Code Section

25299.97.  

(a) For the purposes of this article, the following definitions shall apply:

(1) “Public drinking water well” means a wellhead that provides drinking water to a public water system, as that term is defined in Section 116275, that is regulated by the State Water Resources Control Board and that is subject to Section 116455.

(2) “MTBE” means methyl tertiary-butyl ether.

(3) “GIS mapping system” means a geographic information system that collects, stores, retrieves, analyzes, and displays environmental geographic data in a data base that is accessible to the public.

(4) “Motor vehicle fuel” includes gasoline, natural gasoline, blends of gasoline and alcohol or gasoline and oxygenates, and any inflammable liquid, by whatever name the liquid may be known or sold, that is used or usable for propelling motor vehicles operated by the explosion type engine. It does not include kerosine, liquefied petroleum gas, or natural gas, in liquid or gaseous form.

(5) “Oxygenated motor vehicle fuel” is motor vehicle fuel, as defined in paragraph (4), that meets the federal definition for “Oxygenated fuel” in Section 7545(m) of Title 42 of the United States Code.

(6) “Oxygenate” means an organic compound containing oxygen that has been approved by the United States Environmental Protection Agency as a gasoline additive to meet the requirements for an “oxygenated fuel” pursuant to Section 7545 of Title 42 of the United States Code.

(b) The State Water Resources Control Board shall upgrade the data base created by Section 25296.35. This upgrade shall include the establishment of a statewide GIS mapping system as described in this section only upon an appropriation by the Legislature for this purpose.

(c) (1) For purposes of subdivision (b), the board shall create a GIS Mapping and Data Management Advisory Committee. The committee shall give the board advice on location standards, protocols, metadata, and the appropriate data to expand the data base to create a cost-effective GIS mapping system that will provide the appropriate information to allow agencies to better protect public drinking water wells and, if feasible, nearby aquifers that are reasonably expected to be used as drinking water, from contamination by motor vehicle fuel from underground storage tanks and intrastate and interstate pipelines that are regulated by the State Fire Marshal pursuant to the California Pipeline Safety Act of 1981, Chapter 5.5 (commencing with Section 51010.5) of Part 1 of Division 1 of Title 5 of the Government Code.

(2) The advisory committee shall include, at a minimum, members from appropriate state and local agencies, affected industry and business, the water agencies that provide drinking water in Santa Monica, the water agencies that provide drinking water in the Santa Clara Valley, nonprofit environmental groups dedicated to the conservation and preservation of natural resources, and underground storage tank owners.

(d) (1) The board shall create two pilot projects, the Santa Monica Groundwater Pilot Project and the Santa Clara Valley Groundwater Pilot Project, which shall terminate on July 1, 1999.

(2) The board shall create the pilot projects with the advice of the advisory committee so as to expedite and prioritize the upgrading of the data base for those regions of the state where groundwater provides, or would be called on in an emergency to provide, a significant portion of the region’s drinking water.

(3) The board shall use the pilot projects to define and assess the parameters of the data base, identify data needs, develop opportunities to electronically link data bases and electronic submission of information, offer access to the public via the Internet, streamline existing processes, and work out the details for data management and a GIS mapping system as described in this article.

(4) The pilot projects shall study appropriate notification to public water systems and response times.

(e) To upgrade the data base as required by this section, the board, in consultation with the advisory committee, shall do all of the following:

(1) Coordinate with the Department of Water Resources and the State Department of Public Health to obtain the location of existing drinking water wells and appropriate water resource and quality data to meet the requirements of this article.

(2) Coordinate with local agencies authorized to implement this chapter to obtain the location of all underground storage tanks that store motor vehicle fuel that are within 1,000 feet of a public drinking water well.

(3) Coordinate with local agencies authorized to implement this chapter to add the location of all known releases of motor vehicle fuel from underground storage tanks that are within 1,000 feet of a drinking water well.

(4) Coordinate with the State Fire Marshal to add the location and leak history of all pipelines or segments of pipelines that transport motor vehicle fuel and that are regulated by the State Fire Marshal pursuant to Chapter 5.5 (commencing with Section 51010) of Part 1 of Division 1 of Title 5 of the Government Code that are within 1,000 feet of an existing public drinking water well.

(f) The board may expend up to four hundred thousand dollars ($400,000) from the Underground Storage Tank Cleanup Fund for the purposes set forth in Section 25299.36 to fund the GIS mapping system projects referred to in this section.