SB 1301: State permitting: environment: processing procedures: dam safety or flood risk reduction project.

Existing law requires the Department of Water Resources to supervise the maintenance and operation of dams and reservoirs as necessary to safeguard life and property. Existing law requires the department to perform various flood control activities throughout the state. Existing law establishes the Central Valley Flood Protection Board and authorizes the board to engage in various flood control activities along the Sacramento River, the San Joaquin River, their tributaries, and related areas. Existing law also authorizes the board of supervisors of a county to appropriate and spend money from the general fund of the county for specified flood control purposes in connection with streams or rivers in the county.

This bill would require the Office of Planning and Research to develop a joint multiagency preapplication for supplemental consultation and a model fee-for-service agreement, in consultation with a state agency with the power to issue a permit that would authorize a dam safety project or authorize a flood risk reduction project and any interested potential project applicants. The bill would authorize a project applicant to complete a joint multiagency preapplication and submit the preapplication to each state agency named in the preapplication at any time. The bill would require the submission to cause, as appropriate for the proposed project and as specified in the preapplication, a state agency to identify how the requested supplemental consultation will be provided. The bill would require supplemental consultation to occur at least once per quarter, except that supplemental consultation would not occur until a written fee-for-service agreement is entered into. The bill would authorize the establishment and collection of fees payable by a project applicant submitting a preapplication as reimbursement to cover specified reasonable costs, thereby making an appropriation. The bill would authorize and encourage certain federal agencies to provide supplemental consultation for those projects.