed, deepened, reperforated, or destroyed available,
with certain restrictions, to governmental agencies for studies,
college-level or higher academics for research, geologists,
geophysicists, hydrologists, civil engineers, licensed well
contractors or any person who obtains written authorization from
the well owner. Makes any person who knowingly violates the
restrictions on the use or sharing of a well completion report
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guilty of a misdemeanor violation punishable by up to $25,000
per day, a year in county jail, or both.
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 : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, an ongoing annual cost of between $100,000 and
$125,000 to DWR to remove, consistent with existing state law,
identifying personal information from well completion reports.
(General Fund or special fund.)
COMMENTS : 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 and
depth of the well, the type of soils encountered at each
drilling elevation, depth to water, etc.
According to the author, much information pinpointing well
locations is currently available on the Internet but what the
completion reports contain, which is not commonly available, are
details regarding subsurface geology and water levels. This
geophysical information is critical to groundwater managers,
consulting hydrologists, academics, community interest groups
and homeowners who cannot currently access it. The author
states that well completion reports can be used to construct
detailed underground aquifer maps which, along with
hydrogeological data, are essential to developing and
implementing groundwater management plans, including determining
possible locations for efficient and effective groundwater
banking, identifying key recharge areas, and better protecting
and improve groundwater quality. Supporters point out that in
other states reviewing well logs is considered due diligence
when buying a home with an existing well or drilling a new well
and that no other western state restricts access to well
completion reports - even after the September 11 terrorist
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attacks - and that most western states even provide Internet
access to well reports. Supporters advise that this bill would
help meet the need for transparency in groundwater information.
Opponents of this bill state that allowing members of the public
to request well completion reports from DWR could provide
terrorists and saboteurs with well locations and increase safety
risks to public water supplies. Opponents maintain that, since
water systems must conduct vulnerability assessments and
implement homeland security measures to help protect water
supplies and facilities, making well information publicly
available is in direct conflict with those goals as well as
local, state and federal efforts. Opponents assert, generally,
that the drinking and wastewater sectors are vulnerable to a
variety of attacks and point out that DPH, which oversees
state-level homeland security initiatives for water systems, no
longer releases physical well location information to the
public.
In response to opponents concerns, the author amended the bill
so that only government agencies, academic researchers, licensed
geologists, geophysicists, hydrologists, civil engineers, or
well contractors, or persons who have written authorization from
the well owner, can require DWR to provide a well completion
report. The authorized recipient must identify the intended use
of the report and is prohibited from disclosing the exact
location of a well, sharing the report with any other person or
entity not involved in the study or research, or using the
report information for sale, resale, solicitation or
advertisement for sales or services. The punishment for
knowingly violating the restrictions on the sharing or use of a
report is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $25,000
for each day of the violation, imprisonment of up to a year in
the county jail, or both.
Analysis Prepared by : Tina Cannon Leahy / W., P. & W. / (916)
319-2096
FN: 0002676
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