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SB-890 Department of Water Resources: Water Storage and Conveyance Fund: water storage and conveyance.(2021-2022)

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Date Published: 02/23/2022 09:00 PM
SB890:v98#DOCUMENT

Amended  IN  Senate  February 23, 2022

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2021–2022 REGULAR SESSION

Senate Bill
No. 890

Introduced by Senators Nielsen and Borgeas
(Principal coauthor: Assembly Member Gallagher)
(Coauthors: Senators Caballero, Dahle, Grove, Jones, Melendez, Ochoa Bogh, and Wilk)
(Coauthors: Assembly Members Flora, Fong, Gray, Lackey, Mathis, Nguyen, Patterson, Seyarto, and Smith)

January 31, 2022

An act to add and repeal Section 140.5 of the Water Code, relating to water, and declaring the urgency thereof, to take effect immediately.


LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


SB 890, as amended, Nielsen. Department of Water Resources: Water Storage and Conveyance Fund: water storage and conveyance.
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 Water Storage and Conveyance 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 and reservoir storage costs, including environmental planning, permitting, design, and construction and all 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 complete funding for the construction of the Sites Reservoir, and 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.This bill would make these provisions inoperative on July 1, 2030, and would repeal it as of January 1, 2031.
This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Vote: 2/3   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: YES   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 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.

(a)

(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.

(b)

(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.

(c)

(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.

(d)

(f) The State Water Project provides approximately three-fourths of California’s disadvantaged communities with some or all of their water supplies.

(e)

(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.

(f)

(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.

(g)

(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.

(h)

(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.

(i)

(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.

(j)

(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.

(k)

(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.

(l)

(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.

SEC. 2.

 Section 140.5 is added to the Water Code, to read:

140.5.
 (a) The Water Storage and Conveyance Fund is hereby established in the State Treasury to help expand and restore water conveyance and storage capacity throughout California. The department shall administer the fund.
(b) Until July 1, 2030, all moneys deposited in the fund shall be expended, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for projects that support subsidence repair and reservoir storage 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 three billion one hundred eighty-five million dollars ($3,185,000,000).
(d) The department shall expend from the fund, upon appropriation by the Legislature, all of the following, consistent with subdivision (b):
(1) Up to the sum of two hundred thirty million dollars ($230,000,000) for a grant to the Friant Water Authority to restore the capacity of the Friant-Kern Canal.
(2) Up to the sum of one hundred forty million dollars ($140,000,000) for a grant to the San Luis and Delta-Mendota Water Authority to restore the capacity of the Delta-Mendota Canal.
(3) Up to the sum of one hundred forty-five million dollars ($145,000,000) to restore the capacity of the San Luis Field Division of the California Aqueduct.
(4) Up to the sum of seventy million dollars ($70,000,000) to restore the capacity of the San Joaquin Division of the California Aqueduct.
(5) Up to the sum of two billion six hundred million dollars ($2,600,000,000) to complete funding for the construction of the Sites Reservoir.
(e) This section shall become inoperative on July 1, 2030, and, as of January 1, 2031, is repealed.

SEC. 3.

 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 California Constitution and shall go into immediate effect. The facts constituting the necessity are:
Due to the impacts of increased groundwater pumping, drought, and climate change on the ability of primary state and regional water infrastructure to provide and convey water to the people of this state, it is necessary for this act to take effect immediately.