BILL ANALYSIS �
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 263|
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VETO
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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SENATE FLOOR : 40-0, 9/9/11
AYES: Alquist, Anderson, Berryhill, Blakeslee, Calderon,
Cannella, Corbett, Correa, De Le�n, DeSaulnier, Dutton,
Emmerson, Evans, Fuller, Gaines, Hancock, Harman,
Hernandez, Huff, Kehoe, La Malfa, Leno, Lieu, Liu,
Lowenthal, Negrete McLeod, Padilla, Pavley, Price, Rubio,
Runner, Simitian, Steinberg, Strickland, Vargas, Walters,
Wolk, Wright, Wyland, Yee
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
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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.
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
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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
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
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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
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
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
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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."
GOVERNOR'S VETO MESSAGE:
"I am returning SB 263 without my signature.
The original intent of this bill recognized that wise
management and use of groundwater supply requires
public disclosure of well logs. Unfortunately, as
amended, this bill now unduly restricts the use of
these reports and imposes severe criminal penalties
for disclosure.
California is the only western state that does not
provide ready access to well reports. That should be
changed. I am directing the Department of Water
Resources to work with the author to ensure
responsible public access to well logs."
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,
Mansoor, Perea, Silva, Torres, Yamada
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CTW:nl 1/4/12 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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