Bill Text: CA AB274 | 2025-2026 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: Abandoned and derelict vessels: inventory.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced) 2025-03-03 - From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on NAT. RES. Read second time and amended. [AB274 Detail]
Download: California-2025-AB274-Amended.html
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Amended
IN
Assembly
March 03, 2025 |
CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE—
2025–2026 REGULAR SESSION
Assembly Bill
No. 274
| Introduced by Assembly Member Ransom |
January 21, 2025 |
An act to amend Section 512 of the Harbors and Navigation Code, add Section 6112 to the Public Resources Code, relating to vessels.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 274, as amended, Ransom.
Vessels: wrecked property: possession. Abandoned and derelict vessels: inventory.
Existing law establishes within the Natural Resources Agency, the State Lands Commission consisting of the Controller, the Lieutenant Governor, and the Director of Finance. Existing law vests in the commission with exclusive jurisdiction over all ungranted tidelands and submerged lands owned by the state, and of the beds of navigable rivers, streams, lakes, bays, estuaries, inlets, and straits, including tidelands and submerged lands. Existing law authorizes the commission to take immediate action to remove from areas under its jurisdiction a vessel that is left unattended and is moored, docked, beached, or made fast to land in a position as to obstruct the normal movement of traffic or in a condition as to create a hazard to navigation, other vessels using a waterway, or the property of another.
Existing law requires the commission, by July 1, 2019, and in consultation with other relevant state and local agencies directly involved in the removal of abandoned vessels, to develop a plan for the removal of abandoned commercial vessels.
This bill would require the commission, on or before January 1, 2027, to create an inventory of all abandoned and derelict commercial and recreational vessels on or in waters within the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, including commercially navigable waters, as specified. The bill would require the inventory to include specified information about each vessel, including, among other things, the amount of commercial and recreational vessels located in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and the estimated size and weight of each commercial or recreational vessel. The bill would make these provisions contingent upon an appropriation by the Legislature.
This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
Existing law requires the sheriff of any county in which any wrecked property is found, when no person entitled to possession appears, to take possession of it in the name of the people, cause its value to be appraised by disinterested persons, and keep it in some safe place to answer the owner’s claims.
This bill would make nonsubstantive changes to that requirement.
Digest Key
Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee:Bill Text
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1.
The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:(a) California’s coastline, ports, and other waterways are polluted with abandoned and derelict commercial vessels and marine debris, which contain high levels of hazardous materials from both their construction and use, including solvents, asbestos-containing materials, polychlorinated biphenyls or PCBs, lead paint, batteries, and petroleum products, such as fuel, oil, oily waste, hydraulic fluid, and grease.
(b) Abandoned
and derelict commercial vessels create navigation, environmental, and public health and safety hazards.
(c) Abandoned and derelict commercial vessels usually consist of, but are not limited to, ferries, tugs, barges, cranes, dredges, work boats and work platforms that were designed and used for commercial work, military craft, and other vessels, but at end of life are often sold at auction to any willing buyer. These vessels evolve into a dilapidated condition and eventually end up in an unusable state, leading the vessel to be sunk, partially sunk, or a sinking hazard.
(d) The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is California’s most crucial water and ecologic resource. It is the largest freshwater tidal estuary of its kind on the West Coast, providing important bird and marine habitat, among other ecological and recreational benefits.
(e) The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is also home to the State Water Project and the Central Valley Project, which provide a portion of the drinking water for 29,000,000 Californians and irrigation water for much of the state’s $50 billion agricultural industry.
(f) While this is a statewide problem, the unique makeup of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, consisting of more than 700 miles of sloughs and waterways surrounding many leveed tracts and islands, makes it a magnet for abandoned and derelict commercial vessels.
(g) Other coastal states have similarly identified abandoned and derelict commercial vessels as a problem and have created statewide programs and provided necessary authorities to identify and remove these vessels.
SEC. 2.
Section 6112 is added to the Public Resources Code, immediately following Section 6111, to read:6112.
(a) For purposes of this section, the following terms have the following definitions:(1) “Commercial vessel” means a vessel designed or used for commercial work and includes, but is not limited to, a ferry, tug, barge, crane, dredge, workboat or work platform, fishing vessel used for commercial fishing, such as a fishing trawler, and military craft. “Commercial vessel” includes “marine debris,” as defined in Section 550 of the Harbors and Navigation Code.
(2) “Commercially navigable waters” means surface water used, or historically or presently capable of being used, for navigation by commercial vessels within the boundaries of the state. Surface water that contains an abandoned
or derelict commercial vessel is commercially navigable if the surface water is a tributary or is otherwise adjacent to commercially navigable waters.
(b) (1) On or before January 1, 2027, upon appropriation by the Legislature, the commission shall create an inventory of all abandoned and derelict commercial and recreational vessels on or in waters within the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, including commercially navigable waters. The inventory may be conducted by means of an aerial survey, from currently available data from federal, state, and local agencies, or from other data available to the commission.
(2) The inventory shall include, but is not limited to, all of the following:
(A) The amount of commercial and recreational vessels located in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
(B) The estimated size and weight of each commercial and recreational vessel.
(C) An estimate of the amount of and possible hazardous contents of each commercial and recreational vessel.
(D) Whether the commercial and recreational vessel is located near a commercial or community water source.
(E) The estimated amount it would cost to remove the commercial and recreational vessel.
(3) The information in the inventory shall be broken down by county, vessel type, and vessel size.
SEC. 3.
The Legislature finds and declares that a special statute is necessary and that a general statute cannot be made applicable within the meaning of Section 16 of Article IV of the California Constitution because of the unique makeup of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and its waterways.The sheriff of any county in which a wrecked property is found, if a person who is entitled to possession does not appear, shall take possession of it in the name of the people, cause its value to be appraised by disinterested persons, and keep it in some safe
place to answer the owner’s claims.
