Official Summary Text
SB 872, as amended, McNerney.
Delta Levees and Canal Subsidence Fund.
Existing law, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Reform Act of 2009, declares that the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (Delta) is a critically important natural resource for California and the nation and it serves as both the hub of the California water system and the most valuable estuary and wetland ecosystem on the west coast of North and South America. Existing law establishes in the Natural Resources Agency the Department of Water Resources. Existing law requires the department and the Department of Fish and Wildlife to determine the principal options for the Delta and requires the department to evaluate and comparatively rate each option for its ability to do specified things, including, among others, to maintain Delta water quality for Delta users, and to preserve, protect, and improve Delta levees. Existing law establishes in the agency the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Conservancy.
Existing law requires the conservancy to act as a primary state agency to implement ecosystem restoration in the Delta and to support efforts that advance environmental protection and the economic well-being of Delta residents.
Existing law provides for the preservation of specified management areas of the Suisun Marsh, pursuant to a protection plan prepared and adopted by the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission, as provided.
This bill would establish the Delta Levees and Canal Subsidence Fund in the State Treasury and, upon appropriation, would make the moneys in the fund available to the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency for expenditure consistent with the allocations described below. The bill would
authorize the secretary to seek out, and the fund to accept, state moneys from, among other sources, any bond funds, the General Fund, or the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. The bill would authorize the fund to accept moneys from nonstate sources, including federal and private moneys, and would continuously appropriate those moneys without regard to fiscal year, for allocation as described below, thereby making an appropriation. The bill would require the secretary to allocate moneys in the fund, through the 2046–47 fiscal year, subject to funding availability, as follows: (1) in the amount of $150,000,000, annually, to the Department of Water Resources for the purposes of supporting capital improvements to restore the original design water conveyance capacity for state water conveyance
systems
systems, as defined,
impacted operationally by land subsidence, and (2) in the amount of $150,000,000, annually, to the conservancy for projects in the Delta
or Suisun Marsh
to improve existing levees, as specified. The bill would authorize the conservancy to impose additional requirements on projects to meet the conditions of the funding source, as provided. The bill would require the secretary to proportionally reduce the above-described amounts if there is insufficient moneys in the fund, as provided. The bill would prohibit these moneys from being expended to pay the costs of the design, construction, operation, mitigation, or maintenance of any additional Delta conveyance facilities, as provided. The bill would require the secretary, no later than January 1, 2032, and by January 1 every 5 years thereafter, to report to the Legislature on expenditures, as provided.
This bill would require the conservancy, before expending funds for any project in the Delta or Suisun Marsh, as described above, to prepare an annual spending plan, require the governing board of the conservancy to approve the spending plan, and require the spending plan to detail the projects the conservancy intends to fund in that fiscal year. The bill would also require the conservancy to publish the spending plan on its internet website, allow at least 45 days for public comment on the spending plan, and hold at least one community meeting on the spending plan before it is approved by the governing board.