BILL ANALYSIS �
SB 1168
Page 1
SENATE THIRD READING
SB 1168 (Pavley)
As Amended August 6, 2014
Majority vote
SENATE VOTE :24-12
WATER, PARKS & WILDLIFE 9-4 APPROPRIATIONS 11-5
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|Ayes:|Rendon, Bocanegra, Fong, |Ayes:|Gatto, Bocanegra, |
| |Frazier, Gatto, Gomez, | |Bradford, |
| |Gonzalez, Rodriguez, | |Ian Calderon, Campos, |
| |Yamada | |Gomez, Holden, Pan, |
| | | |Quirk, Ridley-Thomas, |
| | | |Weber |
| | | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
|Nays:|Bigelow, Dahle, Beth |Nays:|Bigelow, Donnelly, Jones, |
| |Gaines, Gray | |Linder, Wagner |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Requires adoption of a sustainable groundwater
sustainability plan (GSP) by January 1, 2020, for all high or
medium priority basins as determined by the Department of Water
Resources (DWR) according to specified criteria, unless the
basin is legally adjudicated or the local agency establishes it
is otherwise being sustainably managed. Specifically, this
bill :
1)Makes findings including, but not limited to, California's
high reliance on groundwater to meet its water needs; the
necessity of integrated surface and groundwater management in
order to meet the state's water management goals; and the
failed wells, deteriorated water quality, environmental
damage, and irreversible land subsidence that occur when
groundwater is not properly managed.
2)Establishes that it is the policy of the state that all
groundwater basins are managed sustainably for multiple
economic, social and environmental benefits and that such
management is best achieved locally based on best available
science.
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3)Enacts the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (Act) with
the stated intent of empowering local groundwater agencies to
sustainably manage groundwater basins through the development
of GSPs.
4)Defines sustainable groundwater management, among other terms.
5)Specifies that groundwater basins are those identified in
DWR's Bulletin No. 118, as it may be amended, and includes
subbasins.
6)Requires DWR, as part of the existing California Statewide
Groundwater Elevation Monitoring (CASGEM) program, to
prioritize each basin as either a high, medium, low, or very
low priority using factors that include, but are not limited
to, population, extent of public wells, overlying irrigated
acreage, reliance on groundwater, and any documented impacts
upon the basin from overdraft, subsidence, saline intrusion
and other water quality degradation.
7)Requires that high and medium priority basins be sustainably
managed through a GSP but excepts:
a) Basins, or portions of basins, that were subject to a
groundwater adjudication; and,
b) Basins that a local agency can demonstrate are already
being sustainably managed.
8)Allows any local agency or combination of agencies to
establish a groundwater sustainability agency (GSA) for the
purpose of developing and implementing a GSP.
9)Allows a city or county to be the GSA or, in the case of an
area where no local agency has assumed management, presumes
the county to be the GSA unless the county opts out. If the
county opts out and there is no other local agency, requires
reporting of groundwater extractions directly to the State
Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board).
10)Requires a local agency that is electing to be, or forming, a
GSA to give public notice, hold a public hearing, and then
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notify DWR within 30 days after taking action.
11)Provides for public involvement in the development of GSPs
and sets forth a diverse set of interests that should be
considered by the GSA during that process.
12)Empowers GSAs to collect information regarding the condition
of the basin and then develop and implement a GSP using, as
the GSA chooses, powers and authorities provided under the Act
including, but not limited to:
a) Acquiring land and water to carry out the plan,
including but not limited to spreading, storing, retaining,
percolating, transporting, or reclaiming water to recharge
the basin or provide water supplies in-lieu of groundwater;
b) Monitoring for compliance and limiting extractions;
c) Proposing, collecting, updating and enforcing fees,
consistent with all statutory and Constitutional
requirements; and
d) Taking civil enforcement actions against persons who
violate adopted rules, regulations, ordinances or
resolutions setting authorized levels of groundwater
extractions. Penalties may not exceed $1,000 plus $500 per
acre-foot for groundwater extracted in excess of what is
authorized. Also allows the GSA to charge up to an
additional $100 per day if the violation continues 30 days
after the local agency has notified the person of the
violation.
13)Requires, by June 1, 2016, that DWR develop guidelines
regarding:
a) GSP components;
b) Coordination of multiple GSPs for a basin; and,
c) Alternative compliance, including submitting an existing
plan as a functional equivalent of a GSP or submitting an
analysis of basin conditions that demonstrates the basin is
being sustainably managed.
14)Requires that a GSP be completed, adopted, and submitted to
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DWR by January 1, 2020, in those high and medium priority
basins that require a GSP.
15)Exempts the preparation and adoption of a GSP from the
California Environmental Quality Act but does not exempt a
project or action to implement the GSP.
16)Requires GSPs to meet certain standards including:
a) Encompassing an entire basin or subbasin; and
b) Being designed to achieve sustainable groundwater
management within 20 years of adoption with progress
reports to DWR and the State Water Board every five years.
17)Requires a GSA to annually report to DWR its groundwater
elevation data, aggregated extraction data, use or
availability of surface water for recharge or in-lieu
supplies, total water use, and change in groundwater storage.
18)Requires DWR, in consultation with the State Water Board, to
establish minimum standards for the adoption of a GSP and
provide technical assistance.
19)Allows DWR to adjust basin boundaries, as specified, and
re-prioritize low and very low basins according to criteria
that include adverse impacts to habitat and surface water
resources. If a basin is reprioritized to medium or high,
provides two years from the date of reprioritization to form a
governance entity for sustainable management and five years to
comply with the Act by either adopting a GSA or satisfy one of
the alternate means of establishing that the basin is being
sustainably managed.
20)Requires DWR, by January 1, 2018, to offer assistance to
local agencies in medium and high priority basins that have
not yet initiated a GSP and, if there is no positive
response, refer the matter to the State Water Board.
21)Allows the State Water Board to designate a basin as
"probationary" if one or more of the following occurs:
a) By January 1, 2017, no local agency or collection of
local agencies has either formed a GSA or submitted an
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alternative form of compliance;
b) By January 31, 2020, no local agency or collection of
local agencies has adopted a GSP for the basin or DWR has
not approved an alternative form of compliance; or,
c) After January 31, 2020, DWR, in consultation with the
State Water Board, determines:
i) The GSP is inadequate or not being implemented in a
manner that will likely achieve the sustainability goal;
and,
ii) The State Water Board has determined that the
groundwater basin is in a condition of long-term
overdraft or in a condition where groundwater extractions
result in significant depletions of interconnected
surface waters.
22)Requires the State Water Board to identify deficiencies in a
probationary basin and allow a minimum of 180 days for a local
agency or GSA to remedy those deficiencies and, if the
deficiencies are not remedied, adopt an interim plan after
public notice and hearing.
23)Allows the State Water Board to require reporting of
groundwater extractions in areas that are either in a
probationary basin or not being managed by any local agency;
and, charge fees to recover the cost of groundwater
management.
24)Allows the State Water Board to exclude a class or category
of extractions from the reporting requirement if those
extractions are likely to have a minimal impact on basin
withdrawals.
25)Allows a GSA to assume duties for measuring groundwater
elevations in a basin under the CASGEM program.
26)Requires coordination between local land use planning efforts
and groundwater management planning efforts.
EXISTING LAW :
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1)Provides the 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
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 No. 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 : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee analysis:
1)Increased annual General Fund costs to DWR of approximately $4
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million beginning in fiscal year (FY) 2019-20 to collect and
manage data, complete evaluations, and assist the State Water
Board in developing interim plans. DWR received $22.5 million
in the 2014-15 Budget ($2.5 million for FY 2014-15 and $5
million each year from FY 2015-16 through FY 2018-19 which
will fund Bulletin 118 updates and technical assistance.
2)Increased annual GF costs of between $200,000 and $600,000 for
two years for State Water Board to adopt a fee schedule and
develop evaluations guidelines. Increased out-year costs of
between $1 million and $2.5 million (special fund) including
state interim plans to be covered by fee revenues.
3)Minor, if any, reimbursable local government costs.
COMMENTS : As Benjamin Franklin warned over 200 years ago, we
know the worth of water when the well is dry. Unfortunately,
for many Californians that is a stark reality or a pending
calamity that has been coming in slow-motion for 50 years. In
its August 15, 2014, editorial the Sacramento Bee notes that it
was in 1962 that an Assembly Interim Committee on Water dodged
the issue of needed groundwater management by advising the
Legislature it should act if the situation got worse. It got
worse. Sixteen years later, in 1978, the Governor's Commission
to Review California Water Rights Law, a group commissioned by
Governor Jerry Brown, found the groundwater situation was
critical and that comprehensive local management had not been
undertaken in many overdrafted areas of the state. Again, there
was no action.
An August 18, 2014, Los Angeles Times column asserts there is no
better time to act than now. The Times notes that the
recently-passed $7.545 bond for water-related projects and
programs that is scheduled for the November 2014 ballot contains
$100 million for planning and implementing groundwater
management, $800 million for cleaning up groundwater, $700
million for recycling and $2.7 billion for dam building. As the
Los Angeles Times column states, these are projects that can
help replenish underground basins but it will take pumping rules
to assure taxpayers that they're getting their money's worth.
The Times Los Angeles column concludes, the State has been
ignoring experts' increasing warnings regarding groundwater
depletions for decades and holding off on groundwater regulation
since statehood but that this bill and a related measure AB 1739
(Dickinson) of the current legislative session, seek to empower
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local governments to manage groundwater sustainably while
allowing the state to step in if they fail to do so.
While California uses more groundwater than any other state, it
is the last in the Union to lack an enforceable set of statewide
groundwater management standards. Groundwater informational
hearings in the Assembly Water, Parks & Wildlife Committee and
the Senate Natural Resources & Water Committee in March 2014
revealed disturbing statistics on the current degradation of
some of California's groundwater basins: between 2003 and 2009
the groundwater aquifers for the Central Valley and its major
mountain water source, the Sierra Nevadas, lost almost 26
million acre-feet of water - 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.
In response to the crisis two bills were introduced in the
Legislature, this bill and AB 1739. Following introduction of
both bills the authors began extensive stakeholder outreach
facilitated by both a nonprofit nonpartisan foundation and an
association of water agencies. During this time, the
Administration of Governor Brown also proposed statutory
language to manage groundwater, made it available on the
internet, and started a series of public stakeholder meetings.
In July 2014, four professionally facilitated public meetings
were convened and led by representatives of both authors as well
as the Administration. Following those meetings language was
taken from each bill and the Administration's proposal and
crafted into one integrated statute. That language was amended
into both this bill and AB 1739, making them identical. Both
authors also became coauthors of each bill. When the integrated
statute came into print, another professionally-facilitated
stakeholder meeting was held to get additional input on
refinements.
The author states that this bill is needed because California
faces a groundwater crisis. The author points out that the
cumulative overdraft of our groundwater basins is equivalent to
the entire amount of water stored in Lake Tahoe and that in many
areas of the state, local groundwater managers lack the tools
and authorities to manage the groundwater basins. The author
concludes that without improved local management the overdraft
in many parts of the state will get even worse over the next
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several years. Other supporters add that a new statewide policy
for sustainable groundwater management is urgently needed and
that this bill addresses one of California's most pressing water
management issues. Supporters point out that breadth of the
stakeholder involvement process that was used in order to help
ensure the right balance of provisions to empower local
groundwater management agencies with new tools and authorities
and to create an appropriate state backstop that will allow the
state to intervene only when needed.
Opponents state they share the author's interest in improving
groundwater management but are concerned about the broad scope
and specific impacts of this measure. Opponents believe this
bill is extraordinarily ambitious and comprehensive and that in
its current form it would substantially alter the California
landscape and economy for generations to come. Opponents are
concerned that this bill could require hundreds of millions of
dollars in implementation costs and are worried about potential
affects to existing groundwater rights and generate litigation.
Opponents maintain the legislation goes beyond the goal of
sustainable groundwater management and will adversely affect the
agricultural economy and the landscape that is dependent upon it
and cause a potential devaluation in some land thus affecting
property tax collections in some areas and the services and
programs that are dependent upon them. Opponents advocate
delaying action in order to avoid what they believe would be
unanticipated consequences.
Analysis Prepared by : Tina Cannon Leahy / W., P. & W. / (916)
319-2096
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