AB 1242
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 1242 (Gray)
As Amended May 5, 2015
Majority vote
Committee
Water
Votes
8-4
Ayes
Bigelow, Dodd, Beth Gaines,
Gray, Harper, Mathis,
Medina, Ridley-Thomas
Noes
Levine, Cristina Garcia,
Lopez, Williams
Natural Resources
8-1
Williams, Dahle,
Cristina Garcia, Hadley,
Harper, McCarty, Rendon,
Wood
Mark Stone
Appropriations
16-0
Gomez, Bigelow, Bonta,
Calderon, Chang, Daly,
Gallagher, Eduardo Garcia,
Gordon, Holden, Jones,
Quirk, Rendon, Wagner,
Weber, Wood
SUMMARY: Requires the State Water Resources Control Board, when setting flow requirements
for a Water Quality Control Plan (WQCP), to take into consideration any applicable groundwater
sustainability plans if a groundwater basin could be affected and to identify projects for fish recovery
that may be undertaken in lieu of instream flows.
EXISTING LAW:
1) Maintains that the waters of the state are held in trust for the people of California and cannot be
privately owned but can only be reasonably and beneficially used.
2) Tasks the State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board) with protecting and
enforcing water rights and water quality laws, included delegated water quality authorities under
the federal Clean Water Act. Places nine Regional Water Quality Control Boards (Regional
Water Boards) under the State Water Board.
3) Requires the Regional Water Boards, or State Water Board under specified circumstances, to
formulate and adopt WQCPs for all areas within each region of the state that protect beneficial
uses of water and meet water quality objectives.
4) Defines beneficial uses of the waters of the state to include domestic, municipal, agricultural, and
industrial supply; power generation; recreation; aesthetic enjoyment; navigation; and
preservation and enhancement of fish, wildlife, and other aquatic resources or preserves.
5) Requires the WQCP to include objectives that will ensure the reasonable protection of all
beneficial uses, protection of water quality, and the prevention of nuisance while considering
factors such as past, present and probably future beneficial uses of water, environmental
characteristics, regional economics, the need to develop housing, and the need to expand and use
recycled water.
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6) Requires the Department of Water Resources (DWR) to prioritize California's groundwater
basins in order to focus state resources. The basins are prioritized as either high, medium, low,
or very low based on a combination of factors including, but not limited to, overlying population,
level of dependence for urban and agricultural water supplies, and impacts on the groundwater
from overdraft, subsidence, saline water intrusion, and water quality degradation.
7) Requires, by June 30, 2017, the formation of one or more Groundwater Sustainability Agencies
(GSAs) in all high and medium priority basins subject to the Sustainable Groundwater
Management Act (SGMA).
8) Requires, by January 31, 2020, that GSAs in all high and medium priority basins subject to a
chronic condition of overdraft develop and adopt Groundwater Sustainability Plans (GSPs) that
provide for the sustainable management of the groundwater basin, as defined.
9) Requires, by January 31, 2022, that GSAs in all other high and medium priority basins subject to
SGMA develop and adopt GSPs.
10) Allows the State Water Board to impose an interim plan for management of a groundwater basin
if no GSA is formed by the deadline, no GSP is adopted by the appropriate deadline, or a GSP is
adopted which DWR deems insufficient and where the basin is in a chronic condition of
overdraft or in a condition where groundwater pumping is causing a significant depletion of
interconnected surface waters.
FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee, increased contract
costs for the State Water Board to perform the duties required in the bill of up to $21 million
(General Fund or special fund).
COMMENTS: This bill would require the State Water Board to consider SGMA GSPs, or any
alternatives, when setting instream flow requirements that could "affect" a groundwater basin. This
bill is assuming that if the State Water Board requires adequate water to be left instream to meet
water quality needs, then locals will pump more groundwater in response.
This bill is also requiring the State Water Board to identify projects for fish recovery that may be
undertaken in lieu of instream flows. However, in the Delta, there is significant scientific
disagreement as to whether habitat projects or other actions can substitute for flows needed to
recovery fisheries.
The Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers meet in the Delta and part of the flow passes through the
San Francisco Bay and out to sea under the Golden Gate Bridge. The Delta is important to the
natural environment and economy of California. The Delta's flows provide part of the drinking
water supply for two-thirds of the State's population and water for a multitude of other urban uses as
well as supplying some of the State's most productive agricultural areas both inside and outside of
the Delta. The Delta is also one of the largest ecosystems for fish and wildlife habitat production in
the United States, including commercial runs of salmon.
This bill is a direct response to the State Water Board's current process of setting in-stream flows
sufficient to meet the Delta's WQCP needs. For 30 years parties on the Sacramento River and its
tributaries, including the State Water Project and federal Central Valley Project, have been required
to help meet flow requirements in accordance with the 1995 Delta WQCP. However, at the time that
the 1995 Delta WQCP was developed, the parties on the Merced, Tuolumne and Stanislaus Rivers,
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which are tributaries to the San Joaquin River, claimed there was insufficient scientific information
to establish flow requirements and proposed a multi-year experiment to inform the determination.
The objective of the experiment, called the "Vernalis Adaptive Management Plan" or "VAMP" was
to evaluate the relative relationship between flows down the tributaries and export pumping in the
Delta on fish survival. VAMP ended in 2011 after more than a decade during which the VAMP
participants did not provide the high end of the flow range that was necessary to complete the
experiment. Meanwhile, populations of at-risk fish species crashed in the Delta.
The Delta WQCP received a minor update in 2006. As part of that update four "emerging issues"
were identified. These included: the decline of pelagic or "open water" fish such as smelt and
threadfin shad; climate change impacts; Delta and Central Valley salinity; and, San Joaquin River
flows. With regard to San Joaquin River flows, the State Water Board referenced data that showed
various fish species within the Delta and San Joaquin River basin had not shown significant signs of
recovery since adoption of the VAMP experiment and recommended additional study. Thereafter, in
2009, the State Water Board commenced a triennial update of the WQCP that is ongoing and will
include a determination of what responsibility parties on the individual tributaries to the San Joaquin
River have for contributing to Delta flows.
The author states this bill is necessary because the State Water Board is considering a proposal to
develop new unimpaired flow requirements on the Tuolumne, Merced, and Stanislaus Rivers. The
author maintains that the proposed plan would significantly increase the level of water into the Delta
and thus devastate the groundwater basins in the valley by reducing surface water recharge
opportunities and eliminating surface water deliveries to domestic and agricultural water users. The
author maintains that the State Board's action will deny Central Valley basins one of the most
important tools in the tool box: the ability to recharge the depleted groundwater table with surface
flows.
Opponents state that this bill would unreasonably limit the authority of the State Water Board to
balance the use of water in the state for all beneficial uses, including fish and wildlife that are held in
trust by the state. Opponents state that this bill also threatens vulnerable communities from
unsustainable groundwater management by inserting a broad and inappropriate requirement that
essentially makes every Basin Plan subservient to any and all GSPs in that basin with the effect of
interfering with the State Water Board's ability to protect water quality. Specifically, with regard to
the San Joaquin River and its tributaries, opponents note that in some years more than 80% of the
natural flow of these rivers is diverted, which has devastating impacts on salmon, steelhead, and
other native fisheries as well as the health of the Delta. Opponents add that during the negotiations
for SGMA the author attempted to link groundwater management and the State Water Board's
potential requirement for the San Joaquin River tributaries to provide adequate water to the Delta,
but the approach was rejected.
Analysis Prepared by: Tina Leahy / W., P., & W. / (916) 319-2096
FN: 0000772