Bill Text: CA AB2371 | 2017-2018 | Regular Session | Introduced

California Assembly Bill 2371 (Prior Session Legislation)

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

Bill Title: Water use efficiency: landscape irrigation.

Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2)

Status: (Passed) 2018-09-28 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 867, Statutes of 2018. [AB2371 Detail]

Download: California-2017-AB2371-Introduced.html

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2017–2018 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill

No. 2371

Introduced by Assembly Member Carrillo

February 14, 2018

An act relating to water.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

AB 2371, as introduced, Carrillo. Water use sustainability: irrigation.

Existing law, the Water Conservation in Landscaping Act, requires the Department of Water Resources to update its model water-efficient landscape ordinance by regulation and prescribes various requirements for the updated model ordinance.

This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation that would improve water use sustainability in California’s outdoor irrigation practices.

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) Approximately one-half of the urban water provided for all purposes in California is used outdoors, primarily for landscape irrigation. This significant amount of potable water use, approximately four million acre-feet per year, illuminates the critical importance of choices individuals and communities make about landscaping.

(b) Functional and attractive landscapes are essential to Californians’ quality of life, providing places to recreate and relax, cooling the environment around buildings, offering wildlife habitat, and creating places of beauty.

(c) The most recent prolonged drought is a reminder that the landscape designs used widely today throughout California, coupled with ingrained habitats of water use, are not sustainable.

(d) In May 2016, the Independent Technical Panel on Demand Management Measures, created pursuant to Chapter 628 of the Statutes of 2007, completed a report to the Legislature entitled, “Recommendations Report to the Legislature on Landscape Water Use Efficiency.”

(e) The Independent Technical Panel’s report contains dozens of recommendations for improving landscape water use efficiency in California, and many of the recommendations require changes to existing statutes.