SECTION 1.
The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:(a) The human right to water is an important state policy that was enacted in 2013 by Assembly Bill 685 (Chapter 524 of the Statutes of 2012).
(b) Government inaction has impacted the ability of existing water infrastructure to continue to provide a safe, affordable, and reliable supply of water.
(c) The Friant-Kern Canal, the Delta-Mendota Canal, the San Luis Canal, and the 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.
(d) This water is delivered through a series of regional canals and aqueducts that traverse through the San Joaquin Valley and continue to southern California for delivery.
(e) 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, the Delta-Mendota Canal, and the San Luis Canal.
(f) The State Water Project provides approximately three-fourths of California’s disadvantaged communities with some or all of their water supplies.
(g) 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, the Delta-Mendota Canal, and the San Luis Canal.
(h) An increase in groundwater pumping caused by a failure of the state and federal governments to provide a reliable supply of surface water has caused significant land subsidence that has affected the ability of regional water conveyance infrastructure to convey water. In some areas, the water conveyance has infrastructure dropped in elevation an average of one inch per month since 2014.
(i) 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.
(j) The total cost to repair the Friant-Kern Canal, the Delta-Mendota Canal, and the San Luis Canal regional water conveyance structures is approximately $2,300,000,000 over 10 years.
(k) In addition, with the potential for a changing climate that could significantly reduce snowpack and produce flashier storms that feature more atmospheric rivers of precipitation in the form of rainfall, California must prioritize storing water in the wet years for use in the drier years.
(l) In 2014, the voters approved Proposition 1, a state bond act that provided the sum of $2,700,000,000 for water storage. The California Water Commission has allocated the entire sum of $2,700,000,000. To date, not one of the projects specified in this bill are complete.
(m) Sites Reservoir is an off-stream storage facility envisioned for nearly 40 years. It can store over 1,000,000 acre-feet of water north of the Bay Delta. As a result, Sites Reservoir is the only proposed storage facility in California that would help with the statewide operational effectiveness of the State Water Project and the Central Valley Project. If fully funded and constructed, it will play a significant role in the amount of water available statewide for farms, cities, and the environment throughout the state.
(n) Restoring water conveyance and increasing storage 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.