BILL ANALYSIS �
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 263|
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UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Bill No: SB 263
Author: Pavley (D)
Amended: 9/2/11
Vote: 21
SENATE NATURAL RESOURCES AND WATER COMM : 5-3, 04/12/11
AYES: Pavley, Evans, Kehoe, Padilla, Wolk
NOES: La Malfa, Cannella, Fuller
NO VOTE RECORDED: Simitian
SENATE ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY COMMITTEE : 5-1, 05/02/11
AYES: Simitian, Hancock, Kehoe, Lowenthal, Pavley
NOES: Blakeslee
NO VOTE RECORDED: Strickland
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : 6-2, 05/26/11
AYES: Kehoe, Alquist, Lieu, Pavley, Price, Steinberg
NOES: Walters, Runner
NO VOTE RECORDED: Emmerson
SENATE FLOOR : 25-14, 06/02/11
AYES: Alquist, Calderon, Corbett, Correa, De Le�n,
DeSaulnier, Evans, Hancock, Hernandez, Kehoe, Leno, Lieu,
Liu, Lowenthal, Negrete McLeod, Padilla, Pavley, Price,
Rubio, Simitian, Steinberg, Vargas, Wolk, Wright, Yee
NOES: Anderson, Berryhill, Blakeslee, Cannella, Dutton,
Emmerson, Fuller, Gaines, Harman, Huff, La Malfa,
Strickland, Walters, Wyland
NO VOTE RECORDED: Runner
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 57-13, 09/08/11 - See last page for vote
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SB 263
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SUBJECT : Well logs
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill 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. This bill makes any person who knowingly violates
the restrictions on the use or sharing of a well completion
report guilty of a misdemeanor violation punishable by up
to $25,000 per day, a year in county jail, or both.
Assembly Amendments : (1) delete the requirement for DWR to
provide well completion reports to the public and instead,
require DWR to provide well completion reports to the
following specified groups and individuals: a)
governmental agencies for studies, b) academics affiliated
with college-level or higher institutions for scientific or
public research, or c) geologists, geophysicists,
hydrologists, civil engineers, or well contractors; (2)
prohibit a person receiving a well completion report from:
a) identifying the exact location of any well in the
report, b) providing the report to any other person or
entity not involved in the research, or, c) using the
report for sale, resale, solicitation, or advertisement of
sales or services; and, (3) make knowing violation of any
of the well completion report prohibitions a misdemeanor
crime punishable by up to $25,000 per day for each day of
the violation, imprisonment in a county jail for not more
than one year, or both.
ANALYSIS : 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.
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2.Prohibits those well completion reports from being made
available to the public, except under certain
circumstances.
This bill:
1.Requires 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.
2.Makes any person who knowingly violates the restrictions
on the use or sharing of a well completion report guilty
of a misdemeanor violation punishable by up to $25,000
per day, a year in county jail, or both.
Background
In 1949, to help prevent groundwater pollution caused by
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, aka drillers' logs or well logs,
are a record of the drilling and construction of the well.
Well logs provide the record necessary to demonstrate that
the well was properly constructed, modified, or
decommissioned, and further provides the necessary
construction detail should the well need to be modified at
some later date. They 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
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and purity of underground waters." In doing so, the
legislature expanded the well drilling laws to (1)
authorize DWR to establish regulations governing the proper
construction of water wells, (2) require all well
completion reports be filed with DWR, and (3) restricted
access to those reports to government agencies.
The legislative record does not give any insight as to why
the logs were made confidential. The conjecture is that
they were made confidential at the request of the well
drillers. Many well drillers consider the information in
the well logs to be proprietary. For example, let's say
Driller A has just drilled a well, and someone wants to
have another well to be drilled a short distance away.
Driller A, by virtue of knowing the soil conditions in the
immediate vicinity, would have a competitive advantage over
any other driller.
No other western state restricts access to well logs as in
California. Indeed, most western states provide internet
access to well logs.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: Yes
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.)
SUPPORT : (Verified 9/7/11)
Alameda County Water District
American Society of Civil Engineers
Applied Water Resources Corporation
California Coastkeeper Alliance
California League of Conservation Voters
Californian's Aware
Diamond Well Drilling Company
East Bay Municipal Utility District
Groundwater Resources Association
League of Women Voters
Montara Water & Sanitary District
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Natural Resources Defense Council
Northern California Water Association
Orange County Water District
Orion Environmental Inc.
Self-Help Enterprises
Sonoma County Water Agency
The Nature Conservancy
Water Master Support Services
Water Replenishment District of Southern California
OPPOSITION : (Verified 9/7/11)
Clean Water Action
Community Water Center
Environmental Justice Coalition for Water
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : 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
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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."
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION : Opponents to this bill state,
"The original intent of SB263 was to make California state
law conform to standard practice in other states regarding
the public availability of well completion reports. Every
other western state allows public access to these well
completion reports, and some even make them available
on-line. We supported the bill as an opportunity to help
communities gain access to information that would help them
make more informed decisions about their water supply.
"Under SB 263 as amended, communities and non-governmental
organizations will continue to be denied access to
information. Even worse, this bill for the first time
enshrines in statute a criminal penalty for divulging
information from well reports. This bill has turned from a
public right-to-know to a right-to-punish bill. We
understand that the legislative process leads to
compromise. Unfortunately, this last-minute change
constitutes not compromise, but a wholesale change in the
original intent of a bill we were happy to support. We
urge you to reconsider these changes and would be happy to
work with you on language that truly supports the access to
information that communities need and deserve."
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 57-13, 09/08/11
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Allen, Ammiano, Atkins, Beall,
Bill Berryhill, Block, Blumenfield, Bonilla, Bradford,
Brownley, Buchanan, Butler, Charles Calderon, Campos,
Carter, Cedillo, Chesbro, Davis, Dickinson, Eng, Feuer,
Fletcher, Fong, Fuentes, Furutani, Galgiani, Gatto,
Gordon, Hagman, Hall, Hayashi, Roger Hern�ndez, Hill,
Huber, Huffman, Jeffries, Jones, Logue, Bonnie Lowenthal,
Ma, Mendoza, Miller, Mitchell, Monning, Nestande, Pan, V.
Manuel P�rez, Portantino, Skinner, Solorio, Swanson,
Wagner, Wieckowski, Williams, John A. P�rez
NOES: Cook, Donnelly, Beth Gaines, Garrick, Grove,
Halderman, Knight, Morrell, Nielsen, Norby, Olsen, Smyth,
Valadao
NO VOTE RECORDED: Conway, Gorell, Harkey, Hueso, Lara,
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Mansoor, Perea, Silva, Torres, Yamada
CTW:nl 9/9/11 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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