AB 936
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 14, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON WATER, PARKS, AND WILDLIFE
Marc Levine, Chair
AB 936 (Salas) – As Introduced February 26, 2015
SUBJECT: Groundwater monitoring: eligibility for public funds
SUMMARY: Allows groundwater projects and programs that are currently ineligible for state
funding due to noncompliance with groundwater basin monitoring requirements to become
eligible if the grant or loan project for which funding is requested includes actions to cure the
noncompliance.
EXISTING LAW:
1) Requires all groundwater basins to be monitored locally and systematically for their
groundwater elevations.
2) Requires reporting of groundwater basin elevation information to the Department of Water
Resources (DWR) California Statewide Groundwater Elevation Monitoring Program
(CASGEM).
3) Requires DWR to assume groundwater elevation monitoring functions if no local agency is
able or willing to and prohibits DWR from charging for the cost of monitoring.
4) Prohibits basins where DWR has assumed monitoring functions from being eligible for state
water grants and loans unless an entity can prove that its entire service area qualifies as a
disadvantaged community.
5) Requires DWR to evaluate groundwater basins and designate them as high, medium, low or
very low, according to various factors including, but not limited to, level of dependence upon
the basin by municipal and agricultural users.
6) Provides the Governor broad powers during a state of emergency.
FISCAL EFFECT: Unknown
COMMENTS: This bill requires DWR to determine that an entity is eligible for a water grant
or loan as long as the entity proposes a project for State funding that would remedy its own
CASGEM noncompliance.
On January 17, 2014, as California entered its fourth consecutive year of extremely dry
conditions, Governor Brown proclaimed a drought State of Emergency. That was followed on
April 25, 2014 by a continued State of Emergency and on April 3, 2015 by a seven-page
Executive Order, B-29-15, with 31 directives to address the drought crisis.
Directive 15 states that local agencies in all high and medium priority groundwater basins are to
immediately implement all CASGEM requirements or be referred to the State Water Resources
Control Board for possible enforcement action.
AB 936
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There are currently 127 high and medium priority basins in California. Those groundwater basins
account for 96% of all groundwater use. Of the high and medium priority basins, DWR has
determined that 9 are fully unmonitored and 16 are partially unmonitored. In other words, 102
are currently CASGEM compliant and 25 are noncompliant.
In the 25 non-compliant basins, local agencies can still be eligible for a water grant or loan if
their whole area is a disadvantaged community. That is because it is assumed that the bar to
compliance is that the entity's customers are financially incapable of supporting a monitoring
program.
SB 6 X7 and the CASGEM compromise
SB 6 (Steinberg), Chapter 1, Seventh Extraordinary Session 2009-10, created the CASGEM
program and mandated a systematic local approach to measuring groundwater basin levels. SB 6
incorporated the language from an earlier bill, SB 122 (Pavley/2009), which would have allowed
DWR to charge fees if the state was required to take over CASGEM monitoring duties for the
locals. SB 6 was negotiated during the Extraordinary Session and the final compromise was that
DWR would be expressly prohibited from charging fees but, in return, if the state was required to
perform monitoring duties in a basin, other than an area that is disadvantaged, then the locals
would be ineligible for state funding for groundwater projects and programs.
Supporting arguments. The author states this bill is needed because the policy of denying
CASGEM noncompliant basins state funding is having the negative consequence of preventing
local agencies from receiving much needed water grants and loans in order to set up groundwater
monitoring programs. Other supporters state that many small and rural counties have limited
staff and resources to implement new and ongoing programs proscribed by the State and that this
bill would ensure necessary funding is available to bring more entities into compliance with the
CASGEM program.
Suggested Committee Amendments
Committee staff suggests narrowing this bill to allow DWR discretion to fund a project for a
currently ineligible basin if there are special circumstances justifying the entity's noncompliance,
such as a significant portion of the entity's service area qualifies as a disadvantaged community.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support
Association of California Water Agencies
Rural County Representatives of California
Valley Ag Water Coalition
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by: Tina Cannon Leahy / W., P., & W. / (916) 319-2096