Existing law establishes in the Natural Resources Agency the State Water Resources Control Board and the regional water quality control boards. Existing law requires the state board to formulate and adopt state policy for water quality control. Existing law requires each regional board to coordinate with the state board and other regional boards, as well as other state agencies with responsibility for water quality, with respect to water quality control matters.

This bill would make it the policy of this state that, to help advance groundwater recharge projects, and to demonstrate the feasibility of projects that can use available high water flows to recharge local groundwater while minimizing flood risks, the state board and the regional water quality control boards prioritize water right permits, water quality certifications, waste discharge requirements, and conditional waivers of waste discharge requirements to accelerate approvals for projects that enhance the ability of a local or state agency to capture high precipitation events for local storage or recharge, consistent with water right priorities and protections for fish and wildlife.

The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires, among other things, a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of an environmental impact report on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect.

Existing law, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Reform Act of 2009, provides that it is the policy of the state to, among other things, reduce reliance on the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta in meeting California’s future water supply needs through a statewide strategy of investing in improved regional supplies, conservation, and water use efficiency. Existing law establishes the Delta Stewardship Council, which is required to develop, adopt, and commence implementation of a comprehensive management plan, known as the Delta Plan, for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The act requires, among other things, a state or local public agency that proposes to undertake a covered action, before initiating the implementation of that covered action, to prepare a written certification of consistency with detailed findings as to whether the covered action is consistent with the Delta Plan and to submit that certification to the council, as provided.

This bill would exempt from CEQA actions taken by a state agency, or by a local agency if the state agency with primary responsibility for the implementation of directives addressing impacts of drought concurs that local action is required, and permits that are necessary to carry out those actions, to accelerate approvals for projects that enhance the ability of a local or state agency to capture high precipitation events for local storage or recharge, consistent with water right priorities and protections for fish and wildlife. The bill would exempt the above-described actions and permits from the requirement to prepare a written certification of consistency with detailed findings as to whether the covered action or permit is consistent with the Delta Plan and to submit that certification to the council. The bill would also exempt from CEQA a recharge project under the Department of Water Resources’ Sustainable Groundwater Management Grant Program and flood-managed aquifer recharge projects, occurring on open and working lands to replenish and store water in groundwater basins that will help mitigate groundwater conditions impacted by drought, as specified. The bill would require state and local agencies to maintain on their internet websites a list of all activities or approvals to which these exemptions apply.

To the extent that the bill would impose additional duties on local entities related to their implemention implementation of CEQA and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Reform Act of 2009, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.