Bill Text: CA SB559 | 2021-2022 | Regular Session | Introduced
NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft
Bill Title: Tribal gaming: compact ratification.
Spectrum: Moderate Partisan Bill (Democrat 4-1)
Status: (Passed) 2022-09-22 - Chaptered by Secretary of State. Chapter 467, Statutes of 2022. [SB559 Detail]
Download: California-2021-SB559-Introduced.html
Bill Title: Tribal gaming: compact ratification.
Spectrum: Moderate Partisan Bill (Democrat 4-1)
Status: (Passed) 2022-09-22 - Chaptered by Secretary of State. Chapter 467, Statutes of 2022. [SB559 Detail]
Download: California-2021-SB559-Introduced.html
CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE—
2021–2022 REGULAR SESSION
Senate Bill
No. 559
| Introduced by Senator Hurtado (Principal coauthor: Assembly Member Patterson) (Coauthors: Senators Borgeas and Caballero) (Coauthors: Assembly Members Gray and Salas) |
February 18, 2021 |
An act to add and repeal Section 140.5 of the Water Code, relating to water.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 559, as introduced, Hurtado.
Department of Water Resources: water conveyance systems: Canal Conveyance Capacity Restoration Fund.
Under existing law, the United States Bureau of Reclamation operates the federal Central Valley Project and the Department of Water Resources operates the State Water Project to supply water to persons and entities in the state. Existing law requires the Friant-Kern Canal to be of such capacity as the department determines necessary to furnish an adequate supply of water for beneficial purposes in the area to be served by the canal.
This bill would establish the Canal Conveyance Capacity Restoration Fund in the State Treasury to be administered by the department. The bill would require all moneys deposited in the fund to be expended, upon appropriation by the Legislature, in support of subsidence repair costs, including environmental planning, permitting, design, and construction and necessary road and bridge upgrades
required to accommodate capacity improvements. The bill would require the department to expend from the fund, upon appropriation by the Legislature, specified monetary amounts to restore the capacity of 4 specified water conveyance systems, as prescribed, with 2 of those 4 expenditures being in the form of a grant to the Friant Water Authority and to the San Luis and Delta-Mendota Water Authority. The bill would make these provisions inoperative on July 1, 2030, and would repeal the provisions as of January 1, 2031.
Digest Key
Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: NOBill Text
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1.
The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:(a) The human right to water is an important state policy enacted in 2013. Climate change may impact the ability of existing water infrastructure to continue to provide safe, affordable, and reliable water.
(b) The Legislature, recognizing that chronic groundwater overpumping was leading to undesirable impacts such as subsidence, enacted the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (Part 2.74 (commencing with Section 10720) of Division 6 of the Water Code) in 2015.
(c) Subsidence has impacted the ability of state and regional water conveyance
infrastructure to reliably deliver water to the San Joaquin Valley and southern California.
(d) A significant number of the communities that rely on water delivered by infrastructure of statewide or regional importance are considered disadvantaged or severely disadvantaged.
(e) These communities, particularly throughout the San Joaquin Valley, face adverse impacts associated with subsidence and loss of water supply, including loss of job opportunities and job security.
(f) Disadvantaged communities, particularly in southern California, face increasing costs to ensure access to high-quality water and to maintain water supply reliability.
(g) The Friant-Kern Canal, Delta-Mendota Canal, San Luis Canal, and California Aqueduct are the state’s main state and
regional water conveyance infrastructure that delivers water for agricultural, municipal, and industrial use, refuge water supplies, and groundwater recharge in the San Joaquin Valley and in southern California.
(h) This water is delivered through a series of regional canals and aqueducts that traverse through the San Joaquin Valley for delivery and continue to southern California.
(i) At least 5,000,000 people in the state, including approximately 1,250,000 people living in disadvantaged communities, receive water from the Friant-Kern Canal, Delta-Mendota Canal, and San Luis Canal.
(j) The State Water Project provides approximately three-fourths of California’s disadvantaged communities with some or all of their water supplies.
(k) Over 750,000 acres
of farmland receive water from the State Water Project and nearly 2,500,000 acres of productive cropland are served water through the Friant-Kern Canal, Delta-Mendota Canal, and San Luis Canal.
(l) Climate change has increased the variability of the hydrologic cycle and reduced the availability of surface water supplies to a smaller number of years, which increases the need for conjunctive use of groundwater to manage reductions in surface water supplies. An increase in groundwater pumping has caused significant land subsidence that has affected the ability of regional water conveyance infrastructure to convey water. In some areas, the water conveyance infrastructure has dropped in elevation an average of one inch per month since 2014.
(m) The total cost to repair these regional water conveyance structures is approximately $2,300,000,000 over 10 years.
(n) Restoring water conveyance capacity is a necessary step to improving water resilience and to protect critical regional water infrastructure from the impacts of drought and climate change, which will improve the accessibility of safe and reliable drinking water and other beneficial uses of water.
(o) The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (Part 2.74 (commencing with Section 10720) of Division 6 of the Water Code) will help to protect investments made to restore water conveyance capacity.
(p) It is of paramount importance that the primary state and regional water conveyance infrastructure in the state be protected from subsidence, and that conveyance be restored whenever economically, environmentally, and technically feasible.
SEC. 2.
Section 140.5 is added to the Water Code, to read:140.5.
(a) The Canal Conveyance Capacity Restoration Fund is hereby established in the State Treasury. The department shall administer the fund.(b) All moneys deposited in the fund shall be expended, upon appropriation by the Legislature, in support of subsidence repair costs, including environmental planning, permitting, design, and construction and necessary road and bridge upgrades required to accommodate capacity improvements.
(c) Moneys expended from the fund for each individual project specified in subdivision (d) shall not exceed one-third of the total cost of each individual project. The total amount expended from the fund for all of the projects specified in subdivision (d) shall
not exceed seven hundred eighty-five million dollars ($785,000,000).
(d) The department shall expend from the fund, upon appropriation by the Legislature, all of the following, consistent with subdivision (b):
(1) Three hundred eight million dollars ($308,000,000) for a grant to the Friant Water Authority to restore the capacity of the Friant-Kern Canal.
(2) One hundred eighty-seven million dollars ($187,000,000) for a grant to the San Luis and Delta-Mendota Water Authority to restore the capacity of the Delta-Mendota Canal.
(3) One hundred ninety-four million dollars ($194,000,000) to restore the capacity of the San Luis Field Division of the California Aqueduct.
(4) Ninety-six million
dollars ($96,000,000) to restore the capacity of the San Joaquin Division of the California Aqueduct.
(e) This section shall become inoperative on July 1, 2030, and, as of January 1, 2031, is repealed.
