Bill Text: CA AB1585 | 2015-2016 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: Monterey County Water Resources Agency: Lake Nacimiento and Lake San Antonio.
Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-1)
Status: (Failed) 2016-11-30 - From Senate committee without further action. [AB1585 Detail]
Download: California-2015-AB1585-Amended.html
BILL NUMBER: AB 1585 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MAY 31, 2016
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 4, 2016
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY FEBRUARY 8, 2016
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Alejo
(Principal coauthor: Senator Cannella)
(Coauthor: Senator Monning)
JANUARY 6, 2016
An act relating to water resources, making an appropriation
therefor, and declaring the urgency thereof, to take effect
immediately.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 1585, as amended, Alejo. Monterey County Water Resources
Agency: Lake Nacimiento and Lake San Antonio.
Existing law establishes the Monterey County Water Resources
Agency as a flood control and water agency within the County of
Monterey. Existing law authorizes the agency to award a design-build
contract for the combined design and construction of a project to
connect Lake San Antonio, located in the County of Monterey, and Lake
Nacimiento, located in the County of San Luis Obispo, with an
underground tunnel or pipeline for the purpose of maximizing water
storage, supply, and groundwater recharge.
This bill would appropriate $25,000,000
$10,000,000 from an unspecified source
the General Fund to the Department of Water Resources and
would require the department to grant the $10,000,000 to the
agency for the purpose of constructing a water conveyance tunnel
between Lake Nacimiento and Lake San Antonio and spillway
modifications at Lake San Antonio, as specified.
This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to
the necessity of a special statute for the Monterey County Water
Resources Agency.
This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as
an urgency statute.
Vote: 2/3. Appropriation: yes. 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 as follows:
(a) Over the past four years, California has grappled with one of
the worst ongoing droughts in the state's history.
(b) The state is riddled with water supply and water quality
challenges posed by the relentless drought and is now facing weather
forecasts of one of the most powerful El Niņo storms ever recorded.
(c) A major flood event in California has the potential to
devastate communities and regional agriculture-based economies and
seriously impact the state's economy.
(d) In the County of Monterey County
alone, agriculture generates eight billion one hundred
twenty million dollars ($8,120,000,000)
$8,120,000,000 into the local economy and supports more than
53,500 jobs. An additional 20,352 jobs are created as an indirect
result of the industry.
(e) The Monterey County Water Resources Agency manages Lake
Nacimiento and Lake San Antonio, two reservoirs that supply water for
consumption and groundwater recharge and provide flood management,
prevention of saltwater intrusion, and recreation in the Salinas
Valley.
(f) Lake Nacimiento's watershed fills its reservoir nearly three
times faster than Lake San Antonio's watershed fills its reservoir,
often causing water in Lake Nacimiento to exceed safe capacity and
overflow from the spillway into the Salinas River, even when Lake San
Antonio still has available storage capacity.
(g) The Monterey County Water Resources Agency is planning to
improve this situation and maximize the water supply availability and
flood control benefits for Zone 2C by doing both of the following:
(1) By constructing a tunnel or pipeline between Lake Nacimiento
and Lake San Antonio that has the potential to reduce water overflow
events by 60 percent.
(2) By constructing spillway modifications at Lake San Antonio to
manage flood control and increase storage by approximately 60,000
acre-feet.
(h) These two projects will mitigate the impact of the drought
and improve the economic viability of the Salinas Valley, the
environmental sustainability of the region, and agricultural
production.
(i) The Lake Nacimiento and Lake San Antonio region scores 40
percent to 50 percent as a disadvantaged community under
CalEnviroScreen.
(j) Given the Salinas Valley's economic contribution to the state'
s agricultural economy and the stress the El Niņo storms will put on
the region, the Lake Nacimiento and Lake San Antonio areas are
considered distressed communities and therefore are a priority for
state funding.
SEC. 2. Twenty-five million dollars ($25,000,000)
Ten million dollars ($10,000,000) from
____ the General Fund is hereby appropriated to
the Department of Water Resources, who shall grant the ten
million dollars ($10,000,000) to the Monterey County Water
Resources Agency for the purpose of constructing, in accordance with
the design-build process authorized by Section 11.1 of the Monterey
County Water Resources Agency Act (Chapter 1159 of the Statutes of
1990, as amended by Chapter 865 of the Statutes of 2014), both of the
following in order to maximize water storage, water supply, flood
management, and groundwater recharge at the lakes,
Lake Nacimiento and Lake San Antonio, within the Salinas
River groundwater basin, and the Salinas Valley:
(a) A water conveyance tunnel between Lake Nacimiento and Lake San
Antonio.
(b) Spillway modifications at Lake San Antonio to increase storage
by approximately 60,000 acre-feet.
SEC. 3. The Legislature finds and declares that a special law is
necessary and that a general law cannot be made applicable within the
meaning of Section 16 of Article IV of the California Constitution
because of the emergency circumstances of the ongoing drought and the
benefits these projects involving Lake Nacimiento and Lake San
Antonio, managed by the Monterey County Water Resources Agency, will
provide to the region.
SEC. 4. This act is an urgency statute necessary for the immediate
preservation of the public peace, health, or safety within the
meaning of Article IV of the Constitution and shall go into immediate
effect. The facts constituting the necessity are:
In order to responsibly store water during California's prolonged
drought, to protect the Salinas Valley from flooding, and to protect
water supply, water quality, distressed communities, and urban and
rural property and structures during a historic El Niņo weather
pattern, it is necessary that this act take effect immediately.
