Legislation and positions

2019 POSITIONS

Federal legislation

• S 1507 (Barrasso) Committee on Environment Public Works mark-up of the substitute amendment to the PFAS Release Disclosure Act – Support
• HR 1162 (Napolitano) Water Recycling Investment and Improvement Act – Support
• HR 2377 (Pallone & Walden) Protect Drinking Water from PFAS Act of 2019 – Support
• S 1932 (Gardner) The Drought Resiliency & water Supply Infrastructure Act – Support
• HR 3723 (Levin) The Desalination Development Act – Support
• HR 2570 (Rouda) PFAS User Fee Act of 2019 – Support
• HR 2500 National Defense Authorization Act – request for water and sanitation agency exemptions from amendments #48 and #440
• HR 1497 (Napolitano & DeFazio) The Water Quality Protection and Job Creation Act – Support

Federal policy

• Support of national drinking water maximum contaminant level for PFOA/PFOS
• Federal PFAS bills

State legislation

• AB 402 (Quirk) SWRCB: Local primacy delegation: Funding Stabilization Program – Oppose unless amended
• SB 200 (Monning) Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Fund – Support
• AB 557 (Wood) Atmospheric Rivers: Research, Mitigation, and Climate Forecasting Program – Support
• AB 669 (Caballero) Safe Water Trust – Support
• SB 414 (Caballero) Small System Water Authority – Support
• AB 292 (Quirk) Recycled Water: Raw Water and Groundwater Augmentation – Support
• AB 1204 (Rubio) Maximum Contaminant Levels in Drinking Water Compliance Time – Support
• SB 19 (Dodd) Water Resources: Stream Gages – Support
• AB 217 (Garcia) Safe Drinking Water for All – Oppose unless amended
• AB 1180 (Friedman) Water: Recycled Water – Support
• AB 756 (Garcia) Public Water Systems: Contaminants – Oppose
• AB 756 (Garcia) Public Water Systems: perfluoroalkyl substances and polyfluoroalkyl substances – Request to veto
• AB 1486 Ting surplus Land – OUA – Amended Bill Letter

2018 POSITIONS

Federal legislation

• S. 2364 (Boozman) State Revolving Fund Water Infrastructure Now – Support
• Water Recycling Investment and improvement Act (Napolitano) – Support

State legislation

• SB 845 (Monning) New Statewide “opt-out” Water Mandate – Oppose
• SB 606 (Hertzberg) and AB 1668 (Friedman) – Water Conservation – Support
• AB 2050 (Caballero) The Small System Water Authority Act of 2018 – Support
• SB 623 (Monning) and Budget Trailer Bill – Oppose

State policy

• Comment letter – Prohibiting Wasteful Water Use Practices
• SB 606 (Hertzberg/Skinner) and AB 1668 (Friedman) – Long-term Conservation Legislation – Gain 30 percent potable reuse credit

2017 POSITIONS

Federal legislation

None at this time

State policy

• AB 1668 (Friedman) and SB 606 (Skinner/Hertzberg) Water Management Planning – Oppose unless amended
• SB 623 (Monning) Water Tax – Oppose
• Comment letter – Emergency Drought Regulations
• AB 1654 and AB 968 (Rubio) – Support

2016 POSITIONS

Federal legislation

• H.R. 4615 (Rohrabacher) Water Conservation Rebate Tax Parity Act – Support
• H.R. 2993 (Matsui) Water Recycling Acceleration Act of 2015 – Support

State policy

• Comment letter – Making Water Conservation a California Way of Life
• Comment letter – Report to the Legislature on Direct Potable Reuse (DPR)

Co-sponsored state legislation

The Orange County Water District in collaboration with Orange County Sanitation District and WateReuse are co-sponsoring Assemblymember Rich Gordon’s (D-Menlo Park) legislation, AB 2022, for the bottling of advanced purified water for educational purposes. Please see the press release and link to the bill below:

• AB 2022 Advanced Purified Demonstration Water – Press Release
• AB 2022 – Bill Language

2015 POSITIONS

Federal legislation

• Funding for the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (SRF): House and Senate appropriations bills – Support full funding
• H.R. 813 (Huffman) Fixing Operations of Reservoirs to Encompass Climactic and Atmospheric Science trends (FORECAST) Act – Support and amend
• H.R. 2689 (Walters) Clarifying the Scope of Eligible Water Resources Projects Under the Water Resources Development Act and Water Resources Reform Development Act of 2014 – Support
• S. 1331 (Thune) Seasonal Forecasting Improvement Act – Support

Federal drought legislation:

• S.1894 (Feinstein) California Emergency Drought Relief Act of 2015 – Support with recommendations (July 15, 2015)
• S. 1894 (Feinstein) California Emergency Drought Relief Act of 2015 – Support (August 6, 2015)
• H.R. 2898 (Valadao) Western Water and American Food Security Act of 2015 – Support with recommendations

State legislation

• SB 758 (Block) Atmospheric Rivers Research and Mitigation Program – Support
• SB 355 (Lara) Orange County Voting Members on the Rivers and Mountains Conservancy Board – Support
• AB 647 (Eggman) Beneficial Use: The Storage of Water Underground – Support
• SB 551 (Wolk) Water/Energy State Policy – Support

State policy

• Input on the Governor’s 25% Water Savings “Input on Draft Emergency Regulations”
• Input on State Greywater Policy Development and priorities for Grant and Loan Funding
• Proposed Statewide Tax on Water Bills/Public Goods Charge on Water – Oppose

2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act

• OCWD actively participated in the development of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) of 2014, comprised of Senate Bill 1168 (Pavley), Senate Bill 1319 (Pavley), and Assembly Bill 1739 (Dickinson). The act requires the designation of groundwater sustainability agencies and the adoption of groundwater sustainability plans for basins designated as medium or high priority by the Department of Water Resources. Plans must be developed to eliminate overdraft conditions in aquifers and return them to a condition that assures their long-term sustainability within 20 years. OCWD worked closely with the authors of the legislation, and Chapter 4 of the act acknowledges the Orange County Water District as created by statute to manage groundwater as the exclusive local agency within our statutory boundary. OCWD continues to engage in “cleanup” and clarifying legislation being developed in 2015 that impacts this act.