BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 1707
SENATE COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
Senator Jerry Hill, Chair
2013-2014 Regular Session
BILL NO: AB 1707
AUTHOR: Wilk
AMENDED: June 5, 2014
FISCAL: Yes HEARING DATE: June 18, 2014
URGENCY: No CONSULTANT: Rachel Machi
Wagoner
SUBJECT : WATER QUALITY: SCIENTIFIC PEER REVIEW
SUMMARY :
Existing Law :
1)Under the federal Clean Water Act, requires the state to
identify those waters within its boundaries that are not
sufficiently protected by state and federal water quality
standards (identified as "impaired water bodies"), to rank
such waters based upon the severity of their pollution, and to
establish total maximum daily loads (TMDLs) for pollutants
found in those waters.
2)Under the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Act:
a) Requires the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB)
and the nine Regional Quality Control Boards (regional
boards) to protect and maintain the beneficial uses of the
state's waters.
b) Requires each regional board to adopt a water quality
control plan for its region that provides for the
reasonable protection of the beneficial uses of waters in
that region. Requires the implementation of water quality
objectives to include a broad description of the actions
necessary to achieve such objectives.
c) Establishes external scientific peer review process of
the scientific basis of any proposed regulatory
requirements by boards, departments and offices in the
California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA).
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Requires the external scientific peer review to
specifically include those policies adopted by SWRCB to
implement regional basin water quality plans.
This bill requires SWRCB to post on its Internet Web site a copy
of the external scientific peer review conducted for proposed
rules of the state board or a regional board.
COMMENTS :
Purpose of Bill . According to the author:
AB 1707 will require all external scientific peer
reviews-whose performance is already mandatory-to be posted on
the SWRCB website. This will improve transparency and
accountability by having these peer reviews easily accessible
to the public.
Posting all regional and state peer reviews on one central
website will allow for a comprehensive look at the peer
reviews being performed throughout the state. Existing law
requires an external scientific peer review to be prepared for
rules, regulations, and policies adopted by any board,
department, or office within the CalEPA. However, copies of
these reviews are often extremely difficult to find, begging
the question if they were ever even performed. Additionally,
the Board already has an existing website, so this addition
should be simple and the cost should be absorbable. Finally,
the performance of the peer reviews is already mandated by
law, so the only change AB 1707 makes is that the reports be
posted for public access.
Is This Bill Needed ? The author's intent to have peer reviewed
science more readily accessible to the public is a laudable
goal. However, is legislation needed to accomplish this goal or
would it be more appropriate to ask SWRCB to post this
information on their website?
SOURCE : Author
SUPPORT : California Association of Sanitation Agencies
California Farm Bureau Federation
County Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County
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San Diego County Board of Supervisors
Partnership for Sound Science in Environmental
Policy
OPPOSITION : None on file