BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 1739
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Date of Hearing: April 29, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON WATER, PARKS AND WILDLIFE
Anthony Rendon, Chair
AB 1739 (Dickinson) - As Amended: April 22, 2014
SUBJECT : Groundwater management
SUMMARY : Requires sustainable groundwater management in all
groundwater subbasins determined by the Department of Water
Resources (DWR) to be at medium to high risk of significant
economic, social and environmental impacts due to an
unsustainable and chronic pattern of groundwater extractions
exceeding the ability of the surface water supplies to replenish
the subbasin. Specifically, this bill :
1)Adds groundwater sustainability to the Water Code and applies
that section, by definition, to those groundwater basins
(which include both basins and subbasins) that are identified
by DWR as high or medium priority (Priority Basins).
2)Requires, by January 1, 2020, that a sustainable groundwater
management plan (SGMP) be adopted in each Priority Basin by an
overlying groundwater management agency (GMA) and updated
every five years thereafter and that such plans meet, in
addition to the minimum current components for groundwater
management plans (GMPs), the following requirements:
a) Sustainable groundwater management objectives, an
analysis of demonstrating how the objectives will achieve
sustainable groundwater management within 20 years of the
implementation of the plan, and an identification of the
parties responsible for achieving the objectives;
b) A minimum 50 year planning and implementation horizon;
c) Annual submission of performance reports;
d) Regular submission of monitoring data to DWR for the
California Statewide Groundwater Elevation Monitoring
Program (CASGEM) and locally to stakeholders.
3)Exempts from SGMP requirements any groundwater basin, or
portion of a groundwater basin, that is subject to groundwater
management pursuant to other provisions of law or a court
order, judgment, or decree.
4)Requires SGMPs covering different portions of a groundwater
basin not to conflict or impede each other.
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5)Empowers a GMA to:
a) Incorporate other areas overlying the groundwater basin
that are not covered by another SGMP;
b) Request an adjustment of a groundwater basin boundary to
address hydrologic conditions and other features and other
features based upon a technical analysis;
c) Enter into different types of legal agreements to
facilitate participation among entities;
d) Raise funds for the purposes of sustainable groundwater
management;
e) Regulate the pumping of groundwater;
f) Establish, assume, or cooperatively manage well
permitting programs;
g) Enforce the GMA's SGMP.
6)Prohibits new extractions from the groundwater as of a
not-yet-specified date, or the date adopted by the GMA,
whichever is earlier, unless the groundwater basin has an
SGMP. Excludes single-family domestic wells from that
prohibition.
7)Allows money in the existing Local Groundwater Assistance
Fund, which is used for planning and implementation of GMPs to
also be used for SGMP planning and implementation.
8)Allows Local Agency Formation Commissions to provide special
technical assistance and an expedited timeline to facilitation
the formation of local and regional GMAs.
9)Requires cities and counties, upon the adoption or revision of
a general plan, to utilize GMPs and SGMPs as source
documents.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Provides the State Water Resources Control Board (State Water
Board) with broad powers to regulate the waste and
unreasonable use of water, including groundwater.
2)Categorizes groundwater as either a subterranean stream
flowing through a known and definite channel or percolating
groundwater. Groundwater that is a subterranean stream is
subject to the same State Water Board water right permitting
requirements as surface water. There is no statewide
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permitting requirement for percolating groundwater, which is
the majority of groundwater.
3)Encourages local agencies to work cooperatively to manage
groundwater resources within their jurisdictions and, if not
otherwise required by law, to voluntarily adopt GMPs.
4)Requires that a GMP contain components related to funding,
management, and monitoring in order for a local agency to be
eligible for groundwater project funds administered by DWR.
5)Allows a GMP to voluntarily contain additional listed
components.
6)Requires all of the groundwater basins identified in DWR's
Groundwater Report, Bulletin 118, to be regularly and
systematically monitored locally and the information to be
readily and widely available.
7)Requires DWR to perform the groundwater elevation monitoring
function if no local entity will do so but then bars the
county and other entities eligible to monitor that basin from
receiving state water grants or loans.
8)Requires DWR to prioritize groundwater basins based on
multiple factors including, but not limited to, the level of
population and irrigated acreage relying on the groundwater
basin as a primary source of water and the current impacts on
the groundwater basin from overdraft, subsidence, saline
intrusion and other water quality degradation.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : California uses more groundwater than any other
State yet there are no statewide standards for groundwater
management. Groundwater provides, on average, 40% of
California's water supply and that usage can increase to 60% or
greater in dry years. For some communities groundwater is 100%
of their local supplies. Yet groundwater is perhaps our most
mysterious and least understood water source. Groundwater refers
to water located beneath the surface in soil pore spaces and in
the fractures of rock formations. It does not exist as one
continuous homogenous bathtub-like water body, but can be almost
like a layer cake with different levels of varying depths that
extend to large areas or are confined to small disconnected
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pockets.
On March 11, 2014 the Assembly Water, Parks & Wildlife Committee
held an informational hearing on Management of California's
Groundwater Resources. The purpose of the hearing was to add to
the growing and collaborative conversation about groundwater
management in California - a conversation that was made more
urgent by the Governor's declaration on January 17, 2014 of a
drought state of emergency in California.
The Governor's declaration came on the heels of three dry years
in a row and was the second time in five years that a California
Governor had declared a drought state of emergency. Testimony
at the hearing referenced the data from the National Aeronautics
and Space Administration (NASA)/German Aerospace Center Gravity
Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites, which
reveals that between 2003 and 2009 the groundwater aquifers for
the Central Valley and its major mountain water source, the
Sierra Nevadas, had lost almost 26 million acre-feet of water
(an acre-foot is a standard measurement of water - enough water
to flood an acre of land a foot deep - and equates to about
326,000 gallons). That is nearly enough water combined to fill
Lake Mead, America's largest reservoir. The findings reflected
the effects of California's extended drought and the resulting
increased rates of groundwater being pumped for human uses, such
as irrigation.
Overdraft in California today is estimated to occur in parts of
the Central Valley, especially the Tulare Lake Basin, but also
in some coastal and southern California basins with limited
surface water supplies and intensive agriculture. While some
overdraft reverses temporarily during wet periods, DWR estimates
that California is overdrafting its groundwater at a rate of 1.5
million acre-feet per year. However, NASA estimates groundwater
overdraft in California may be close to 4.4 million acre-feet
per year statewide.
Current Groundwater Management and Monitoring of Supply
There are three basic methods available for managing groundwater
resources in California: management by local agencies under
authority granted in the California Water Code or other
applicable State statutes; local government groundwater
ordinances or joint powers agreements; and, court adjudications.
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AB 3030 (Costa), the California Groundwater Management Act, was
passed by the Legislature in 1992. It was a significant
addition to the groundwater management authorities granted under
the Water Code in that it greatly increased the number of local
agencies authorized to develop GWMPs and set forth a common
framework for management by local agencies throughout
California. Adoption of a GMP was encouraged under AB 3030 but
not required. SB 1938 (Machado/2002) took a further step when
it set out certain specified components for GMPs and required
any local agency seeking state funds administered by DWR to meet
those requirements. Subsequent bond initiatives have also made
an adopted GMP an eligibility criterion for receiving
groundwater project and program funds. Since its passage, 149
agencies have adopted GMPs in accordance with AB 3030. Other
agencies have begun the process. As mentioned above, in some
basins, groundwater is managed under other statutory or judicial
authority.
The California Groundwater Management Act, as amended, provides
a systematic procedure to develop a GMP and requires the
inclusion of certain minimum components. These include basin
management objectives and monitoring and management of
groundwater levels, inelastic surface subsidence, and changes in
surface flow and surface quality that directly affect
groundwater levels or quality or are caused by groundwater
pumping. The Act also requires a description of how recharge
areas identified in the plan substantially contribute to the
replenishment of the groundwater basin. In addition, suggested
optional components that might be relevant for a particular
groundwater basin are listed.
In 2009 groundwater monitoring took another step forward in the
historic five-bill package of water legislation adopted during
the Seventh Extraordinary Session on water in 2009. That package
included SBX7 6 (Steinberg). SBX7 6 recognized that the
statewide collection and evaluation of seasonal and long-term
trends in groundwater elevations in California's groundwater
basins is an important fundamental step toward improving
management of California's groundwater resources. To achieve
that goal, SBX7 6 incentivizes local monitoring entities to
collect groundwater elevation data by mandating that, as a
default, it will be done by DWR and if DWR was required to step
in then those entities are ineligible for state funding for
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their groundwater projects and programs. In accordance with
SBX7 6, DWR developed the California Statewide Groundwater
Elevation Monitoring (CASGEM) program.
State Water Resources Control Board Groundwater Workplan Concept
Paper
On October 4, 2013 the State Water Board's release of a
Discussion Draft Groundwater Workplan Concept Paper advanced the
groundwater conversation even further. That paper called for the
implementation of five key elements - "whether at the local,
regional, or state level" - in order to effectively manage
groundwater. The five elements are:
"1. Sustainable thresholds for water level drawdown and water
quality for impacted, vulnerable, and high-use basins;
2. Water quality and water level monitoring and assessment, and
data management systems, capable of determining if thresholds
are being met and evaluating trends;
3. Governance structures with the management mechanisms needed
to prevent impacts before they occur, clean up contamination
where it has occurred, provide adequate treatment of
contaminated drinking water sources, and ensure that meeting
groundwater level and quality thresholds are managed over the
long term;
4. Funding to support monitoring and governance/management
actions; and
5. Oversight and enforcement in basins where ongoing management
efforts are not protecting groundwater.
The Groundwater Workplan Concept Paper also advised that the
Water Board would be focusing "attention and assistance on
high-use basins where thresholds are being exceeded." Following
release of that Concept Paper the State Water Board engaged in
stakeholder discussion to receive feedback and held several
highly-attended all day public workshops.
California Water Action Plan and Governor's Budget 2014-15
January 22, 2014 also saw the release of the final version of
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the Governor's California Water Action Plan. Responding to "one
of the driest winters on record," the Governor tasked the
California Natural Resources Agency, the California
Environmental Protection Agency, and the California Department
of Food and Agriculture in late 2013 to work together on a plan
that would guide state efforts to enhance water supply
reliability, restore damaged and destroyed ecosystems, and
improve the resilience of our infrastructure over the next five
years. The Plan focuses on eight "challenges for managing
California's water supplies," which are: uncertain water
supplies; water scarcity/drought; declining groundwater
supplies; poor water quality; declining native fish species and
loss of wildlife habitat; floods; supply disruptions; and,
population growth and climate change further increasing the
severity of risks.
Regarding declining groundwater supplies, the Action Plan
acknowledges that some of California's groundwater basins are
sustainably managed, but unfortunately, many are not. The
report finds that "inconsistent and inadequate tools, resources
and authorities make managing groundwater difficult in
California and impede our ability to address problems such as
overdraft, seawater intrusion, land subsidence, and water
quality degradation." But it also acknowledged that,
conversely, properly managed groundwater resources could "help
protect communities, farms and the environment against the
impacts of prolonged dry periods and climate change" and that
the "strategies identified in this action plan will move
California toward more sustainable management of our groundwater
resources."
With respect to expanding water storage capacity and improving
groundwater management, the Action Plan focuses on the increased
flexibility that could be created in California's water
management system if some increment of flows in high water years
could be banked for later in surface water reservoirs and
groundwater basins. The Action Plan also acknowledged the need
to "better manage our groundwater basins to reverse alarming
declines in groundwater levels" and that continued "declines in
groundwater levels could lead to irreversible land subsidence,
poor water quality, reduced surface flows, ecosystem impacts,
and the permanent loss of capacity to store water as
groundwater." Among the programs identified for support to
achieve the Action Plan goals were CASGEMS and GAMA. The
Action Plan also called for an update of Bulletin 118 and
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efforts to improve sustainable groundwater management, support
distributed groundwater storage, increase statewide groundwater
recharge, and accelerate cleanup of contaminated groundwater and
prevent future contamination.
On January 9, 2014, the Governor proposed his 2014-15 budget,
which included $619 million to advance the Action Plan. The
budget took bold steps on groundwater under the title "Expand
Water Storage Capacity" by providing $1.9 million to the State
Water Board for "10 positions to act as a backstop when local or
regional agencies are unable or unwilling to sustainably manage
groundwater basins." The proposed budget advises that the State
Water Board "will protect groundwater basins at risk of
permanent damage until local or regional agencies are able to do
so." In addition to funds for the State Water Board groundwater
management backstop, the budget included $3 million for
continued support of GAMA's priority basin project and $2.9
million to DWR to continue CASGEM with an additional directive
for "more effective and timely access to hydrogeologic and well
construction data." On March 1, 2014 the Governor signed two
bipartisan urgency measures SB 103 and SB 104 (Committee on
Budget and Fiscal Review) that accelerated some funding proposed
in the budget in order to more quickly address drought-related
impacts. Some groundwater management funds were included in
that action.
Governor's Office Draft Framework for Soliciting Stakeholder
Input on Groundwater Management
On March 7, 2014 the Governor's Office released a draft
framework for "soliciting input on actions that can be taken to
assure that local groundwater managers have the tools and
authority to sustainably manage groundwater consistent with the
California Water Action Plan." In particular the Draft
Framework advises that in developing ideas it may be helpful to
consider whether local agencies need enhanced local agency
authority and how the State should structure state backstop
authority when local action has not occurred or has been
insufficient.
The Draft Framework emphasizes that local agencies are the most
familiar with the condition of their groundwater basins and are
in the best position to manage those resources locally. But it
acknowledges that local agencies may need new or modified
statutory authorities to manage groundwater more effectively.
The framework submits for consideration whether such tools would
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need to address:
allocation of groundwater
ability to control pumping
ability to assess fees for replenishment or other
groundwater activities
groundwater measurement and reporting
Additional questions regarding local authority include, but are
not limited to whether existing GMPs should play a role and, if
so, whether their content needs to change and whether there are
existing barriers to adequately funding groundwater management
efforts.
Current Groundwater Legislation
This bill is one of two current legislative efforts to address
better groundwater management. The other bill is SB 1168
(Pavley) which was heard in Senate Natural Resources and Water
Committee on April 22, 2014. Both bills represent initial
groundwater management concepts developed after extensive
stakeholder processes.
Supporting arguments : The author states that in many areas,
including parts of the San Joaquin Valley, overdraft of
groundwater has become a serious problem and while a number of
groundwater basins and subbasins are under sound local and
regional management, others are not. The author adds that while
existing authorities and requirements for managing groundwater
provide a strong foundation, managing to a sustainable level of
groundwater requires additional tools that build upon that
foundation. The author advises that this bill seeks to address
several critical policy objectives that are central to improving
local and regional groundwater management efforts and achieving
sustainable groundwater levels, especially in high and medium
risk overdraft basins and subbasins.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support Opposition
None on file None on file
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Analysis Prepared by : Tina Cannon Leahy / W., P. & W. / (916)
319-2096