The State Legislature is on Summer Recess from July 1 to July 31. July 1 was also the last day for bills to be heard in the second house policy committees. When the Legislature reconvenes on August 1, the bills that are still alive will begin to be heard in the Appropriations committees. August 12 is the last day for a bill to make it past the Appropriations committees. From August 15 until August 31 the bills that survived the fiscal committees will be heard on the floors of their respective houses.
This 30-day period of time gets very hectic because all surviving legislation is funneling through a few locations at once. Legislation can also be amended on the floor, special hearings can be heard off the floor with a moment’s notice, and bills can be gutted and amended to some entirely new subject. All of these proceedings must be carefully monitored.
Bills that pass through this process by August 31 will proceed to the Governor for his approval or veto. The Governor has until September 30 to complete this process. This period of time is also when lobbyists actively lobby and educate the Governor’s staff on the merits or negative aspects of the legislation on his desk.
To access all California legislation from 1999 to present; bill text, amendments, votes, analyses, and status; go
to: http://www.legislature.ca.gov/the_state_legislature/bill_information/bill_information.html
Thank you,
Pete Conaty,
Pete Conaty & Associates – PWQA Governmental Advocate
CA AB 615 AUTHOR: Rendon [D]
TITLE: Office of Sustainable Water Solutions: Assistance
LOCATION: Senate Environmental Quality Committee
SUMMARY:
Amends existing law that establishes the Office of Sustainable Water Solutions to promote permanent and sustainable drinking water and wastewater treatment solutions to ensure the effective and efficient provision of safe, clean, affordable, and reliable drinking water and wastewater treatment services and authorizes the office to provide technical assistance to disadvantaged communities and small drinking water systems and wastewater systems.
Specifies the technical assistance that may be provided.
Position: Watch
CA AB 1588 AUTHOR: Mathis [R]
CA AB 1738 AUTHOR: McCarty [D]
CA AB 1755 AUTHOR: Dodd [D]
CA AB 2022 AUTHOR: Gordon [D]
CA AB 2099 AUTHOR: Stone [D]
TITLE: Water and Wastewater Loan and Grant Program
COMMITTEE: Senate Appropriations Committee
HEARING: 08/01/2016 10:00 am
SUMMARY:
Requires the State Water Resources Control Board to establish a program to provide funding to counties to award low-interest loans and grants to eligible applicants for specified purposes relating to drinking water and wastewater treatment. Authorizes a county to apply for such funds. Creates the Water and Wastewater Loan and Grant Fund and provides the moneys in this fund are available to the Board to administer and implement the program. Transfers funds from the General Fund to the loan and grant fund.
Position: Support
TITLE: Building Standards: Dark Graywater
LOCATION: Senate Environmental Quality Committee
SUMMARY:
Defines dark graywater as a specified wastewater that comes from kitchen sinks and dishwashers. Requires the Department of Housing and Community Development, at the next triennial building standards rulemaking cycle, to develop and submit for approval building standards for the construction, installation, and alteration of dark graywater systems for indoor and outdoor uses.
Position: Watch
TITLE: Open and Transparent Water Data Act
COMMITTEE: Senate Appropriations Committee
HEARING: 08/01/2016 10:00 am
SUMMARY:
Enacts the Open and Transparent Water Data Act. Requires the Department of Water Resources to create, operate, and maintain a statewide integrated water data platform that integrates existing water and ecological data information from multiple databases and provide data on completed water transfers and exchanges. Creates a related fund to provide money to specified entities for the improvement of water data or for certain other purposes of the Act.
Position: Support
TITLE: Advanced Purified Demonstration Water
COMMITTEE: Senate Appropriations Committee
HEARING: 08/01/2016 10:00 am
SUMMARY:
Authorizes the operator of an advanced purified demonstration water facility to cause the advanced purified demonstration water to be bottled and distributed as samples for educational purposes and to promote water recycling. Prohibits the advanced purified demonstration water in each bottle from exceeding a specified amount. Prohibits the water from being distributed unless it meets or is superior to all federal and state drinking water standards. Requires a recycling program for distributed bottles.
Position: Watch
TITLE: Safe Drinking Water Benefit
COMMITTEE: Senate Appropriations Committee
HEARING: 08/01/2016 10:00 am
CA AB 2124 AUTHOR: Garcia E [D]
CA AB 2890 AUTHOR: Env Safety & Toxic Material Cmt
CA AB 2909 AUTHOR: Levine [D]
SUMMARY:
Requires the State Department of Social Services to convene a workgroup to develop recommendations for delivering a water benefit to supplement that purchase of drinking water for low-income households with inadequate access to safe drinking water. Requires a plan for identification of eligible households and the delivery of the benefit to those households. Requires the submission of a report with the recommendations to specified entities.
Position: Support
TITLE: Water: Testing and Reports
LOCATION: Senate Environmental Quality Committee
SUMMARY:
Requires a person operating a public water system to include samples from schools, day care facilities, and health care facilities, to the extent those locations are within the public water system. Requires reporting to the State Water Resources Control Board information regarding samples taken from those sites. Requires the posting of such information on the Board’s Web site.
Requires a report to the entities from where the samples were taken.
Position: Support
TITLE: Drinking Water and Wastewater Operator Certification
LOCATION: Senate Third Reading File
SUMMARY:
Requires the State Water Resources Control Board to appoint an advisory committee to examine and certify people to operate water treatment plants and water distribution systems, and to review all proposed regulations and make recommendations to the Board. Relates to water treatment operator-in-training.
Revises procedures for the suspension or revocation of a valid operator license.
Authorizes certificate reciprocity. Provides certificate application fraud civil liability. Relates to an advisory committee.
Position: Watch
TITLE: Water: Transfer or Exchange: Expedited Review
SUMMARY:
Requires the Water Resources Board to develop and implement an expedited review process for approval or petitions to temporarily change the point of diversion, place of use, or purpose of use due to a transfer or exchange of water or water rights if the transfer is for a recurring water transfer or an environmentally beneficial transfer.
Requires the development of a review process for reoccurring water transfers between contractors for State Water Project water.
LOCATION:
Position:
Senate Floor
Watch
CA SB 163 AUTHOR: Hertzberg [D]
TITLE: Wastewater Treatment: Recycled Water
LOCATION: Assembly Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials
SUMMARY:
Declares that it is a waste and unreasonable use of water to discharge treated wastewater from an ocean or bay outfall, or for a water supplier or water replenishment district to not take treated wastewater made available for certain purposes. Requires related regulations. Requires permit holders to submit plans to achieve beneficial reuse of treated wastewater. Requires reuse of a specified percentage of such wastewater. Requires an advisory group. Authorizes fees.
Position: Watch
Committee
CA SB 552 AUTHOR: Wolk [D]
CA SB 919 AUTHOR: Hertzberg [D]
CA SB 995 AUTHOR: Pavley [D]
CA SB 1298 AUTHOR: Hertzberg[D]
CA SB 1318 AUTHOR: Wolk [D]
TITLE: Public Water Systems: Disadvantaged Communities
LOCATION: Assembly Appropriations Committee
SUMMARY:
Requires the State Water Resources Control Board to hold an initial public meeting prior to ordering the consolidation or extension of public water system service and to obtain well owner consent. Provides any affected resident and domestic well owner within the service area who does not consent is ineligible for any future water-related grants. Requires the Board to compensate certain water systems. Prohibits a charge increase for certain customers. Requires contracting for administrative services.
Position: Watch
TITLE: Water Supply: Creation or Augmentation of Local Water
LOCATION: Assembly Appropriations Committee
SUMMARY:
Requires the Public Utilities Commission to address the oversupply of renewable energy resources through a tariff or other economic incentive for electricity purchased by customers operating facilities that create or augment local water supplies to reduce the cost of electricity to those facilities.
Position: Watch
TITLE: Well Standards
LOCATION: Assembly Appropriations Committee
SUMMARY:
Requires the Department of Water Resources to update well standards for water wells, monitoring wells and cathodic protection wells based on existing knowledge and to submit these standards to the State Water Resources Control Board. Includes abandonment ordinances. Requires the state board to revise the model ordinances upon receipt of the standards.
Position: Support
TITLE: Local Government: Fees and Charges
LOCATION: Assembly Floor
SUMMARY:
Authorizes a local government agency to impose a conservation and efficiency fee or charge for water service, to achieve specified conservation and efficiency purposes. Provides the fee or charge may raise revenue as an incident to its regulatory purposes. Requires the agency to use such revenue to pay the cost of providing service or for lowering the rate or rate structure of any associated property-related fee or charge. Requires the fee or charge to be in relation to benefits.
Position: Watch
TITLE: Local Government: Drinking Water and Wastewater Service
LOCATION: Assembly Local Government Committee
SUMMARY:
Amends existing law that regulates to formation, consolidate, and merger of new districts to include annexation of a disadvantaged unincorporated community, a special district’s sphere of influence, the review of adequacy and need for water and wastewater services in such communities, and a service review of the municipal services of unincorporated island, fringe, or legacy communities.
Position: Watch
CA SB 1328 AUTHOR: Lara [D]
CA SB 1398 AUTHOR: Leyva [D]
CA SB 1456 AUTHOR: Galgiani [D]
TITLE: Stormwater Capture and Treatment Projects: Funding
LOCATION: Assembly Appropriations Committee
SUMMARY:
Authorizes the State Water Resources Control Board to expend moneys from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund to provide grants to public entities to implement stormwater and dry weather runoff collection and treatment projects that are intended to reduce greenhouse gas emission by decreasing the demand for electricity needed to pump, transport, and delivery water from natural sources to serve water customers.
TITLE: Public Water Systems: Lead Service Lines
LOCATION: Assembly Appropriations Committee
SUMMARY:
Requires a public water system to compile an inventory of known lead Service lines in use in its system and identify areas that may have such service lines in use in its system. Requires the system to provide a timeline for replacement of know service lines in the distribution system to the State Water Resources Control Board. Requires such system to determine the existence or absence of service lines in specified areas and provide its information to the Board or provide a replacement timeline of pipes.
Position: Support
TITLE: Safe Drinking Water State Revolving Fund Law
LOCATION: Assembly Appropriations Committee
SUMMARY:
Amends an existing law which establishes the Safe Drinking Water State Revolving Fund. Authorizes certain costs to be funded by loans or other repayable financing, grants, principal forgiveness, or a combination of grants and loans or other financial assistance, regardless of whether a public water system is a community public water system or a not-for-profit noncommunity public water system. Limits the principal forgiveness to capital improvements serving specified severely disadvantaged communities.
Position: Support