Official Summary Text
AB 2728, as amended, Soria.
Open and Transparent Water Data Act.
Groundwater: de minimis extractors: fees: exemption.
Existing law authorizes a groundwater sustainability agency to impose fees, including, but not limited to, permit fees and fees on groundwater extraction or other regulated activity, to fund the costs of a groundwater sustainability program, and investigations, inspections, compliance assistance, enforcement, and program administration, as provided. Existing law prohibits a groundwater sustainability agency from imposing those fees on a de minimis extractor, as defined, unless the agency has regulated the user, as provided.
This bill would authorize a local government, including, but not limited to, a groundwater sustainability agency, that imposes a fee,
levy, charge, or exaction for groundwater monitoring or management, upon making specified findings, to exempt de minimis extractors, including the above-described regulated users, from the payment of the fee, levy, charge, or exaction, as provided.
Existing law, the Open and Transparent Water Data Act, requires the Department of Water Resources, the State Water Resources Control Board, and the Department of Fish and Wildlife to coordinate and integrate existing water and ecological data from local, state, and federal agencies for specified purposes, including, among others, improving the management of the state’s water resources.
This bill would specify for purposes of that provision that improving the management of the state’s water resources includes improving the efficacy of management actions.
The act requires the Department of Water Resources, in consultation with the California Water Quality Monitoring Council, the State Water Resources Control Board, and the Department of Fish and Wildlife, in accordance with a specified schedule, to create, operate, and maintain a statewide integrated water data platform that, among other things, integrates existing water and ecological data information from multiple databases.
This bill would require, by August 1, 2027, the Department of Water Resources to make available on the platform specified information from state and federal agencies, including information on hatchery production, release, and escapement.