BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 617
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ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB
617 (Perea)
As Amended May 28, 2015
Majority vote
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|Committee |Votes |Ayes |Noes |
| | | | |
| | | | |
|----------------+------+---------------------+---------------------|
|Water |14-0 |Levine, Bigelow, | |
| | |Dababneh, Dahle, | |
| | |Dodd, Beth Gaines, | |
| | |Cristina Garcia, | |
| | |Gomez, Harper, | |
| | |Lopez, Mathis, | |
| | |Medina, Rendon, | |
| | |Salas | |
| | | | |
|----------------+------+---------------------+---------------------|
|Appropriations |17-0 |Gomez, Bigelow, | |
| | |Bonta, Calderon, | |
| | |Chang, Daly, Eggman, | |
| | |Gallagher, | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | |Eduardo Garcia, | |
| | |Gordon, Holden, | |
| | |Jones, Quirk, | |
| | |Rendon, Wagner, | |
| | |Weber, Wood | |
AB 617
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| | | | |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY: Modifies multiple portions of last year's Sustainable
Groundwater Management Act (SGMA). Specifically, this bill:
1)Modifies the current SGMA prohibition against counting any
increase in groundwater pumping during the period that a
Groundwater Sustainability Plan (GSP) is under development as
the basis for a later groundwater claim. Instead, this bill,
modifies the prohibition when a local agency takes "a regulatory
action to control groundwater extractions," even if it occurs
before a GSP is adopted. Makes other technical changes to the
scope of the prohibition.
2)Merges "in lieu use" into the definition of groundwater recharge
such that a person who uses surface water that could otherwise
extract groundwater may be able to claim that a deferral of
groundwater pumping occurred that should count as recharge for
the purposes of SGMA, whether or not the action was part of a
GSP.
3)Strikes all existing separate SGMA references to in lieu use.
4)Allows a private mutual water company to:
a) Join GSAs formed by one or more public agencies pursuant
to a Joint Powers Agreement (JPA);
b) Exercise the GSA power to include or exclude a water
corporation regulated by the Public Utilities Commission;
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c) Hold in common the GSA powers provided by SGMA in order
for the GSA to exercise those powers.
5)Allows Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSAs) to enter into
public/private partnerships to facilitate the implementation of
GSPs or elements of GSPs.
6)Creates a remedy for state agency noncompliance with the GSP by
allowing a GSA to file notice with the State Water Resources
Control Board (State Water Board) and allowing the State Water
Board to direct a state entity to cooperate.
7)Allows the Department of Water Resources (DWR) to consider
whether a GSA has failed to meet SGMA requirements because it is
in litigation when determining whether or not to grant up to two
five-year extensions to the requirement to meet sustainability
within the 20 years,.
8)Modifies the requirement that multiple GSAs in the same
groundwater basin must utilize the same data and methodologies
and instead states that they must use consistent data and
methodologies.
9)Specifies that the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA)
does not apply to the formation or election of a GSA.
10)Prohibits the State Water Board from placing any portion of a
basin in probationary status if there is an adopted GSP that is
being implemented in accordance with the sustainability goals.
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EXISTING LAW:
1)Allows a private mutual water company to join with a public
agency using a JPA, but limits the powers of the JPA to only
those already held in common by all of the parties.
2)Mandates that local public agencies meet all "government in the
sunshine" requirements including, but not limited to, making
decisions during public meetings, making records publicly
available, and disclosing conflicts of interest.
3)Mandates that private mutual water companies meet limited
"government in the sunshine" requirements related to notices of
meetings, public agendas, public testimony and public access to
records.
4)Requires DWR to evaluate groundwater basins and designate them
as high, medium, low or very low, according to various factors
including, but not limited to, level of dependence upon the
basin by municipal and agricultural users.
5)Requires that local agencies in high- and medium-priority basins
or subbasins subject to SGMA form one or more GSAs by June 30,
2017.
6)For basins or subbasins subject to SGMA, requires a GSP to fully
cover the basin or subbasin but allows multiple GSPs as long as
they do the following:
a) Cover the entire basin or subbasin.
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b) Adopt a single agreement that explains how multiple
planning efforts overlying the same groundwater resource will
be coordinated.
c) Agree upon and use the same data, methodologies, and
assumptions when developing their plans.
d) Submit the coordinated plans to DWR together by the
appropriate deadline.
7)Requires that GSAs in basins with chronic overdraft develop and
adopt GSPs for their basin or subbasin by January 31, 2020 and
that GSAs in all other high and medium priority basins subject
to SGMA develop and adopt GSPs by January 31, 2022.
8)Prohibits a pumper who increases pumping during the time the GSP
is under development from using that pumping increase as the
basis of an expanded claim to groundwater against other users'
rights.
9)Requires that adopted GSPs utilize a 50-year planning horizon
that will achieve sustainability in a basin or subbasin within
20 years and include identified milestones at five-year
intervals.
10)Defines groundwater recharge to mean augmentation of
groundwater, by natural or artificial means.
11)Defines sustainable groundwater management in a GSP as avoiding
undesirable results in the basin or subbasin from groundwater
pumping such as significant and unreasonable: lowering of
groundwater levels: reduction of groundwater storage; seawater
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intrusion; degraded water quality; land subsidence; and,
depletions of interconnected surface waters.
12)Provides GSAs with optional tools for reaching sustainability
including, but not limited to, the ability to conduct
investigations, collect fees, limit pumping, require measurement
and reporting of groundwater extractions, monitor compliance,
charge civil penalties for violations, and implement plans and
programs to recharge a basin or subbasin.
13)Requires state agencies to pay the same groundwater extraction
fees as local agencies but does not otherwise require state
agencies to comply with local GSPs.
14)Authorizes the State Water Board to declare a basin in
probationary status and adopt an interim plan for a basin,
subbasin, or portion of a basin or subbasin if: there is no GSA
formed by June 30, 2017; there is no GSP by the relevant
deadline; or, a submitted GSP is deemed inadequate by DWR and
the basin is in chronic overdraft or groundwater pumping is
causing a significant depletion of interconnected surface
waters.
15)Requires the State Water Board to exempt "good actors" from
enforcement provisions and to model interim plans on good
actors' plans.
16)Allows the State Water Board, in an area that has no GSA by
June 30, 2017, to require direct reporting of groundwater
extractions and to charge fees to administer that program.
17)Allows the State Water Board, when a basin is deemed
probationary, to charge fees for interim management and fines
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for enforcement, including fines for material misstatements in
reports of groundwater extraction or measurement.
FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, absorbable costs.
COMMENTS: This bill makes multiple changes to SGMA, a law which
took effect on January 1, 2015.
The author maintains that this bill clarifies and harmonizes
various SGMA provisions. In addition, the author states that this
bill proposes to address some fundamental policy questions
including, but not limited to affects upon SGMA deadlines due to
litigation, CEQA application to GSA formation, whether state
agencies should comply with GSPs, and whether GSAs can enter into
public/private partnerships.
SGMA and its related statutory provisions were developed as a
three-bill package of legislation: AB 1739 (Dickinson), Chapter
347, Statutes of 2014, SB 1168 (Pavley), Chapter 346, Statutes of
2014, and SB 1319 (Pavley), Chapter 348, Statutes of 2014. This
bill language was the result of intensive stakeholder input and
involvement including, in addition to the policy committee
hearings in the Assembly and Senate, five
professionally-facilitated public meetings that included
representatives from Assembly Member Dickinson's office, Senator
Pavley's office, and Governor Jerry Brown's administration.
The need for SGMA was also informed by two informational hearings,
one in the Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee and one in
the Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee. During those
hearings it was revealed that while groundwater constitutes
approximately 40% of the overall water supply during times of
normal precipitation in California, during times of drought
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groundwater dependence can top 60% of the overall California water
supply. The Legislative informational hearings on groundwater
also revealed that dropping groundwater levels were wreaking havoc
across an ever widening swath of farms and communities; land
subsidence was buckling infrastructure, cracking irrigation
canals, and depositing threatening levels of sediment into flood
control structures; streams were being dewatered, depriving both
senior water rights holders and wildlife of crucial surface flows;
and, coastal zones were suffering saline water intrusion. In
addition, the lower the water tables fell the greater the cost to
drill new wells and pump water, for those that could afford to do
so in the first place. Some poor communities with shallow wells
simply went dry.
Supporters state this bill will allow GSAs to efficiently and
effectively implement SGMA. Supporters add that this bill will
add much needed clarification to the timing and means by which the
State Water Board may declare a subbasin as being in probationary
status, and will help to harmonize key provisions of SGMA. In
particular, supporters emphasize the importance of provisions in
this bill that: 1) establish a process for requesting state
agencies to comply with the same groundwater requirements as other
pumpers; 2) exempt GSA formations from CEQA; 3) authorize GSA's to
enter into public/private partnerships and for mutual water
companies to be members of GSA JPAs; and 4) include "in lieu"
recharge as part of groundwater recharge.
Opponents acknowledge the progress the author has made in certain
areas of this bill but state that this bill makes many substantive
and problematic changes to SGMA. For example, opponents are
concerned with allowing local regulatory action to change the
tolling provision for prescriptive groundwater claims as this
could have the effect of allowing increased groundwater
withdrawals. Opponents also state that deleting the problematic
definition of "in-lieu use" and folding it into the definition of
"groundwater recharge" would allow any user of surface water to
assert he is recharging groundwater. Opponents maintain that only
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such activities that are part of an adopted GSP should count as
"in-lieu" use. Opponents are also concerned with the ability of
mutual water companies to join GSAs using JPAs. Opponents state
that mutual water companies are not subject to sufficient
transparency requirements and should be subject to the same
disclosure as public agencies for GSA activities. Opponents also
reject allowing DWR to grant five-year extensions of the 20-year
sustainability goal based on litigation and are concerned with
this bill's CEQA exemption for agency formation.
In addition to this bill, there are several other measures
proposing changes to SGMA. The most relevant is SB 13 (Pavley) of
the current legislative session. As referenced above, Senator
Pavley is one of SGMA's authors and SB 13 is a SGMA cleanup bill.
Importantly, like this bill, SB 13 also addresses mutual water
company participation in a GSA but does so by stating that a water
corporation regulated by the Public Utilities Commission or a
mutual water company may participate in a GSA through a memorandum
of agreement or other legal agreement with the public water agency
members but that such agreement does not confer any additional
powers to a nongovernmental entity.
Analysis Prepared by:
Tina Leahy / W., P., & W. / (916) 319-2096 FN:
0000809
AB 617
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