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AB-2962 Wholesale Regional Water System Security and Reliability Act.(2023-2024)

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Date Published: 08/26/2024 09:00 PM
AB2962:v95#DOCUMENT

Assembly Bill No. 2962
CHAPTER 203

An act to amend Sections 73504, 73510, and 73514 of the Water Code, relating to water.

[ Approved by Governor  August 26, 2024. Filed with Secretary of State  August 26, 2024. ]

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


AB 2962, Papan. Wholesale Regional Water System Security and Reliability Act.
Existing law, the Wholesale Regional Water System Security and Reliability Act, requires the City and County of San Francisco to adopt a specified program of capital improvement projects designed to restore and improve the bay area regional water system, as defined. Existing law makes the act inoperative and repeals these provisions on January 1, 2026.
This bill would extend the repeal date of the act to January 1, 2036, and make technical nonsubstantive changes. By extending the period of time during which certain requirements would apply to regional wholesale water suppliers and the City and County of San Francisco, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the City and County of San Francisco and the regional water system, and that the bill addresses a matter of statewide concern rather than a municipal affair and applies to charter cities.
The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.
This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: YES   Local Program: YES  

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:


SECTION 1.

 The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a) The City and County of San Francisco operates the Hetch Hetchy Project as a regional water delivery system, supplying water to persons and entities in the City and County of San Francisco and the Counties of Alameda, San Mateo, and Santa Clara.
(b) The Wholesale Regional Water System Security and Reliability Act requires the City and County of San Francisco to adopt a specified program of capital improvement projects designed to restore and improve the bay area regional water system and to submit a report, on or before September 1 of each year, to various entities describing the progress made on the implementation of the capital improvement program during the previous fiscal year.
(c) The Wholesale Regional Water System Security and Reliability Act authorizes the City and County of San Francisco to determine that the completion dates for projects contained in the program should be delayed or that different projects should be constructed. The act requires each city to identify in its progress report any project that is behind schedule and for each project so identified to describe its plan and timeline for making up the delay or adopting a revised implementation schedule.
(d) The Wholesale Regional Water System Security and Reliability Act imposes various other requirements on regional wholesale water suppliers, including a requirement that these suppliers submit an annual report describing the progress made on securing supplemental sources of water to augment existing supplies during dry years.
(e) The Wholesale Regional Water System Security and Reliability Act shall become inoperative on January 1, 2026.
(f) On February 26, 2003, pursuant to the requirements of the Wholesale Regional Water System Security and Reliability Act, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission submitted to the State Department of Health Care Services a report outlining the projects, schedule, and implementation plan for the capital improvement program that included 85 projects which expanded on the subset detailed in the act.
(g) The City and County of San Francisco has not yet concluded its capital improvement projects and, particularly, the regional groundwater storage and recovery project and the Alameda Creek recapture project will not be completed by the end of 2025.
(h) Both the regional groundwater storage and recovery project and the Alameda Creek recapture project are critical to the regional water system’s ability to provide reliable water supply during a drought, specifically in response to the Wholesale Regional Water System Security and Reliability Act’s requirement for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission to submit a report annually on progress made during the previous calendar year on securing supplemental sources of water to augment existing supplies during dry years.
(i) In order to provide continued oversight of the capital improvement projects through completion and to account for any further adjustments to the projects schedule during the next 12 years, this bill would extend the oversight provisions of the Wholesale Regional Water System Security and Reliability Act to January 1, 2036.
(j) The continued reliability of the regional water system is a matter of statewide concern and is not a municipal affair as that term is used in Section 5 of Article XI of the California Constitution. This act shall apply to all cities, including charter cities and a charter city and county, as applicable pursuant to Division 20.5 (commencing with Section 73500) of the Water Code.

SEC. 2.

 Section 73504 of the Water Code is amended to read:

73504.
 (a) Commencing in 2003, a regional wholesale water supplier shall submit a report to the Legislature and the State Water Resources Control Board on or before February 1 of each year, describing the progress made during the previous calendar year on securing supplemental sources of water to augment existing supplies during dry years.
(b) In order to supply adequately, dependably, and safely the requirements of all users of water, the city shall continue its practice of operating the reservoirs in the Counties of Tuolumne and Stanislaus in a manner that ensures that the generation of hydroelectric power will not cause any reasonably anticipated adverse impact on water service. The city shall assign higher priority to delivery of water to the bay area than to the generation of electric power, unless the Secretary of the Interior, in writing, notifies the city that doing so would violate the Raker Act (63 P.L. 41). The city shall make available to the public, on request, its plans of operations (rule curves) for these reservoirs.
(c) The city shall be deemed to be a local public agency for the purposes of Article 4 (commencing with Section 1810) of Chapter 11 of Part 2 of Division 2.

SEC. 3.

 Section 73510 of the Water Code is amended to read:

73510.
 Notwithstanding Section 116500 of the Health and Safety Code, the State Water Resources Control Board shall ensure that the bay area regional water system is operated in compliance with the California Safe Drinking Water Act (Chapter 4 (commencing with Section 116275) of Part 12 of Division 104 of the Health and Safety Code) and the guidelines established by the United States Environmental Protection Agency for the purposes of administering the comparable provisions of the federal Safe Drinking Water Act (42 U.S.C. Sec. 300f et seq.).

SEC. 4.

 Section 73514 of the Water Code is amended to read:

73514.
 This division shall remain in effect only until January 1, 2036, and as of that date is repealed, unless a later enacted statute, that is enacted before January 1, 2036, deletes or extends that date.

SEC. 5.

 The Legislature finds and declares that a special statute is necessary and that a general statute cannot be made applicable within the meaning of Section 16 of Article IV of the California Constitution because of the unique circumstances regarding the operation of the bay area regional water system, as described in Section 1 of this act.

SEC. 6.

 No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution because a local agency or school district has the authority to levy service charges, fees, or assessments sufficient to pay for the program or level of service mandated by this act, within the meaning of Section 17556 of the Government Code.