SB 606: Water management planning.

(1)Existing law requires the state to achieve a 20% reduction in urban per capita water use in California by December 31, 2020. Existing law requires each urban retail water supplier to develop urban water use targets and an interim urban water use target, as specified. Assembly Bill 1668 of the 201718 Regular Session, if enacted, would require the State Water Resources Control Board, in coordination with the Department of Water Resources, to adopt long-term standards for the efficient use of water and would establish specified standards for per capita daily indoor residential water use.

The bill would require an urban retail water supplier to calculate an urban water use objective no later than November 1, 2023, and by November 1 every year thereafter, and its actual urban water use by those same dates. The bill would require an urban retail water supplier to submit a report to the department for these purposes by those dates. The bill would authorize the board to issue information orders, written notices, and conservation orders to an urban retail water supplier that does not meet its urban water use objective, as specified. The bill would authorize the board to waive these requirements for a period of up to 5 years, as specified.

The bill would impose civil liability for a violation of an order or regulation issued pursuant to these provisions, as specified. The bill would also authorize the board to issue a regulation or informational order requiring a wholesale water supplier, urban retail water supplier, or distributor of a public water supply to provide a monthly report relating to water production, water use, or water conservation.

(2)Existing law establishes procedures for reconsideration and amendment of specified decisions and orders of the board. Existing law authorizes any party aggrieved by a specified decision or order of the board to file, not later than 30 days from the date of final board action, a petition for writ of mandate for judicial review of the decision or order.

This bill would apply these procedures to decisions and orders of the board issued pursuant to the provisions described in paragraph (1), including existing provisions and those added by this bill.

(3)Existing law, the Urban Water Management Planning Act, requires every public and private urban water supplier that directly or indirectly provides water for municipal purposes to prepare and adopt an urban water management plan. The act requires an urban water supplier to update its plan once every 5 years on or before December 31 in years ending in 5 and zero, the act requires the submission of a 2020 plan update by July 1, 2021. The act requires an urban water management plan, among other things, to describe the reliability of the water supply and vulnerability to seasonal or climatic shortage, to the extent practicable, and provide data for an average, single-dry, and multiple-dry water years. The act requires that an urban water management plan provide an urban water shortage contingency analysis that includes, among other things, an estimate of the minimum water supply available during each of the next 3 water years based on the driest 3-year historic sequence for the agencys water supply.

This bill would revise and recast these provisions. The bill would require an urban water management plan to be updated on or before July 1, in years ending in 6 and one, incorporating updated and new information from the 5 years preceding the plan update. The bill would require each plan to include a simple lay description of specified information to provide a general understanding of the agencys plan. The bill would require an urban water management plan to contain a drought risk assessment, as defined, that examines water shortage risks for a drought lasting the next 5 consecutive years.

The bill would require an urban water supplier to prepare, adopt, and periodically review a water shortage contingency plan, as prescribed, and as part of its urban water management plan. The bill would require a water shortage contingency plan to consist of certain elements, including, among other things, annual water supply and demand assessment procedures, standard water shortage levels, shortage response actions, and communication protocols and procedures. The bill would require an urban water supplier to make the water shortage contingency plan available to its customers and any city or county within which it provides water supplies no later than 30 days after adoption.

The bill would require an urban water supplier to conduct an annual water supply and demand assessment and submit an annual water shortage assessment report to the department with information for anticipated shortage, triggered shortage response actions, compliance and enforcement actions, and communication actions consistent with the suppliers water shortage contingency plan by June 1 of each year. The bill would require an urban water supplier to follow, where feasible and appropriate, the procedures and implement determined shortage response actions in its water shortage contingency plan.

(4)The act requires an urban water supplier to submit copies of its urban water management plan and copies of amendments or changes to the plan to certain entities, including the department, no later than 30 days after adoption, as prescribed. The act requires the department to prepare and submit a report summarizing the status of plans adopted pursuant to the act to the Legislature on or before July 1, 2022, for the 2020 plan, and on or before December 31 in the years ending in 6 and one thereafter, and to provide a copy of the report to each urban water supplier that has submitted its plan to the department.

This bill would require an urban water supplier, if it revises its water shortage contingency plan, to submit to the department a copy of its water shortage contingency plan no later than 30 days after adoption. The bill would require an urban water supplier regulated by the Public Utilities Commission to include its most recent urban water management plan and water shortage contingency plan as part of its general rate case filings.

The bill would require the department to prepare and submit the report about plans adopted pursuant to the act to the Legislature on or before July 1 in the years ending in 7 and 2. The bill would require the department to prepare and submit to the board, on or before June 1 of each year, a report summarizing the submitted water supply and demand assessment results along with appropriate reported water shortage conditions developed by the department and information regarding various shortage response actions implemented as a result of water supply and demand assessments, as prescribed.

(5)Existing law makes an urban water supplier that does not prepare, adopt, and submit its urban water management plan to the department as prescribed ineligible to receive certain water grant and loan funding.

This bill would instead make an urban water supplier ineligible to receive any water grant or loan unless the urban water supplier complies with the requirements relating to urban water management plans.

(6)Existing law authorizes the governing body of a distributor of a public water supply to declare a water shortage emergency condition to prevail within the area served by the distributor whenever it finds and determines that the ordinary demands and requirements of water consumers cannot be satisfied without depleting the water supply of the distributor to the extent that there would be insufficient water for human consumption, sanitation, and fire protection.

This bill would instead require the governing body of a distributor of a public water supply to declare a water shortage emergency condition whenever it finds and determines the above-described circumstances. The bill would require an urban water supplier to coordinate with any city or county within which it provides water supply services for a possible proclamation of a local emergency.

(7)This bill would make its operation contingent on the enactment of AB 1668 of the 201718 Regular Session.