BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
Senator Bob Wieckowski, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular
Bill No: SB 20 Hearing Date: 4/15/2015
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|Author: |Pavley |
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|Version: |12/1/2014 |
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|Urgency: |No |Fiscal: |Yes |
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|Consultant|Rachel Machi Wagoner |
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Subject: Wells: reports: public availability
ANALYSIS:
Existing law: Requires a person who digs, bores, or drills a
water well, cathodic protection well, or a monitoring well, or
abandons or destroys a well, or deepens or reperforates a well,
to file a report of completion with the Department of Water
Resources (DWR). Existing law prohibits those reports from being
made available to the public, except under certain
circumstances.
This bill: Makes well completion reports available to the
public and in doing so:
1. Requires persons requesting a report to do so on a form
identifying the name and address of the requestor, and the
reason for the request.
2. Requires the release of the well logs to comply with
the privacy and other provisions of the Information
Practices Act.
3. Requires a disclosure statement regarding the
appropriate use of the data.
4. Authorizes DWR to charge a fee for providing the well
completion reports.
Background
In 1949, to help prevent groundwater pollution caused by
improperly constructed water wells, the California Legislature
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first required well drillers to file a well completion report
with the state for each well drilled.
Two years later, in 1951, the Legislature enacted AB 1512
(Dickey) which restricted access to well completion reports "to
governmental agencies for use in making studies." According to
a May 21, 1951, letter from the Director of Public Works to
Governor Warren, it was because the information in the reports
"is regarded by some well drillers as part of their stock in
trade." That is, for competitive reasons.
While the statute has been amended a number of times in the
intervening 60 plus years, the restriction to access has largely
stayed the same.
Comments
1. Purpose of Bill.
According to the author, "every time a water well is drilled,
the driller is required by law to provide the Department of
Water Resources (DWR) a report describing how the well was
constructed and the type of soils the driller encountered in
drilling the well. These reports contain critical
information for groundwater managers, consulting
hydrologists, academics, and others interested in the
geologic and hydrologic characteristics of groundwater
basins. Unfortunately, those who would benefit from this
information cannot have access to it. For over 60 years, the
law has restricted access to those reports to just government
agencies."
2. What is a well completion report?
Also known as drillers' logs or well logs, well completion
reports are a record of the drilling and construction of the
well. They include, among other things, the location of the
well, the depth of the well, the type of soils encountered at
each elevation as drilling, depth to water, etc.
3. Why are they required?
It is important that wells be properly constructed, modified,
or decommissioned. Well completion reports provide the
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record necessary to demonstrate that the well was properly
constructed, modified, or decommissioned, and further
provides the necessary construction detail should the well
need to be modified at some later date.
4. What other uses do they have?
Data in the reports can be used to construct detailed
underground aquifer maps. These maps are critical to
developing and implementing groundwater management plans.
For example, such data can be used to find the best possible
locations groundwater banking, identify key recharge areas,
and to better avoid impaired groundwater quality.
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5. What Do Other States Do?
No other western state restricts access to well logs as in
California. Indeed, 10 of 11 western states provide internet
access to well logs.
6. How Does California Deal With Similar Issues?
Every time an oil or gas well is drilled, the driller must
provide a copy of the well log to the Department of
Conservation. Those logs are deemed public records for
purposes of the California Public Records Act. (There are
exceptions, logs for exploratory wells, for example, are
considered confidential for a specific period of time.) The
Department of Conservation provides public access to those
logs through a GIS map on the internet.
7. What Do Other Water Agencies Do?
A review of urban water management plans and capital
improvement plans shows that over 160 water agencies have
published the location of their wells, usually on maps, but
sometimes the actual addresses. This represents locations of
over 2,200 water system wells, of which the author's staff
has located 96 percent through online maps.
Adjudicated groundwater basins have court-appointed
watermasters, a number of whom have published maps showing
the location of production wells within their jurisdiction.
For example, the Main San Gabriel Basin Watermaster published
a fairly detailed 2008 map showing the location of 99 active
production wells.
The drilling of a new water system well is usually a project
subject to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).
CEQA, among other things, requires the disclosure of the
location of the project. A review of CEQA Clearinghouse's
online database shows the location of over 70 wells.
8. What Would The Fee Cover?
It is not clear how large the fee for a copy of a well log
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would be. However, the fee would likely include a share of
the following:
A. Costs to create and maintain a copy of the log
that redacts personal information pursuant to the
Information Practices Act of 1977.
B. Costs of duplicating the redacted well log.
C. Cost to develop and disseminate the disclosure
statement regarding the appropriate use of the data.
D. Costs to develop and maintain the form
identifying the name and address of the requestor,
and the reason for the request.
E. Any additional administrative costs associated
with implementing this bill.
Related/Prior Legislation
SB 263 (Pavley, 2011) required well completion reports be made
available to the public. To address the opposition's concerns,
the bill was amended on the Assembly floor to restrict access to
persons with specific qualifications and added penalty
provisions for disclosing information in the well log. Governor
Brown vetoed that bill because of those provisions, and directed
DWR to work with the author "to ensure responsible public access
to well logs."
SB 1146 (Pavley, 2012) required well completion reports be made
available to the public. Specific language to address the
opposition's concerns was the result of negotiations with DWR,
the Department of Health Services, and CalEMA, "to ensure
responsible public access to well logs." That bill failed on
the Senate Floor (19-16).
SOURCE: Senator Pavley
SUPPORT:
California League of Conservation Voters
California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation
California Water Impact Network
Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment
Clean Water Action
Coastal Environmental Rights Foundation
Community Water Center
Defenders of Wildlife
East Bay Municipal Utility District
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Environmental Action Committee of West Marin
Environmental Justice Coalition for Water
Environmental Water Caucus
Food & Water Watch
Friends of the River
Karuk Tribe
Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability
National Parks Conservation Association
Natural Resources Defense Council
North County Watch
Planning and Conservation League
PolicyLink
Public Trust Water
Sierra Club California
Southern California Watershed Alliance
The Nature Conservancy
Wholly H2O
OPPOSITION:
California Chamber of Commerce
California Citrus Mutual
California Cotton Ginners Association
California Cotton Growers Association
California Dairies, Inc.
California Farm Bureau Federation
California Fresh Fruit Association
California League of Food Processors
Desert Water Agency
Family Winemakers of California
Kings River Conservation District
Kings River Water Association
Nisei Farmers League
Valley Ag Water Coalition
Western Agricultural Processors Association
Western Growers Association
Western Plant Health Association
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT:
According to the author, "Every time a water well is drilled,
the driller is required by law to provide DWR a well completion
report, also known as a well log."
"These reports contain critical information for groundwater
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managers, consulting hydrologists, academics, and others
interested in the geologic and hydrologic characteristics of
groundwater basins. Unfortunately, those who would benefit from
this information cannot have access to it.
Farmers can't know how deep they need to drill their wells.
Academics cannot develop sophisticated maps and models without
the sponsorship of the government.
Local community activists cannot gain the information they
need to better protect drinking water quality of disadvantaged
communities.
The list goes on."
"The Governor directed DWR to work with me 'to ensure
responsible public access to well logs.' This bill is the
result of those negotiations with DWR, along with the Department
of Health Services (DHS) and CalEMA, which is California's
official homeland security agency. This bill addresses and
resolves the various security concerns raised by DHS and
CalEMA."
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION:
A coalition of agricultural interests asserts "Well logs are
already required to be submitted to the Department of Water
resources and are available to the appropriate public agencies.
For example, groundwater management agencies already have access
and utilize this information to better manage their groundwater
locally. We understand the importance of managing our scarce
groundwater resources and are fully supportive of local efforts
to do just that. We believe the well log data is available to
those entities that have a genuine need to evaluate and utilize
it for the benefit of managing our groundwater supplies. No
beneficial purpose could be gained by making this confidential
data available to the public. We believe this measure will only
assist those trolling for lawsuits."
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