BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



          SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                             Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
                            2015 - 2016  Regular  Session

          AB 617 (Perea) - Groundwater.
          
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          |Version: July 16, 2015          |Policy Vote: N.R. & W. 9 - 0    |
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          |Urgency: No                     |Mandate: No                     |
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          |Hearing Date: August 17, 2015   |Consultant: Marie Liu           |
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          This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File. 


          Bill  
          Summary:  AB 617 would make changes regarding the development  
          and use of Sustainable Groundwater Plans. 


          Fiscal  
          Impact:  
           Unknown costs, likely in the low hundreds of thousands of  
            dollars, to the General Fund for the Department of Water  
            Resources (DWR) to develop regulations on what constitutes  
            "consistent" data.
           Unknown costs, but likely in the mid-tens of thousands of  
            dollars per disputed data set, to the General Fund for DWR to  
            assist local agencies on determining whether specific data  
            sets are consistent or not.
           Unknown costs, likely in the mid-tens of thousands of dollars  
            per notice, to the Water Rights Fund (special) to the State  
            Water Resources Control Board (board) to investigate notices  
            that a state entity is not cooperating in the implementation  
            of a groundwater sustainability plan.







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          Background:  Last year, the Legislature passed and the Governor signed the  
          Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) which required  
          groundwater sustainability agencies (GSA) to develop a  
          groundwater sustainability plan (GSP) for high and medium  
          priority groundwater basins in California. The GSA is required  
          to consider the interest of all beneficial users and users of  
          groundwater when developing and implementing GSPs, including  
          disadvantaged communities (WAT §10732.2). DWR and the GSA may  
          provide technical assistance to entities that extract or use  
          groundwater to promote water conservation and to protect  
          groundwater resources. Furthermore, DWR may provide technical  
          assistance to any GSA, upon request, for the development and  
          implementation of a GSP. (WAT §10729)
          The Integrated Regional Water Management Planning Act authorized  
          a regional water management group to prepare and adopt an  
          integrated regional water management plan (IRWMP) with specified  
          components. The IRWMP may include actions regarding groundwater  
          management planning.




          Proposed Law:  
            This bill would make several changes in regards to SGMA.  
          Specifically, this bill would:
           Specify that a regional water management group may incorporate  
            a groundwater sustainable plan into its integrated regional  
            water management plan. 


           Make changes to the establishment of a prescriptive right to  
            water prior to the adoption of a GSP.


           Define "in-lieu use" as the use of surface water by persons  
            that could otherwise extract groundwater in order to leave  
            groundwater in the basin. And explicitly allow a GSP to  
            include in-lieu use projects.


           Explicitly allow a GSA to enter into written agreements and  
            funding with a private party to assist in, or facilitate the  








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            implementation of, a GSP or any elements of a GSP.


           Allow GSAs who are intending to develop and implement multiple  
            GSPs for a single basin to use "consistent" data instead of  
            the current requirement that they use "the same" data.


           Allow the State Water Resources Control Board (board) to  
            direct a state entity to cooperate in the implementation of a  
            GSP if a GSA files a notice with the board that a state entity  
            is not working cooperatively regarding implementation, and the  
            board agrees with the notice.




          Staff  
          Comments:  By allowing GSAs to use data that is "consistent"  
          rather than "the same" in developing multiple GSPs for a single  
          groundwater basin is likely to have unknown costs to DWR. First,  
          DWR will likely need to revise its regulations to give guidance  
          on what data could be considered consistent. These costs could  
          be minor if DWR is able to incorporate this change into their  
          regulatory process currently underway. However, if DWR  
          regulations on data are finished before the passage of this bill  
          thereby requiring a modification of the regulations, or if the  
          regulations are challenged because of opposition on how the  
          regulations determine consistency, DWR may have regulatory costs  
          in the low- or mid- hundreds of thousands of dollars. 
          Secondly, DWR may have costs associated with this provision to  
          the extent that it is asked to help determine whether two  
          particular datasets are consistent or not, which could involve  
          DWR using the two datasets in a model to compare outcomes. DWR  
          estimates that this analysis could cost between $10,000 and  
          $50,000 each. It is unknown how often DWR would be asked to do  
          this analysis.  


          This bill establishes a process by which a GSA can notify the  
          board that a state entity is not cooperating in the  
          implementation of their GSP and thereby hindering its success.  
          To investigate a notice, the board estimates staff workload of  
          approximately $50,000 per notice. However, the board does not  








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          anticipate many notices being filed. Under the SGMA, the board  
          is allowed to establish a fee to fund its activities to  
          implement the act what would be deposited into the Water Rights  
          Fund. While the board has not yet established the fee schedule,  
          the fee ultimately could fund any of the board's costs with  
          investigating a notice.




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