Bill Text: CA SB1264 | 2015-2016 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Monterey County Water Resources Agency: Salinas River
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Failed) 2016-11-30 - From committee without further action. [SB1264 Detail]
Download: California-2015-SB1264-Introduced.html
BILL NUMBER: SB 1264 INTRODUCED
BILL TEXT
INTRODUCED BY Senator Cannella
FEBRUARY 18, 2016
An act relating to the Monterey County Water Resources Agency,
making an appropriation therefor, and declaring the urgency thereof,
to take effect immediately.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 1264, as introduced, Cannella. Monterey County Water Resources
Agency: Salinas River System.
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 prevent the
contamination or pollution of surface or subsurface water used or
useful in the agency.
This bill would appropriate $1,000,000 from the General Fund to
the Monterey County Water Resources Agency, for use in the Salinas
River, to assist in the removal of excess vegetation and trash,
increase efficiency of instream flow using sediment and vegetation
management strategies, and support the development and implementation
of long-term management policies.
This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to
the necessity of a special statute for the Salinas River System.
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 all of the
following:
(a) The Salinas River System, which includes the Salinas River and
the Salinas River Lagoon, undergoes an annual aggressive vegetative
insurgence, causing an accumulation of waste in the river and putting
the surrounding communities and prime agricultural lands at risk of
flooding.
(b) Because the Salinas River System is predominately
privately-owned and required to meet permitting standards set by
local, state, and federal agencies, maintenance on the river
represents a unique opportunity for public and private partnerships.
(c) The Salinas River System has been designated by the National
Marine Fisheries Service as critical habitat for federally-threatened
South-Central California Coast steelhead trout (Oncorhynchus
mykiss).
(d) Because the Salinas River lies upstream from the Monterey Bay,
waste and vegetation in the river threaten the health of the bay.
Thousands of people every year travel to Monterey Bay to enjoy its
natural beauty and, as a public resource and source of tourism
revenue, the state has an interest in protecting it.
(e) Annual vegetative insurgence, along with the accumulation of
waste in the river, puts surrounding communities, including farming
communities and the land that is farmed, at risk for flooding.
(f) The Salinas River Lagoon is home to rare, threatened, and
endangered species, including tidewater goby (Eucyclogobius
newberryi) and western snowy plover (charadrius nivosus), and home to
numerous plant communities.
(g) The Salinas River Lagoon is surrounded by some of the most
productive agricultural lands in the world, which support an annual
$40,000,000 artichoke crop agricultural industry.
(h) Lagoon management is essential to the safety of the developed
residential and agricultural areas surrounding the lagoon within the
100-year floodplain due to the periodic flooding from high river
flows and ocean storms almost annually or, in some cases, multiple
inundations in one year.
(i) Management of the lagoon is a component of the long-term
Salinas River Management Program and represents an essential element
of the Salinas River system.
(j) The Board of Directors and Board of Supervisors of the
Monterey County Water Resources Agency have approved the Winter
2015-2016 Sandbar Management Plan Project, and permitting agencies
expect that measurable progress occur on obtaining full,
nonemergency, permits and a commitment to developing a long-term
plan.
(k) Providing the Monterey County Water Resources Agency with the
resources necessary to address annual aggressive vegetative
insurgence, trash, and sediment management in the Salinas River is
critical in helping maintain the natural splendor of the Monterey Bay
environment and its economies, while protecting the people in
surrounding communities.
SEC. 2. 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 unique need to maintain the Salinas River and the
Salinas River Lagoon in order to protect the ecosystem of the
Monterey Bay, as both a public resource and a source of tourism
revenue, and to protect surrounding communities from the risk of
flooding.
SEC. 3. There is hereby appropriated one million dollars
($1,000,000) from the General Fund to the Monterey County Water
Resources Agency to initiate efforts to do any of the following in
the Salinas River:
(a) Assist in the removal of excess vegetation and trash.
(b) Increase the efficiency of instream flow using sediment and
vegetation management strategies.
(c) Support the development and implementation of long-term
management policies.
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 protect the Salinas Valley and Monterey Bay from
flooding during a historic El Niņo weather pattern, it is necessary
that this act take effect immediately.
