LEGISLATIVE SUBCOMMITTEE RECOMMENDATION: SUPPORT

SUMMARY OF BILL:
This bill would amend the Water Code to require that the state achieve a 20% reduction in urban per capita water use in California by December 31, 2020.

SUMMARY OF SUPPORTING ARGUMENTS FOR RECOMMENDATION:

This bill would bolster the California Public Utilities Commission's (CPUC) 2005 Water Action Plan, which promotes metered water service to encourage water conservation, and subsequent water conservation programs by promoting the integration of statewide conservation efforts. Water conservation is critical to well planned and well functioning communities statewide, and would help ensure that all Californians have access to safe, clean, and reliable water supplies.

SUMMARY OF SUGGESTED AMENDMENTS:

· None. However, representatives of the 20x2020 Interagency Technical Committee are continuously working with Assemblymembers Feuer and Huffman, as well as with other stakeholders, to develop further water policy options that may be incorporated into this measure. This bill is a work in progress and is expected to be amended through the legislative process.

DIVISION ANALYSIS (Water Division):

· Faced with one of the worst droughts in its recorded history, the cumulative and growing effects of climate change, and ever-increasing per capita demands on the state's water supplies, California is poised to suffer severe and persistent water shortages in the coming months, years, and perhaps even decades. Therefore, per the Governor's Executive Order S-06-08, a plan is being drafted to outline water resource management measures which would ensure a 20 percent reduction in urban per capita water consumption by 2020. This bill will codify the 20 percent by 2020 goal, which the CPUC strongly supports.

· Charged with regulatory authority over the state's investor-owned water utilities which supply almost 20 percent of the water to customers statewide, the CPUC is actively collaborating with all of the state's water resource management agencies to explore technical approaches, new technologies, and policy innovations to achieve the 20 percent reduction by 2020, while also reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and energy associated with the broader water and wastewater industries.

· As one of the principal agency actors on the 20x2020 Interagency Technical Committee, the CPUC has particularly shared "lessons learned" from its own water conservation rate making practices including the decoupling of revenue generation from the volume of water sold by investor-owned utilities, thereby demonstrating mechanisms for promoting water conservation while removing revenue disincentives from water conservation.

· By offering successful components of the CPUC water conservation program to our state agency water resource management partners in the development of the conservation measures associated with this bill, the CPUC is working to integrate water conservation rate and pricing practices across both the public and private water markets. This will help facilitate true regional water resource planning, as well as the full integration of water consumption and water conservation data garnered from CPUC regulated water utilities into the state's formation of a central water data repository, which is expected to be included in this legislative effort. The opportunity to integrate the work of state resource management agencies charged with regulating both public and investor-owned utilities lays the foundation for what might become one of the nation's most extensive water conservation and water resource management initiatives in its history.

PROGRAM BACKGROUND:

· Members of the CPUC's Division of Water and Audits (DWA), as well as the Policy and Planning Division (PPD), participate in inter-agency meetings that address the development of water conservation programs for California.

· In its Phase 1A decision in the Water Conservation Order Instituting Investigation (OII), the CPUC has adopted an interim water conservation target for Class A water utilities of 3%-6% reduction per customer or service connection every three years. This target will help achieve significant water use reductions and is in alignment with Governor Schwarzenegger's proposed water conservation plan to achieve a 20% reduction in per capita water use statewide by 2020.

· Since the CPUC is already incorporating the Governor's goals into all water conservation actions it has initiated, the CPUC anticipates minimal change to its programs, practices, or policies.

LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

As a key participant in the State's 20x2020 Technical Committee, the CPUC supported the conservation goals reflected in the water conservation bills of the last session such as AB 2175 (Laird and Feuer), which failed in the Senate.

STATUS:

AB 49 is scheduled to be heard before the Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee on April 14, 2009.

SUPPORT/OPPOSITION:

None on file.

STAFF CONTACTS:

Michael Poe, Legislative Liaison, OGA (916) 327-7788 mdp@cpuc.ca.gov

Date: April 7, 2009

BILL LANGUAGE:

BILL NUMBER: AB 49 INTRODUCED

BILL TEXT

INTRODUCED BY Assembly Members Feuer and Huffman

DECEMBER 1, 2008

An act to add Part 2.55 (commencing with Section 10608) to

Division 6 of the Water Code, relating to water conservation.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

AB 49, as introduced, Feuer. Water conservation: urban water use.

Existing law requires the Department of Water Resources to convene

an independent technical panel to provide information to the

department and the Legislature on new demand management measures,

technologies, and approaches. "Demand management measures" means

those water conservation measures, programs, and incentives that

prevent the waste of water and promote the reasonable and efficient

use and reuse of available supplies.

This bill would require the state to achieve a 20% reduction in

urban per capita water use in California by December 31, 2020.

Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.

State-mandated local program: no.

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

SECTION 1. Part 2.55 (commencing with Section 10608) is added to

Division 6 of the Water Code, to read:

PART 2.55. WATER CONSERVATION

CHAPTER 1. GENERAL DECLARATIONS AND POLICY

10608. The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:

(a) Water is a public resource that the California Constitution

protects against waste and unreasonable use.

(b) Growing population, climate change, and the need to protect

California's fish and wildlife make it essential that the state

manage its water resources as efficiently as possible.

(c) Reduced water use through conservation provides significant

energy and environmental benefits, can help protect water quality,

improves streamflows, and reduces greenhouse gas emissions.

(d) The success of state and local water conservation programs to

increase efficiency of water use is best determined on the basis of

measurable outcomes related to water use or efficiency.

(e) Improvements in technology and management practices offer the

potential for increasing water conservation in California over time,

providing an essential water management tool to meet the need for

water for urban, agricultural, and environmental uses.

(f) The Governor has called for a 20 percent per capita reduction

in urban water use statewide by 2020.

CHAPTER 2. URBAN WATER USE

10608.4. The state shall achieve a 20-percent reduction in urban

per capita water use in California on or before December 31, 2020.