Bill Text: CA AB754 | 2023-2024 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: Water management planning: water shortages.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Engrossed) 2023-09-01 - In committee: Held under submission. [AB754 Detail]
Download: California-2023-AB754-Amended.html
|
Amended
IN
Senate
August 14, 2023 |
|
Amended
IN
Senate
July 03, 2023 |
|
Amended
IN
Assembly
May 18, 2023 |
|
Amended
IN
Assembly
April 25, 2023 |
|
Amended
IN
Assembly
March 09, 2023 |
CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE—
2023–2024 REGULAR SESSION
Assembly Bill
No. 754
| Introduced by Assembly Member Papan |
February 13, 2023 |
An act to amend Sections 10632 and 10826.2 of the Water Code, relating to water.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 754, as amended, Papan.
Water management planning: water shortages.
(1) Existing law, the Urban Water Management Planning Act, requires every public and private urban water supplier that directly or indirectly provides water for municipal purposes to prepare and adopt an urban water management plan. Existing law requires an urban water management plan to quantify past, current, and projected water use, identifying the uses among water use sectors, including, among others, commercial, agricultural, and industrial. Existing law requires every urban water supplier to prepare and adopt a water shortage contingency plan as part of its urban water management plan. Existing law requires the water shortage contingency plan to include the procedures for
used in conducting an annual water supply and demand assessment, including the key data inputs and assessment methodology used to evaluate the urban water supplier’s water supply reliability for the current year and one dry year. Existing law requires the key data inputs and assessment methodology to include specified information, including, among other things, a description and quantification of each source of water supply.
This bill would require a water shortage contingency plan to include, if if, based on a description and quantification of each source of water supply, a single reservoir constitutes at least 50% of the total water
supply, an identification of the dam and description of existing reservoir management operations, as specified, and if the reservoir is owned and operated by the urban water supplier, a description of operational practices and approaches, as specified. The bill would require a water shortage contingency plan to include reservoir shortage levels relative to the target water supply storage curve that will trigger specified shortage response actions.
(2) Existing law requires an agricultural water supplier to prepare and adopt an agricultural water management plan with specified components and to update those plans on or before April 1 in the years ending in 6 and one. Existing law requires an agricultural water supplier to include
develop a drought plan as part of its agricultural water management plan. Existing law requires the drought plan to describe the agricultural water supplier’s actions relating to drought preparedness and management of water supplies and allocations during drought conditions, as provided. Existing law requires drought response planning to include, among other things, policies and a process for declaring a water shortage and for implementing water shortage allocations and related response actions.
This bill would require, if if, based on specified findings related to water supply, a single reservoir constitutes at least 50% of the total water supply, the policies for declaring a water shortage to consider specified
certain information related to that reservoir.
Digest Key
Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: NOBill Text
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1.
Section 10632 of the Water Code is amended to read:10632.
(a) Every urban water supplier shall prepare and adopt a water shortage contingency plan as part of its urban water management plan that consists of each of the following elements:(1) The analysis of water supply reliability conducted pursuant to Section 10635.
(2) The procedures used in conducting an annual water supply and demand assessment that include, at a minimum, both of the following:
(A) The written decisionmaking process that an urban water supplier will use each year to determine its water supply reliability.
(B) The key data inputs and assessment methodology used to evaluate the urban water supplier’s water supply reliability for the current year and one dry year, including all of the following:
(i) Current year unconstrained demand, considering weather, growth, and other influencing factors, such as policies to manage current supplies to meet demand objectives in future years, as applicable.
(ii) Current year available supply, considering hydrological and regulatory conditions in the current year and one dry year. The annual supply and demand assessment may consider more than one dry year solely at the discretion of the urban water supplier.
(iii) Existing infrastructure capabilities and plausible constraints.
(iv) A defined set of locally applicable evaluation criteria that are consistently relied upon for each annual water supply and demand assessment.
(v) (I) A description and quantification of each source of water supply.
(II) If, based on the description and quantification of each source of water supply pursuant to subclause (I), a single reservoir constitutes at least 50 percent of the total water supply, all of the following information:
(ia) An identification of the dam and description of existing reservoir management operations, including:
(Ia) The name of the reservoir.
(Ib) The name of the reservoir owner and operator.
(Ic) Total reservoir capacity.
(Id) The range of historic annual inflows into the reservoir.
(Ie) The range of historic annual outflows from the reservoir.
(If) The range of historic annual carryover volumes for the reservoir.
(Ig) The purposes for which the reservoir is operated, which may include, but are not limited to, water released for instream uses, water supplied for consumptive use, flood
control,
hydroelectric generation, and recreation.
(Ih) Existing regulatory requirements, including instream flow requirements downstream of the reservoir.
(Ii) A target water supply storage curve for that reservoir based on target carryover levels sufficient to satisfy water users and ecological streamflow needs pursuant to any applicable state, federal, or local regulations, and water quality needs pursuant to any state, federal, or local regulations for the current year and one dry year, with reasonably predicted inflow and outflow calculations considering the factors described in sub-sub-subclauses (Ia) though to
(Ih), inclusive.
(Ij) Each month, the actual reservoir level shall be plotted against the target water supply storage curve on a calendar to compare actual reservoir levels with target reservoir levels. This analysis shall be included in the annual water supply and demand assessment as required by Section 10632.1.
(ib) If the reservoir is owned and operated by the supplier, a description of operational practices and approaches, including both of the following:
(Ia) Existing annual carryover targets and reservoir operations taken to achieve those targets under the range of historic hydrologic conditions described in this
section.
(Ib) Potential actions that may be taken under a range of potential future hydrologic conditions considering climate change.
(3) (A) Six standard water shortage levels corresponding to progressive ranges of up to 10-, 20-, 30-, 40-, and 50-percent shortages, and greater than 50-percent shortage. Urban water suppliers shall define these shortage levels based on the suppliers’ water supply conditions, including percentage reductions in water supply, changes in groundwater levels, changes in surface elevation or level of subsidence, or other changes in hydrological or other local conditions indicative of the water supply available for use. Shortage levels shall also apply to catastrophic interruption of water supplies, including, but not limited to, a
regional power outage, an earthquake, and other potential emergency events.
(B) An urban water supplier with an existing water shortage contingency plan that uses different water shortage levels may comply with the requirement in subparagraph (A) by developing and including a cross-reference relating its existing categories to the six standard water shortage levels.
(4) Shortage response actions that align with the defined shortage levels and include, at a minimum, all of the following:
(A) Locally appropriate supply augmentation actions.
(B) Locally appropriate demand reduction actions to adequately respond to shortages.
(C) Locally appropriate operational changes.
(D) Additional, mandatory prohibitions against specific water use practices that are in addition to state-mandated prohibitions and appropriate to the local conditions.
(E) For each action, an estimate of the extent to which the gap between supplies and demand will be reduced by implementation of the action.
(5) Communication protocols and procedures to inform customers, the public, interested parties, and local, regional, and state governments, regarding, at a minimum, all of the following:
(A) Any current or predicted shortages as determined by the annual
water supply and demand assessment described pursuant to Section 10632.1.
(B) Any shortage response actions triggered or anticipated to be triggered by the annual water supply and demand assessment described pursuant to Section 10632.1.
(C) Any other relevant communications.
(6) For an urban retail water supplier, customer compliance, enforcement, appeal, and exemption procedures for triggered shortage response actions as determined pursuant to Section 10632.2.
(7) (A) A description of the legal authorities that empower the urban water supplier to implement and enforce its shortage response actions specified in paragraph (4) that may
include, but are not limited to, statutory authorities, ordinances, resolutions, and contract provisions.
(B) A statement that an urban water supplier shall declare a water shortage emergency in accordance with Chapter 3 (commencing with Section 350) of Division 1.
(C) A statement that an urban water supplier shall coordinate with any city or county within which it provides water supply services for the possible proclamation of a local emergency, as defined in Section 8558 of the Government Code.
(8) A description of the financial consequences of, and responses for, drought conditions, including, but not limited to, all of the following:
(A) A
description of potential revenue reductions and expense increases associated with activated shortage response actions described in paragraph (4).
(B) A description of mitigation actions needed to address revenue reductions and expense increases associated with activated shortage response actions described in paragraph (4).
(C) A description of the cost of compliance with Chapter 3.3 (commencing with Section 365) of Division 1.
(9) For an urban retail water supplier, monitoring and reporting requirements and procedures that ensure appropriate data is collected, tracked, and analyzed for purposes of monitoring customer compliance and to meet state reporting requirements.
(10) Reevaluation and improvement procedures for systematically monitoring and evaluating the functionality of the water shortage contingency plan in order to ensure shortage risk tolerance is adequate and appropriate water shortage mitigation strategies are implemented as needed.
(b) For purposes of developing the water shortage contingency plan pursuant to subdivision (a), an urban water supplier shall analyze and define water features that are artificially supplied with water, including ponds, lakes, waterfalls, and fountains, separately from swimming pools and spas, as defined in subdivision (a) of Section 115921 of the Health and Safety Code.
(c) The urban water supplier shall make available the water shortage contingency plan prepared pursuant to this article to its customers
and any city or county within which it provides water supplies no later than 30 days after adoption of the water shortage contingency plan.
SEC. 2.
Section 10826.2 of the Water Code is amended to read:10826.2.
As part of its agricultural water management plan, each agricultural water supplier shall develop a drought plan for periods of limited water supply describing the actions of the agricultural water supplier for drought preparedness and management of water supplies and allocations during drought conditions. The drought plan shall contain both of the following:(a) Resilience planning, including all of the following:
(1) Data, indicators, and information needed to determine the water supply availability and levels of drought severity.
(2) Analyses and identification of potential vulnerability
to drought.
(3) A description of the opportunities and constraints for improving drought resilience planning, including all of the following:
(A) The availability of new technology or information.
(B) The ability of the agricultural water supplier to obtain or use additional water supplies during drought conditions.
(C) A description of other actions planned for implementation to improve drought resilience.
(b) Drought response planning, including all of the following:
(1) Policies and a process for declaring a water shortage and
for implementing water shortage allocations and related response actions.
(2) Methods and procedures for the enforcement or appeal of, or exemption from, triggered shortage response actions.
(3) Methods and procedures for monitoring and evaluation of the effectiveness of the drought plan.
(4) Communication protocols and procedures to inform and coordinate customers, the public, interested parties, and local, regional, and state government.
(5) A description of the potential impacts on the revenues, financial condition, and planned expenditures of the agricultural water supplier during drought conditions that reduce water allocations, and proposed
measures to overcome those impacts, including reserve-level policies.
(c) If, based on the findings in subparagraphs paragraphs (1) through to (3), inclusive, of subdivision (b) of Section 10826 10826, a single reservoir constitutes at least 50 percent of the total water supply, the policies for declaring a water shortage pursuant to
paragraph (1) of subdivision (b) shall include consideration of all of the following information:
(1) An identification of the dam and description of existing reservoir management operations, including all of the following:
(A) The name of the reservoir.
(B) The name of the reservoir owner and operator.
(C) Total reservoir capacity.
(D) The range of historic annual inflows into the reservoir.
(E) The range of historic annual outflows from the
reservoir.
(F) The range of historic annual carryover volumes for the reservoir.
(G) The purposes for which the reservoir is operated, which may include, but are not limited to, water released for instream uses, water supplied for consumptive use, flood control, hydroelectric generation, and recreation.
(H) Existing regulatory requirements, including instream flow requirements downstream of the reservoir.
(I) A target water supply storage curve for that reservoir based on target carryover levels sufficient to satisfy water users and ecological streamflow needs pursuant to any applicable state, federal, or local regulations, and water quality needs pursuant to any
state, federal, or local regulations for the current year and one dry year, with reasonably predicted inflow and outflow calculations considering factors described in subparagraphs (A) through to (H), inclusive.
(J) Each month, the actual reservoir level shall be plotted against the target water supply storage curve on a calendar. This analysis shall be submitted every five years to the department in addition to the agricultural water management plan.
(2) If the reservoir is owned and operated by the supplier, a description
of operational practices and approaches, including both of the following:
(A) Existing annual carryover targets and reservoir operations taken to achieve those targets under the range of historic hydrologic conditions described in this section.
(B) Potential actions that may be taken under a range of potential future hydrologic conditions considering climate change.
