CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2023–2024 REGULAR SESSION

Senate Bill
No. 1088

Introduced by Senator Alvarado-Gil

February 12, 2024

An act relating to emergency services.


LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


SB 1088, as introduced, Alvarado-Gil. Office of Emergency Services: state matching funds: water system infrastructure improvements.
Existing law establishes, within the office of the Governor, the Office of Emergency Services (OES), under the direction of the Director of Emergency Services. Existing law charges the OES with coordinating various emergency activities within the state. The California Emergency Services Act, contingent upon an appropriation by the Legislature, requires the OES to enter into a joint powers agreement pursuant to the Joint Exercise of Powers Act with the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to develop and administer a comprehensive wildfire mitigation program relating to structure hardening and retrofitting and prescribed fuel modification activities. Existing law authorizes the joint powers authority to establish financial assistance limits and matching funding or other recipient contribution requirements for the program, as provided.
This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to establish a Rural and Small Community Fire Resilience Program within the office to work in coordination with the Department of Water Resources, the State Water Resources Control Board, and other appropriate state entities to develop a program for the distribution of state matching funds to communities within the Wildland Urban Interface, or WUI, to improve water system infrastructure, as prescribed.
Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: NO   Local Program: NO  

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 rural landscapes and communities have been ground zero for large-scale environmental and economic devastation during the past decades by virtue of the Angora, Caldor, Camp, August Complex, and Dixie fires.
(b) Aging water infrastructures, combined with insufficient resources to prepare for adequate wildfire response, have left many rural communities at high risk for future unchecked fire activity.
(c) Postfire costs associated with the destruction inflicted upon communities such as Grizzly Flats, Paradise, and Greenville have been in the tens of billions of dollars.
(d) Congress has taken affirmative fiscal action by budgeting for funding last year and is poised to repeat that action this year, as evidenced in House Report 117-400, to invest in fire prevention activities in the Tahoe Basin and elsewhere through projects such as water delivery system improvements for expanded water flow and fire hydrant installation.
(e) While California is taking the necessary actions to mitigate the intensity and frequency of fire in the rural parts of the state, local governments need state support for necessary water infrastructure investments to prepare for fire suppression capacity.

SEC. 2.

 It is the intent of the Legislature to establish a Rural and Small Community Fire Resilience Program within the Office of Emergency Services to work in coordination with the Department of Water Resources, the State Water Resources Control Board, and other appropriate state entities to develop a program for the distribution of state matching funds to communities within the Wildland Urban Interface, or WUI, to improve water system infrastructure, including upgrading and upsizing waterlines, installing additional fire hydrants of water systems, and enhancing water system delivery to ensure adequate water flow for fire prevention and suppression activities.