Bill Text: CA SB200 | 2011-2012 | Regular Session | Amended

California Senate Bill 200 (Prior Session Legislation)

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

Bill Title: Delta levee maintenance.

Spectrum: Bipartisan Bill

Status: (Passed) 2012-09-25 - Chaptered by Secretary of State. Chapter 549, Statutes of 2012. [SB200 Detail]

Download: California-2011-SB200-Amended.html

BILL NUMBER: SB 200	AMENDED
	BILL TEXT

	AMENDED IN SENATE  MARCH 24, 2011

INTRODUCED BY   Senator Wolk
   (Coauthor: Assembly Member Bill Berryhill)

                        FEBRUARY 8, 2011

    An act to amend Section 11460 of, to add Sections 11108,
11109, 11110, 11111, 11456, 11457, 11458, and 11915.2 to, and to add
Article 9.4 (commencing with Section 11259) to Chapter 2 of Part 3 of
Division 6 of, the Water Code, relating to water.   An
act to add Section 85321.5 to the Water Code, relating to water.




	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   SB 200, as amended, Wolk.  State water facilities:
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta: Delta conveyance facility. 
 Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta: Bay Delta Conservation Plan. 

   Existing law imposes requirements on the Department of Water
Resources in connection with the preparation of a Bay Delta
Conservation Plan (BDCP).  
   The Delta Reform Act of 2009 requires the Delta Stewardship
Council to consider the BDCP for inclusion in a specified Delta Plan,
and authorizes the incorporation of the BDCP into the Delta Plan if
the BDCP meets certain requirements.  
   This bill would require any state agency that is responsible for
authorizing or implementing any action in implementation of the BDCP
to ensure that the action is consistent with specified requirements
prescribed by the bill. The bill would make related legislative
findings and declarations.  
   (1) The United States Bureau of Reclamation operates the federal
Central Valley Project and the Department of Water Resources operates
the State Water Resources Development System, known as the State
Water Project, to supply water to persons and entities in the state.
 
   Existing law provides for the design, construction, operation, and
maintenance of water development facilities by the state, including
the State Water Project. State Water Project facilities include,
among others, the facilities that are specified or authorized as part
of the state Central Valley Project.  
   This bill would prohibit the construction of a new Delta
conveyance facility, as defined, unless specified conditions are met,
including (A) the adoption of an agreement by the Department of
Water Resources and the Department of Fish and Game that specifies
the stages of construction of the new Delta conveyance facility and
(B) the establishment plans and agreements for the construction of
specified water facilities and implementation of specified water
programs meeting prescribed conditions as part of the state Central
Valley Project. The bill would prohibit the transportation of water
for the federal Central Valley Project through state project
facilities, with specified exceptions, unless certain conditions are
met.  
   The bill would require the Department of Water Resources to enter
into contracts with specified Delta agencies for purposes of
recognizing the right of users to make use of the waters of the Delta
and establishing criteria for minimum water quality in the Delta.
The bill would require differences between the state and the Delta
agencies to be resolved by arbitration if contracts have not been
executed by January 1, 2012.  
   (2) Existing law prohibits the Department of Water Resources, in
the construction and operation of the State Water Project facilities,
from depriving a watershed or area in which water originates, of the
prior right to the water required to supply the beneficial needs of
that area, as specified.  
   This bill would require the project to be operated in compliance
with specified water quality standards, and would require the
department, the Attorney General, and other state agencies to take
actions to ensure that the federal Central Valley Project is operated
in compliance with those standards.  
   The bill would require the department to make an allocation of
specified costs of the project to compensate for historic upstream
depletion and diversions, and would prohibit specified public
agencies from being responsible for those allocated costs. The bill
would require the costs of benefits in the Delta resulting from
project operations, in excess of detriments caused by the project, to
be repaid by beneficiaries, to the extent those costs are allocable.
 
   (3) Under existing law, the Department of Fish and Game and the
Department of Water Resources are responsible for specified reports
pertaining to water development projects and the Sacramento-San
Joaquin Delta.  
   This bill would authorize the Department of Fish and Game to
administer a study to determine the interrelationship between Delta
outflow and fish and wildlife resources in the San Francisco Bay
System and waste discharges into the San Francisco Bay system.
 
   The bill would require the Department of Water Resources to study
the possible interconnection between the State Water Resources
Development System and water supply systems serving the Counties of
Alameda, Contra Costa, San Joaquin, and San Mateo, and the City and
County of San Francisco. The bill would also authorize the department
to participate in an investigation of the need to enlarge Shasta Dam
and Reservoir or other existing federal reservoirs. 
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated 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) Removing remaining barriers to achievement of the coequal
goals described in Section 85054 of the Water Code remains a priority
for the Legislature and the state.  
   (b) It is the intent of the Legislature to avoid potential
conflicts in achieving the coequal goals described in Section 85054
of the Water Code by ensuring that state actions within the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta are equitable and do not redirect
negative impacts from one entity or region of the state to another.
 
   (c) The Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP), identified as one tool
that the state is pursuing to meet the coequal goals, is a plan to
provide 50-year permits compliant with the Natural Community
Conservation Planning Act (Chapter 10 (commencing with Section 2800)
of Division 3 of the Fish and Game Code) and the federal Endangered
Species Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. Sec. 1531 et seq.) for the State Water
Project, the Central Valley Project, and Mirant Energy Company. The
direct beneficiaries of the BDCP are those that will receive
regulatory permits and assurances under the Natural Community
Conservation Planning Act and the federal Endangered Species Act of
1973 for actions within the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. No other
entity within the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta watershed will be
provided regulatory permits or operational assurances through the
BDCP.  
   (d) Consistent with the provisions of the Natural Community
Conservation Planning Act (Chapter 10 (commencing with Section 2800)
of Division 3 of the Fish and Game Code), the BDCP is a voluntary
program. Responsibility for implementation of the BDCP is the sole
responsibility of the entities that choose to agree to the terms of
the permits resulting from the BDCP process. Responsibility for
implementation of BDCP conservation measures by parties that have not
chosen to participate in the program is not consistent with the
Natural Community Conservation Planning Act or legally justifiable.
 
   (e) It is the intent of the Legislature to ensure that secured,
equitable funding to meet the coequal goals described in Section
85054 of the Water Code is available, that funding complies with the
beneficiary pays principle, and that actions to achieve the coequal
goals are affordable for ratepayers and the public. 
   SEC. 2.    Section 85321.5 is added to the  
Water Code   , to read:  
   85321.5.  (a) Prior to authorizing or taking any action to
implement a conservation measure within the Bay Delta Conservation
Plan, any state agency that is responsible for authorizing or
implementing that action shall ensure that the action is consistent
with all of the following requirements:
   (1) The action shall not result in significant unmitigated
negative impacts to another entity or region. For purposes of this
paragraph, "negative impacts" include, but are not limited to, any
impact that would negatively affect the water right, water supply,
water quality, ecosystem function, flood risk, agricultural
resources, infrastructure, regulatory responsibility, or the economy
of another entity or region without appropriate full mitigation.
   (2) The action shall have a viable funding source for the entire
period proposed for the implementation of the action. The funding
source shall be affordable for the ratepayers and contractors
supplying the funding, and shall be reasonably likely to be provided
by those ratepayers and contractors through secured funding
mechanisms.
   (3) Funding for the action shall be consistent with the
beneficiary pays principle. For purposes of this paragraph,
"beneficiary pays principle" means that only those identified as
beneficiaries of the Bay Delta Conservation Plan shall be responsible
for providing funding for the Bay Delta Conservation Plan.
   (4) The action shall be consistent with protecting and maintaining
public trust resources in the Delta. The action shall be consistent
with maintaining flows within the Delta and outflows from the Delta
that are necessary to maintain the public trust resources of the
Delta, the Suisun Marsh, and the San Francisco Bay. Any action that
results in reduced flow within the Delta or outflow from the Delta
shall be scientifically justified and consistent with maintaining the
existing statewide water rights priority system, area of origin
protections, and beneficial uses of water within the Delta.
   (5) If the action requires additional waterflows in order to
mitigate for the action or meet conditions of a permit under the Bay
Delta Conservation Plan, the beneficiaries of the Bay Delta
Conservation Plan or the action shall be solely responsible for
identifying, developing, funding, and supplying those waterflows. No
other water rights holder or legal user of water shall be responsible
for supplying flows that may be necessary to permit or mitigate for
actions taken to comply with the Bay Delta Conservation Plan, except
for those water rights holders and parties that are beneficiaries of
the Bay Delta Conservation Plan.
   (6) The action shall be developed and implemented with the input
of all affected local governments and the public.
   (7) The action shall be implemented consistent with existing
efforts to manage wildlife within the Delta, Suisun Marsh, and the
San Francisco Bay, including adopted plans for management of the Yolo
Wildlife Area, the Suisun Marsh Conservation District, the San
Francisco Bay Plan, and the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act (16
U.S.C. Sec.703 et seq.), and applicable local natural community
conservation plans.
   (8) The action shall not violate any legal contract to maintain
water quality within the Delta, including but not limited to, the
contract between the department and the North Delta Water Agency,
dated January 28, 1981, and the contract between the department and
the City of Antioch, dated April 11, 1968.
   (b) Nothing in this section supersedes, reduces, or otherwise
affects existing legal protections, both procedural and substantive,
relating to the state board's regulation of diversion and use of
water, including, but not limited to, water right priorities, the
protection provided to municipal interests by Sections 106 and 106.5,
and changes in water rights. Nothing in this section expands or
otherwise alters the board's existing authority to regulate the
diversion and use of water or the courts' existing concurrent
jurisdiction over California water rights.  All matter omitted
in this version of the bill appears in the bill as introduced in the
Senate, February 8, 2011. (JR11)