BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    �




                   Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
                           Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair


          SB 1146 (Pavley) - Wells: reports: public availability.
          
          Amended: April 9, 2012          Policy Vote: NR&W 5-3, EQ 5-2
          Urgency: No                     Mandate: No
          Hearing Date: May 14, 2012      Consultant: Marie Liu
          
          This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
          
          
          Bill Summary: SB 263 requires the Department of Water Resources 
          (DWR) to make well log reports for water wells available to the 
          public.

          Fiscal Impact: 
               One-time costs of approximately $300,000 from the General 
              Fund in 2013-14 for the development of regulations and 
              establishing a fee.
               Likely ongoing costs of $100,000 from the General Fund 
              beginning in 2013-14 to respond to increased requests for 
              well log reports. These costs should be fully covered by a 
              new fee authorized in this bill.

          Background: Under existing law, a person who drills, destroys, 
          deepens, or alters a water well is required to file a report 
          with the DWR. These reports are referred to as "well logs" and 
          include information on the location of the well, the underlying 
          soils, the depth of water, and other aspects of the well. DWR is 
          prohibited from making well logs available to the public, unless 
          the well owner provides permission. California is the only 
          western state to restrict access to well longs. 

          DWR has more than 700,000 well logs on record and receives 
          10,000 to 20,000 new well logs per year. These reports exist 
          either as hard copies or in a very rudimentary database. 

          Proposed Law: This bill requires DWR to make well logs available 
          to the public upon request. The well log must be accompanied 
          with a statement that explains the limitation and the 
          appropriate use of the information. DWR would be authorized to 
          charge a fee to recover all the department's costs in providing 
          the report.









          SB 1146 (Pavley)
          Page 1


          Related Legislation: SB 263 (Pavley) 2011 was similar to this 
          bill but it was ultimately vetoed by the Governor 

          Staff Comments: DWR estimates ongoing costs of $100,000 and 
          one-time costs of $300,000 to implement this bill. This bill 
          allows DWR to charge a fee to cover all of its costs in 
          administering this section. However, in order for the fee to 
          cover the start-up costs such as regulation development, DWR 
          will need to receive a loan from the General Fund that will 
          eventually be repaid by fee revenues. However, the ability to 
          repay this loan on schedule is dependent on whether DWR can 
          accurately estimate how many well log requests it will receive 
          as a result of this bill.