Bill Text: CA SB387 | 2013-2014 | Regular Session | Introduced

California Senate Bill 387 (Prior Session Legislation)

Introduced

Bill Title: Coastal resources: once-through cooling.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2014-02-03 - Returned to Secretary of Senate pursuant to Joint Rule 56. [SB387 Detail]

Download: California-2013-SB387-Introduced.html

BILL NUMBER: SB 387	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Senator Wright

                        FEBRUARY 20, 2013

   An act to add Section 13193.10 to the Water Code, relating to
water quality.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   SB 387, as introduced, Wright. Coastal resources: once-through
cooling.
   Under existing law, the State Water Resources Control Board and
the 9 California regional water quality control boards regulate water
quality in accordance with the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control
Act (act) and the federal Clean Water Act. Under the act, the state
board is required to adopt specified state policies with respect to
water quality as it relates to the coastal marine environment,
including a policy requiring new or expanded coastal powerplants and
other industrial installations using seawater for cooling, heating,
or industrial processing to use the best available site, design,
technology, and mitigation measures feasible to minimize the intake
and mortality of all forms of marine life.
   This bill would require the state board to authorize the process
of once-through cooling, as defined, on existing powerplant
facilities to the extent allowable by federal laws, including any
federal regulations adopted by the United States Environmental
Protection Agency.
   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.  Section 13193.10 is added to the Water Code, to read:
   13193.10.  (a) The state board shall authorize the use of an
once-through cooling system for an existing powerplant facility to
the extent allowable by federal law, including any federal
regulations adopted by the United States Environmental Protection
Agency, pertaining to once-through cooling.
   (b) For purposes of this section, "once-through cooling" means a
system that uses an open seawater intake to pump seawater from an
ocean, estuary, or bay and then discharges the water after one cycle
of cooling.