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HomeMy WebLinkAbout03-18-25 CPRL&L Committee PacketOTAY WATER DISTRICT CONSERVATION, PUBLIC RELATIONS, LEGAL & LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE MEETING and SPECIAL MEETING OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS 2554 SWEETWATER SPRINGS BOULEVARD SPRING VALLEY, CALIFORNIA TUESDAY March 18, 2025 2:00 P.M. This is a District Committee meeting. This meeting is being posted as a special meeting in order to comply with the Brown Act (Government Code Section §54954.2) in the event that a quorum of the Board is present. Items will be deliberated, however, no formal board actions will be taken at this meeting. The committee makes recommendations to the full board for its consideration and formal action. AGENDA 1. ROLL CALL 2. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION – OPPORTUNITY FOR MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC TO SPEAK TO THE COMMITTEE ON ANY SUBJECT MATTER WITHIN THE COMMITTEE’S JURISDICTION INCLUDING AN ITEM ON TODAY'S AGENDA DISCUSSION ITEMS 3. 2025 LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM POLICY GUIDELINES AND TOP 10 LEGISLA- TIVE AND REGULATORY PRIORITIES (TENILLE OTERO) [15 MINUTES] 4. WATER CONSERVATION GARDEN JOINT POWERS AUTHORITY (JPA) UP- DATE (TENILLE OTERO/JOSE MARTINEZ) [5 MINUTES] 5. AUTHORIZE WATER CONSERVATION GARDEN JOINT POWERS AUTHORI- TY (JPA) INVOICE FOR THE REMAINDER OF FISCAL YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 2025 (TENILLE OTERO/JOSE MARTINEZ) [5 MINUTES] BOARD MEMBERS ATTENDING: Gary Croucher, Chair Delfina Gonzalez 2 All items appearing on this agenda, whether or not expressly listed for action, may be deliberated and may be subject to action by the Board. The Agenda, and any attachments containing written information, are available at the District’s website at www.otaywater.gov. Written changes to any items to be considered at the open meeting, or to any attachments, will be posted on the District’s website. Copies of the Agenda and all attachments are also available by contacting the District Secretary at (619) 670-2253. If you have any disability that would require accommodation in order to enable you to participate in this meeting, please call the District Secretary at 670-2253 at least 24 hours prior to the meeting. Certification of Posting I certify that on March 14, 2025, I posted a copy of the foregoing agenda near the regular meeting place of the Board of Directors of Otay Water District, said time being at least 24 hours in advance of the meeting of the Board of Directors (Government Code Section §54954.2). Executed at Spring Valley, California on March 14, 2025. /s/ Tita Ramos-Krogman, District Secretary 1 STAFF REPORT TYPE MEETING: Regular Board Meeting MEETING DATE: April 2, 2025 SUBMITTED BY: Tenille M. Otero PROJECT: Various DIV. NO. All APPROVED BY: Jose Martinez, General Manager SUBJECT: 2025 Legislative Program Policy Guidelines and Top 10 Legislative and Regulatory Priorities GENERAL MANAGER’S RECOMMENDATION: That the Board of Directors adopt the 2025 Otay Water District Legislative Program Policy Guidelines and the Anticipated 2025 Top 10 Legislative and Regulatory Priorities. COMMITTEE ACTION: See Attachment A. PURPOSE: To provide direction to staff and the Otay Water District’s legislative advocates in the formulation of the District’s response to legislative initiatives on prominent issues that could impact the District and/or other local water agencies. To present to the Board of Directors the anticipated 2025 Legislative Program Priorities, which staff and legislative advocates will proactively monitor and/or act on during the 2025 legislative session and throughout the year. ANALYSIS: The Otay Water District maintains a set of legislative policy guidelines to direct staff and its legislative advocates on issues important to the District. Staff updates the legislative guidelines annually and/or as needed with the proposed updates presented to the District’s Board of Directors for review, comment, and adoption. The 2025 Legislative Program represents policy guidelines on legislation for the Board’s consideration. Typically, representatives of the California Legislature introduce 2,000 or more bills or significant resolutions. While many bills fail to make it out of their house of origin, many others move on to be signed by the governor and become law. These new laws can AGENDA ITEM 3 2 fundamentally affect special districts. The same is true with each session of the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. The 2025 Legislative Program establishes guidelines and policy direction that staff and the District’s legislative advocates can use when monitoring legislative activity to facilitate actions quickly in response to proposed bills or issues. The guidelines provide a useful framework for staff and legislative advocates when evaluating the potential impact of state or federal legislation on the District. This is particularly helpful when a timely response is necessary to address last-minute amendments to legislation, District participation in coalitions on issues, and should calls or letters of support or opposition be needed. Legislation that does not meet the guidelines as set forth or that has potentially complicated or varied implications will not be acted upon by staff or the District’s legislative advocates and will instead be presented to the Board directly for guidance in advance of any position being taken. The San Diego County Water Authority has its own set of legislative policy guidelines that are a comprehensive program at a wholesale and regional level. District staff has evaluated policies and issues from the Water Authority’s guidelines that may directly or indirectly impact the District. Staff has incorporated these policies and issues in the District’s guidelines. Although the District is a retail agency and is focused on its local service area, if there are issues or policies incorporated in the Water Authority’s legislative policy guidelines that could benefit or impact the District, the general manager, District staff, and the District’s legislative advocates may act on those issues, respectively. The 2025 Legislative Program Policy Guidelines present staff’s recommendations for the Board’s review. Staff will then incorporate the Board’s recommendations in the final document. The guidelines aim to protect the District’s interest in a reliable, diverse, safe, and affordable water supply. Moreover, they seek to maintain local control over special district actions to protect the Board’s discretion and ratepayers’ interests and maintain the ability to manage District operations effectively and efficiently. In addition, they express the District’s ongoing support for financial assistance to water agencies and customers regarding nonpayment due to financial hardships related to the pandemic and other factors, water-use efficiency, recycled water, seawater desalination, capital improvement project development, organization-wide safety and security, binational cooperation, climate change, and funding. These guidelines also demonstrate the District’s strong and collaborative 3 support and efforts to advocate against a “one-size-fits-all” approach and any unfunded mandates by legislation or regulation. The proposed redlined 2025 Legislative Program Policy Guidelines are included in Attachment B. A clean copy of the proposed changes is included in Attachment C. When the Board adopts the updated guidelines, staff will incorporate recommended changes by the Board into the final document. In addition, staff is presenting the District’s anticipated Top 10 Legislative and Regulatory Priorities for the year (Attachment D). This list highlights, in no specific order, legislation or issues that District staff and/or the Water Authority is currently monitoring and/or may take or has already taken a position on. The deadline for bill introduction was February 21, 2025. Lobbyists and legislative staff typically wait until the last couple of days before the deadline, and hundreds of bills will be introduced. Based on the bills/issues that legislators introduced by this year’s deadline, staff worked with the District’s legislative consultant to develop a list of priority issues for 2025. The anticipated top 10 priorities include: 1.Water Affordability2. State Budget Funding3. Wildfire Prevention & Emergency Management4. Drinking Water Quality & State Mandates5. Local Control (Government Flexibility, Labor Mandates, and Fee Constraints)6. Advanced Cleaned Fleets 7. Water Supply & Management8. Water Recycling & Reuse9. Water Conservation and Water-Use Efficiency 10. Water Rights Staff and the District’s consultant will continue to monitor those bills and issues that may affect the District. Staff will update the Board as necessary throughout the year to provide updates on legislative issues impacting the District. District staff continue to proactively work with the Water Authority’s government relations staff, the District’s legislative consultant, the Association of California Water Agencies, California Special Districts Association, California Water Efficiency Partnership, California Municipality Utilities Association, and other related coalitions, associations, and organizations to monitor legislative issues that affect the District and its ratepayers. It is critical that the District and its staff remain engaged in these issues as they could impact how the District conducts day-to-day 4 operations and operates and maintains its facilities, thus affecting its ratepayers. FISCAL IMPACT: Joe Beachem, Chief Financial Officer None. STRATEGIC GOAL: Enhance customer and community engagement to increase public awareness of the water industry and the District while continuing to provide superior customer service. LEGAL IMPACT: None. Attachments: A) Committee Action B) Proposed 2025 Otay Water District Legislative Program PolicyGuidelines (Redlined)C) Proposed 2025 Otay Water District Legislative Program Policy Guidelines (Clean Copy)D) Anticipated Top 10 Legislative and Regulatory Priorities for 2025E) Presentation “Anticipated Top 10 Legislative for 2025” –Brownstein, Hyatt, Farber, and Schreck 5 ATTACHMENT A SUBJECT/PROJECT: 2025 Legislative Program Policy Guidelines and Top 10 Legislative and Regulatory Priorities COMMITTEE ACTION: The Conservation, Public Relations, Legal, and Legislative Committee will review these items at its March 18, 2025 meeting. The attachment will be updated with notes from the discussion. Otay Water District Legislative Program 20242025 1 | P a g e Effective Date: 04/0302/20242025 Legislative Program Policy Guidelines Purpose The Otay Water District’s 2024 2025 legislative policy guidelines provide direction to staff and the District’s legislative advocates when they evaluate proposed legislation that may affect the District, other local water agencies, or regional water management and use. Legislation that meets or fails to meet the principles set forth in the guidelines may be supported or opposed accordingly. The guidelines permit the General Manager, District staff, and the District’s legislative advocates to act in a timely fashion between Board meetings on issues that are clearly within the guidelines. While the title of this document suggests these policy guidelines are applicable solely to state and federal legislative issues reviewed by the District and its wholesale supplier the San Diego County Water Authority (Water Authority), increasingly state and federal regulatory and administrative bodies are developing rules, guidelines, white papers, and regulations that can significantly affect the District, its wholesale supplier, and other local water agencies. District staff, including the District’s legislative consultant, often utilize these Legislative Policy Guidelines to provide guidance on emerging and active regulatory and administrative issues. Legislation that does not meet the principles set forth in the guidelines or that has potentially complicated or varied implications will not be acted upon by staff or the legislative advocates in between Board meetings and will instead be presented to the Board directly for guidance in advance of any position being taken. The Water Authority has its own set of legislative guidelines that is a comprehensive program at a wholesale and regional level. District staff has evaluated and selected policies and issues from the Water Authority’s guidelines that may have a direct impact on the District. These policies and issues have been incorporated into the District’s guidelines. Although the District is a retail agency and is focused on its local service area, if there are issues or polices contained in the Water Authority’s Legislative Policy Guidelines that could benefit or impact the District, the General Manager, District staff, and the District’s legislative advocates may act on those issues, respectively. Attachment B Otay Water District Legislative Program 20242025 2 | P a g e Table of Contents The Otay Water Legislative Policy Program Guidelines for 2023 2025 includes the following categories: I.Binational Issues…………………………………………....……………... Page 3 II.Biological and Habitat Preservation…………………………………….. Page 3 III.Desalination……………………………………………………………….. Page 4 IV.Drought and Extreme Weather Response………………………………. Page 4 V.Energy……………………………………………………………………… Page 5 VI.Financial Issues…………………………………………………………… Page 67 A.Fees, Taxes, and Charges………………………….......................... Page 67 B.Funding…………………………………………………………….. Page 8 C.Rates………………………………………………………………... Page 1011 D.Water Bonds……………………………………………………….. Page 11 E.Affordability……………………………………………………. Page 12 VII.Governance and Local Autonomy……………………………………….. Page 1213 VIII.Imported Water Issues……………………………………………………. Page 1415 A.Bay-Delta……………………………………………………………… Page 1415 i.Co-equal Goals……………………………………………………. Page 1415 ii.Bay-Delta Conveyance Project…………………………………… Page 1516 B.Metropolitan Water District…………………………………………… Page 1516 C.Colorado River………………………………………………………… Page 1617 D.State Water Project…………………………………………………….. Page 1718 IX.Optimize District Effectiveness……………………...…………....………. Page 17 18 X.Safety, Security, and Information Technology……………....................... Page 18 19 XI.Water Quality Issues………………………………………………………. Page 1820 XII.Water Recycling and Potable Reuse……………………………………… Page 1921 XIII.Water Rights Modernization……………………………………………… Page 2122 XIV.Water Service and Facilities……………………………………………….. Page 2123 XV.Water Use and Efficiency………………………………………………….. Page 2527 Otay Water District Legislative Program 20242025 3 | P a g e XVI.Workforce Development………………………………………………….. Page 27 I.Binational Issues Support initiatives that: 1.Foster binational cooperation to address drought and climate change on the Colorado River in a way that protects the San Diego/Baja California region’s interests and river supplies. 1.2.Promote and provide funding for cross-border water supply and infrastructure development projects to serve the San Diego/Baja California border region while protecting local interests. 2.3.Encourage enhanced cooperation between entities in San Diego and Baja California in development of supply and infrastructure projects that will benefit the entire border region. 3.4.Encourage state and federal funding to support collaborative binational projects to improve water quality and protect human health and the environment within the broader San Diego region. 4.5.Develop and enhance communications and understanding of the interdependence of communities on both sides of the border with the goal of improved cross-border cooperation. Oppose initiatives that: 1.Would usurp local control over the financing and construction of water supply and infrastructure projects in the San Diego/Baja California region. II.Biological and Habitat Preservation Support initiatives that: 1.Support development of comprehensive multispecies habitat conservation plants that anticipate and mitigate project development impacts while preserving representative ecosystems, rather than individual species. 2.Exempt operation, maintenance, and repair of water system facilities from endangered species and other habitat conservation regulations because they provide beneficial cyclical habitat values to declining species and foster biological diversity in California. 3.Provide environmental regulatory certainty for implementation of existing and proposed long- term water supply programs. 4.Streamline filing of CEQA notices of determination for multicounty water projects by making those notices available on the CEQAnet website through the Governor’s office of Planning and Research. 5.Incorporate an emergency exemption for “take” of a listed species listed under the state or federal Endangered Species Acts when necessary to mitigate or prevent loss of or damage to life, health, property, or essential public services. 6.Encourage species listings, critical habitat designation, and recovery plans developed pursuant to the state or federal Endangered Species Acts to be consistent with existing interstate compacts, tribal treaties, and other state and federal agreements. 7.Support the eradication of invasive species or prevention of them from becoming established in watersheds providing water supplies. 6. Otay Water District Legislative Program 20242025 4 | P a g e Oppose initiatives that: 1. Reduce or limit the use of existing water rights or supplies, 2. Restrict the development of future water supplies. 2.3.Interfere with operating, maintaining, or repairing existing water conveyance and storage facilities. 4. Impose endangered species or habitat conservation requirements that restrict the operation, maintenance, or repair of public water supply, conveyance, treatment, or storage facilities. 5. Provide for after-the-fact reduction in quantity or quality of a public water supply due to new restrictions on the operation or use of water supply facilities unless funding for alternate sources of water is provided. 6. Impose a “utility user fee,” or “surcharge,” on water for the purposes of financing open space/habitat preservation, restoration, or creation. 3. III. Desalination Support initiatives that: 1. Provide funding for seawater desalination studies and facilities. 2. Recognize and support the development of seawater desalination as critical new water supply for the state, including San Diego County. 3. Streamline permitting of desalination facilities. 4. Preserve and protect potential seawater desalination sites and existing coastal facilities, including intake and discharge infrastructure that could be used or reused by a seawater desalination facility. 5. Ensure that desalination intake and discharge regulations are science-based, considering site- specific conditions, and recognizing that not all technologies or mitigation strategies are feasible or cost-effective at every site. 6. Incorporate seawater desalination as part of a slate of long-term infrastructure projects to support the Colorado River. 5. IV. Drought and Extreme Weather Response Support initiatives that: 1. Ensure the District and other local agencies including the Water Authority and San Diego County water agencies, including the Water Authority and San Diego County water agencies, including ratepayers, receive the water supply benefits of investments in local water supply sources. 2. Allow local agencies to achieve compliance with emergency or nonemergency drought regulations or objectives through a combination of water conservation measures and Otay Water District Legislative Program 20242025 5 | P a g e development and implementation of local water supply sources that are not derived from the Bay-Delta and credit these investments to the agencies and ratepayers making them. 3.Allow local agencies to account for all water supplies available during droughts and other events when calculating the water supply shortage level. 4.Create a process for development and implementation of emergency drought declarations and regulations that recognizes variations among communities, regions, and counties with respect to their abilities to withstand the impacts and effects of drought. 5.Recognize variations among communities, regions, and counties with respect to their abilities to withstand the impacts and effects of droughts and ensure that any temporary or permanent statutory or regulatory direction for improving water-use efficiency to meet statutory or regulatory goals or standards is focused on regional achievement of objectives rather than a one-size-fits-all approach. 6.Unlock federal and state funding to supplement state and local recovery efforts in areas affected by extreme weather. 6.7.Support and encourage the transfer and storage of water during both emergency and non- emergency conditions to reduce the impact of drought. Oppose initiatives that: 1.Disincentivize or impede water agencies from making investments to maximize the potential for recycled water, potable reuse, desalination, and other drought-resilient local water supplies. 2.Create a “one-size-fits-all” approach to emergency drought declarations and regulations that ignores variations among communities, regions, and counties and the investments their ratepayers made to improvewith respect to their ability to withstand the impacts and effects of drought and climate change. 3.Hinder federal and state funding to supplement state and local recovery efforts in areas affected by extreme weather. V.Energy Support initiatives that: 1.Provide opportunities for reduced energy rates for the District and other local water agencies. 2.Provide protection to the District and other local water agencies from energy rate increases and rate relief for the District and water agencies. 3.Provide funding, including state and federal grants, for in-line hydro-electric, solar, wind, battery storage, biogas, cogeneration, nanogrids, microgrids, closed-loop pumped storage facilities, and other renewable energy generation or storage technology as means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and energy cost. 4.Promote funding for use of renewable energy in the operation of District facilities. Otay Water District Legislative Program 20242025 6 | P a g e 5.Prohibit investor-owned utilities from implementing rate changes that undercut the financial viability of renewable energy facilities obligated under long-term Power Purchase Agreements. 6.Provide greater flexibility in the utilization of the District’s facilities for electrical generation and distribution, and acquisition of electricity and natural gas. 7.Provide the District with greater flexibility in the licensing, permitting, interconnection, construction, and the operation of its existing and potential in-line hydroelectric, solar, wind, battery, nanogrid, microgrid, closed-loop pumped-energy storage projects, and other renewable generation or storage technology. 8.Make SWP power available for all water projects that reflect proportional payments made by member agencies. 9.Promote the classification of electricity generated by in-line hydroelectric and closed-loop pumped-energy storage facilities as environmentally sound. 10.Promote the expansion of closed-loop pumped-energy storage facilities to provide clean and environmentally sound energy resources that provides electric and reliability and resiliency, especially during times of potential blackouts. 11.Promote the expansion of in-line hydroelectric energy recovery systems at treatment facility discharge systems. 12.Promote the production, purchase, delivery, and use of alternative sources of energy on a wholesale basis. 13.Provide clear statutory, regulatory, or administrative authority for the Water Authority to wheel acquired or produced power to itself, the District, or entities with which the Water Authority is under contract for the purchase, treatment, transport, or production of water. 14.Recognize and monetize all grid ancillary services that pumped hydro-energy storage provides and supports fair compensation in the wholesale energy market for such services. 15.Provide timely, efficient, and cost-effective interconnection of energy loads and resources such as solar, inline hydroelectric, pumped-energy storage, and other renewable energy generation or storage technologies to the electric distribution and transmission grid. 16.Recognize the value of large-scale hydropower and pumped-energy storage facilities in assisting the state to meet its renewable and zero-carbon emission goals of 100% by 2045. Oppose initiatives that: 1.Adversely affect the cost or reliability of energy needed to operate MWD’s facilities, SWP facilities, or the facilities of the Water Authority and the District. 2.Impose greenhouse gas reduction obligations on a public water agency for electricity purchased or produced for the sole purpose of operating its system. 3.Adversely affect the ability of the District or other water agencies in the county to own, operate, and/or construct work for supplying its own facilities with natural gas and electricity. 4.Impede the District or other water agencies in the county, the ability to contract for, deliver, and use natural gas or electricity purchased from the United States, the State of California, Otay Water District Legislative Program 20242025 7 | P a g e and any other public agency or private entity and provide, sell, exchange, or deliver the gas or electricity to itself, any public agency or private entity. 5.Reduce the District’s ability to always maintain high operational efficiency. 6.Restrict the District’s ability to expand or improve infrastructure or facilities. 7.Restrict or cap future energy demands needed for possible expansion of recycled water, potable reuse, and/or desalination projects. 8.Adversely affect the District’s ability to expand cogeneration or polygeneration at planned or existing facilities. 9.Inhibit the scientific advancement of energy and water efficient/conserving technologies that may be implemented at the District or other agency facilities. 10.Prevent the District from enhancing energy reliability and independence for its facilities. 11.Do not count or credit qualified renewable energy projects toward accomplishment and satisfaction of the California Renewables Portfolio Standard objectives. 12.Prohibit the Water Authority from wheeling - or securing statutory, regulatory, or administrative authority necessary to wheel - acquired or produced power to itself, the District, or other entities with which the Water Authority is under contract of the purchase, treatment, transport, or production of water. 13.Result in a lengthy, more complicated, or more costly interconnection of energy loads and resources, such as solar, inline-hydroelectric, pumped-energy storage, and other renewable energy generation or storage technologies to the electric distribution and transmission grid. VI.Financial Issues A.Fees, Taxes, and Charges Support initiatives that: 1.Require the federal government and State of California to reimburse special districts for all mandated costs or regulatory actions. 2.Give special districts the discretion to cease performance of unfunded mandates. 3.Provide fiscal reform to enhance the equity, reliability, and certainty of special district funding. 4.Provide incentives for local agencies to work cooperatively, share costs or resources. 5.Provide for the stable, equitable, and reliable allocation of property taxes. 6.Continue to reform workers’ compensation. 7.Promote competition in insurance underwriting for public agencies. 8.Produce tangible results, such as water supply reliability or water quality improvement. 9.Require the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD) to refund or credit to its member agencies revenues collected from them that result in reserve balances greater than the maximum reserve levels established pursuant to state legislation. Oppose initiatives that: 1.Impose mandated costs or regulatory constraints on local agencies and their customers without providing subventions to reimburse local agencies for such costs. Otay Water District Legislative Program 20242025 8 | P a g e 2.Pre-empt the District or local water agencies’ ability to impose or change rates, charges, fees, or assessments. 3.Weaken the protections afforded the District, the Water Authority, or other local water agencies and its ratepayers under California’s Proposition 1A (November 2, 2004) or Proposition 26 (November 2010). 4.Reallocate special districts reserves to balance the state budget. 5.Reallocate special district revenues or reserves to fund infrastructure improvements or other activities in cities or counties. 6.Establish funding mechanisms that put undue burdens on local agencies or make local agencies de facto tax collectors for the state. 7.Adversely affect the cost of gas and electricity or reduce an organization’s flexibility to take advantage of low peak cost periods. 8.Add new reporting criteria, burdensome, unnecessary, or costly reporting mandates to Urban Water Management Plans. 9.Add new mandates to the Department of Water Resources (DWR) to review and approve Urban Water Management Plans beyond those already addressed in DWR guidelines. 10.Mandate that water agencies include an embedded energy calculation for their water supply sources in Urban Water Management Plans or any other water resources planning or master-planning document. 11.Weaken existing project retention and withholding provisions that limit the ability of public agencies to drive contractor performance. 12.Establish change order requirements that place an unreasonable burden on local agencies, or raise financial risk associated with public works contracts. 13.Impair the Water Authority or its member agencies’ ability to provide reasonable service at reasonable costs to member agencies or to charge all member agencies the same rate for each class of service consistent with cost-of-service requirements of the law. 14.Impair the local water agencies’ ability to maintain reasonable reserve funds and obtain and retain reasonable rates of return on its reserve accounts. 15.Mandate a specific rate structure for retail water agencies. 16.Impose a water user fee on water agencies or water users that does not provide a commensurate and directly linked benefit in the local area or region from which the water user fee is collected. 17.Impose a water user fee for statewide projects or programs, for which the projects or programs are not clearly defined, the beneficiaries identified, and reasonable costs identified. 18.Impose a water user fee to create a state fund that can be used to finance undefined future projects and programs. 19.Allow the state to retain more than 5% of water user fees for administrative costs. 20.Do not restrict the use of water user fees to only the specific purposes for which they are imposed, without any possibility of diversion to meet other fiscal needs of the state or water users outside of the Water Authority’s service area. 21.Impose a “public goods charge” or “water tax” on public water agencies or their ratepayers. 22.Impose a fee on water users to repay the principal and interest on a statewide general obligation bond. 23.Establish regulatory or permit fees that lack a nexus to the costs of oversight. Otay Water District Legislative Program 20242025 9 | P a g e 24. Establish a broad-based user fee that does not support a specific program activity; any fee must provide a clear nexus to the benefit the fee would provide. B. Funding Support initiatives that: 1. Require the federal and state governments to provide subvention to reimburse local governments for all mandated costs or regulatory actions. 2. Provide the District, the Water Authority, and other local water agencies with additional forms of cost-effective financing for public facilities. 3. Revitalize the Title XVI federal funding program by converting new authorizations to a competitive grant program with congressional oversight while protecting existing Title XVI authorizations for the San Diego region. 4. Provide the District, Water Authority, and local water agencies with grant funding for public facilities, including developing local water resources and rehabilitation and repair of aging infrastructure, such as dams and pipelines. 5. Provide the District, other local water agencies, and water ratepayers with post-COVID-19 financial relief through a variety of means, including but not limited to, direct financial assistance and flexibility in debt management to assist water ratepayers and water suppliers. 6. Authorize financing of water quality, water security, and water supply infrastructure improvement programs. 7. Establish spending caps on State of California overhead when administering voter approved grant and disbursement programs. 8. Require disbursement decisions in a manner appropriate to the service in question. 9. Encourage funding infrastructure programs that are currently in place and that have been proven effective. 10. Provide financial incentives for energy projects that increase reliability, diversity, and reduce greenhouse gases. 11. Continue energy rate incentives for the utilization of electricity during low-peak periods. 12. Provide loan or grant programs that encourage water conservation for water users who are least able to pay for capital projects. 13. Provide for population-based distribution of IRWM funds to ensure adequate distribution of grant funding throughout the state.to the San Diego region. 14. Provide for the use of state grant funds for binational projects where the projects benefit water supply or water quality in the San Diego region. 15. Improve and streamline the state’s reimbursement process to ensure timely remittance of IRWM funds. 16. Promote the ability of the Regional Water Management Group to administer state grant funds specifically identified more directly for IRWM Programs. 17. Require the state to rely on the local process for selection and ranking of projects included in an approved IRWM plan. Otay Water District Legislative Program 20242025 10 | P a g e 18.Increase collaboration between stakeholders within the IRWM regions when funding and selecting projects. 19.Provide additional resources and assistance to address unique administrative and implementation challenges associated with underrepresented communities. 17.20. Advocate for state bonds that provide grant funding for San Diego County IRWM Program. 18.21. Provide funding or other incentives for conservation, peak management programs, water recycling, potable reuse, groundwater recovery and recharge, dam repair and rehabilitation, surface water development and management projects, including reservoir management, source water protection and watershed planning studies and facilities that sustain long-term reliable water resources. 19.22. Provide financial incentives to assist in the disposal of concentrate, sludge, and other byproducts created in the water treatment process. 20.23. Authorize, promote, and provide incentives or credits for development of local drought-resilient water supply projects such as desalination, non-potable recycling, and potable reuse projects. 21.24. Provide funding for potable reuse demonstration projects and studies. 22.25. Provide funding for infrastructure improvements at desalination facilities with eligibility for public and private partnerships. 23.26. Authorize federal and state funding to develop and implement regional or subregional conservation programs, including but not limited to property acquisition, revegetation programs, and watershed plans. 24.27. Provide state and/or federal funding for the restoration of the Salton Sea. 25.28. Provide federal and/or state funding to implement actions that address the ecological and water supply management issues of the Lower Colorado River from Lee's Ferry to the southerly international border with Mexico. 26.29. Provide federal and/or state funding to implement actions that address the ecological and water supply management issues of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. 27.30. Permit the use of grant funding for projects implemented under public-private partnerships where the grant provides funding for a public benefit. 28.31. Require the state agencies responsible for preparing the IRWM grant program guidelines to conduct a comprehensive public outreach process that ensures stakeholders have an opportunity to provide adequate input on preparation of the guidelines and require that the state agencies consider and respond to comments received through the outreach process. 29.32. Provide incentive, funding, and assistance to water agencies so that they can comply with AB 32 (2006) requirements, and updated statutory requirements imposed pursuant to SB 32 (2016), SB 100 (2018), and SB 1020 (2022). 30.33. Remove funding caps from state and federal grant and loan funding sources. 31.34. Streamline federal and state grant reimbursement processes. Oppose initiatives that: 1.Impose additional administrative requirements and/or restrict the District’s, Water Authority’s, or other local water agencies’ ability to finance public facilities through the issuance of long-term debt. Otay Water District Legislative Program 20242025 11 | P a g e 2. Interfere with the responsibility of a region, operating under an Integrated Regional Water Management Plan, for setting priorities and generating projects to be paid from any IRWM accounts and grants. 3. Interfere with the control exercised by the San Diego funding subregion over the use and expenditure of any water-user fee revenues that may be dedicated to the region. 4. Establish IRWM funding criteria that limit local discretion in project selection. 5. Provide for after-the-fact reduction in quantity or quality of a public water supply due to new restrictions on the operation or use of water supply facilities unless funding for alternate sources of water is provided. 6. Impose a "utility user fee" or "surcharge" on water for the purposes of financing open space/habitat preservation, restoration, or creation. C. Rates Support initiatives that: 1. Maintain the authority and requirements of water agencies to establish water rates locally, consistent with cost-of-service requirements of the law. 2. Maximize the ability of water agencies to design rate structures to meet local water supply goals and that conform to cost-of-service requirements of the law. 3. Encourage and promote education to elected officials, community/business leaders, organizations, and the public about water sales and conservation and the District and its wholesaler’s rates and what those rates support including but not limited to infrastructure, asset management, operations, maintenance, water reliability, and more. Oppose initiatives that: 1. Impair the District’s, the Water Authority’s, or local water agencies’ ability to provide reliable service at reasonable costs to member agencies or to charge all member agencies the same or similar rate for each class of service consistent with cost-of-service requirements of the law. 2. Undermine or weaken cost-of-service rate-making requirements in existing law. 3. Impair the District’s ability to maintain reasonable reserve funds and obtain and retain reasonable rates of return on its reserve accounts. 4. Mandate a specific rate structure for retail water agencies. 5. Prescribe mandatory conservation-based rate structures that override the authority of the boards of directors of local water agencies to set rate structures according to the specific needs of the water agencies in accordance with cost-of-service requirements. 6. Usurp special district funds, reserves, or other state actions that force special districts to raise rates, fees, or charges. D. Water Bonds Support initiatives that: 1. Provide an equitable share of funding to San Diego County, with major funding categories being divided by county and funded on a per-capita basis to ensure bond proceeds are distributed throughout the state in proportion to taxpayers’ payments on the bonds. Otay Water District Legislative Program 20242025 12 | P a g e 2.Focus on statewide priorities, including restoration of fish and wildlife habitat, construction of an improved method of conveyance of water through or around the Delta that provides water supply reliability to Delta water users, promotion of greater regional and local self-sufficiency, surface storage, and promotion of water-use efficiency. 3.Ensure funding from various propositions for local and regional water-related projects. 4.Include within IRWM funding money that a region may use over time to develop and refine its plan and to develop institutional structures necessary to establish and implement the plan. 5.Give primary consideration to funding priorities established by local and regional entities through their IRWM planning process. 6.Ensure the application process for funding is not unnecessarily burdensome and costly, with an emphasis on streamlining the process. 7.Limit state overhead to no more than 5% of bond funding amounts. 8.Place as much emphasis and provide at least as much funding for surface storage as for groundwater storage. 9.Define the “San Diego sub-region” and “San Diego county watersheds” as “those portions of the westward-flowing watershed of the South Coast hydrologic region situated within the boundaries of San Diego County.” 10.Fund emergency and carryover storage projects. 11.Consolidate administration of all voter-approved water-related bond funding in one place, preserves existing expertise within the state bureaucracy to manage bond-funding processes, and provide consistent application and evaluation of bond funding applications. 12.Provide the state’s share of funding for projects that advance the achievement of the co- equal goals of water supply reliability and Bay-Delta ecosystem restoration. 13.Provide funding for water infrastructure that resolve conflicts in the state’s water system and provide long-term benefits to statewide issues including water supply, reliability, water quality, and ecosystem restoration. Oppose initiatives that: 1.Do not provide an equitable share of funding to San Diego County based on the San Diego County taxpayers’ proportional contribution to repayment of the bonds. 2.Do not provide funding for infrastructure that resolve statewide or regional conflicts of water supplies. 3.Do not provide funding that result in net increases in real water supply and water supply reliability. 4.Commit a significant portion of bond funding to projects that do not result in net increases in real water supply or water supply reliability. E.Affordability Support initiatives that: 1.Abide by the Human Right to Water (AB 685, 2012) as set forth in Section 106.3 of the California Water Code which reads that, “every human being has the right to safe, affordable, and accessible water adequate for human consumption, cooking, and sanitary purposes.” The State Water Resources Control Board also has a resolution supporting this program. Otay Water District Legislative Program 20242025 13 | P a g e 2.Meet the required standards under Proposition 218 and Proposition 26 in the California Constitution 2.regarding proportionality of water rates and the cost-of-service provisions. 3.Rely on data-driven analysis of water affordability, including considerations such as census data and economically disadvantaged communities. As such, the District supports the continued implementation of AB 2334 (2012) that requires the Department of Water Resources to provide this analysis and place it in California’s Water Plan. 4.Support the creation of a permanent low-income water rate assistance program that targets providing financial assistance to low-income ratepayers using federal resources or existing resources within either the state General Fund or cap-and-trade dollars. 5.Does not burden water districts with excessive or overly prescriptive state mandates including the collection of water taxes or water rate and boundary data, and qualification of customers for low-income assistance programs. 6.Support the expansion of the low-income assistance programs (LIHWAP) or other programs, using existing resources from the federal government, with the state General Fund or cap-and-trade dollars or other state financial resources. 7.Provide the Water Authority, its member agencies, and water ratepayers with a permanent low-income customer assistance program. 8.Encourage and promote education to elected officials, community/business leaders, organizations, and the public about affordability. Oppose initiatives that: 1.Is not targeted appropriately: Any low-income water rate assistance program must be limited in scope to those individuals. By seeking to do too much, effectiveness could be limited. Examples of this could include extending program resources to domestic wells or water-use efficiency programs. 2.Does not have a funding source: Any low-income water rate assistance program needs to identify specific sources of sustainable funding and does not include a water tax or water surcharge. 3.Does not reinvent the wheel: Any low-income water rate assistance program should be built upon and use the resources of an existing benefit distribution organization or system, such as CalFresh, rather than requiring water agencies to add the operating expense of creating and administering a new method. VII.Governance and Local Autonomy Support initiatives that: 1.Expand local autonomy in governing special district affairs. 2.Promote comprehensive long-range planning. 3.Assist local agencies in the logical and efficient extension of services and facilities to promote efficiency and avoid duplication of services. 4.Streamline the Municipal Service Review Process or set limits on how long services reviews can take or cost. 5.Reaffirm the existing “all-in” financial structure or protect the Water Authority voting structure based on population. Otay Water District Legislative Program 20242025 14 | P a g e 6.Promote measures that increase broader community and water industry representation/appointments on State decision making bodies. 7.Ensure an open and transparent process for adoption of regulations, policies, and guidelines. 8.Preserve the District and other local water agencies’ ability to establish local priorities for water resources planning decisions. 8.9.Promote cost effective and reasonably feasible requirements. Oppose initiatives that: 1.Assume the state legislature is better able to make local decisions that affect special district governance. 2.Create one-size-fits-all approaches to special district reform. 3.Unfairly target one group of local elected officials. 4.Usurp local control from special districts regarding decisions involving local special district finance, operations, or governance. 5.Diminish the power or rights of the District’s governing body to govern the District’s affairs. 6.Diminish the power or rights of the District to govern relations with its employees. 7.Modify the committee or board voting structure or District and member agency board representation on the Water Authority Board of Directors unless the District’s Board has expressly authorized such changes. 8.Create unfunded local government mandates. 9.Create costly, unnecessary, or duplicative oversight roles for the state government of special district affairs. 10.Create new oversight roles or responsibility for monitoring special district affairs. 11.Change the San Diego County Water Authority Act regarding voting structure unless it is based on population. 12.Shift the liability to the public entity and relieve private entities of reasonable due diligence in their review of plans and specifications for errors, omissions, and other issues. 13.Place a significant and unreasonable burden on public agencies, resulting in increased cost for public works construction or their operation. 14.Impair the ability of water districts to acquire property or property interests required for essential capital improvement projects. 15.Increase the cost of property and right-of-way acquisition or restrict the use of right-of- ways. 16.Work to silence the voices of special districts and other local government associations on statewide ballot measures impacting local government policies and practices, including actions that could prohibit special districts and associations from advocating for positions on ballot measures by severely restricting the private resources used to fund those activities. 17.Prescribe mandatory conservation-based or other rate structures that override the authority of the board of directors to set its rate structure. 18.Circumvent the legislative committee process, such as the use of budget trailer bills, to advance policy issues including impacting special districts without full disclosure, transparency, or public involvement. Otay Water District Legislative Program 20242025 15 | P a g e 19. Restrict the District’s ability to utilize a demand forecasting methodology that is best suited locally and for the region. 20. Impose mandates requiring specific water resources be developed by water agencies that fail to consider local factors such as water reliability, hydrologic and geographic characteristics, and the economic, political, public acceptance, social environment, which can influence selection of resources and/or fails to consider or conflicts with existing local and regional planning policies and implementation priorities. 21. Limit the District’s ability to establish local priorities for water resources planning decisions. 22. Impede the District’s ability to conduct its critical mission efficiently and effectively of always providing and sustaining critical services and under all conditions. 22.23. Impose regulations that place unreasonable, inequitable, and costly requirements on local agencies without adequate support and resources. VIII. Imported Water Issues A. Bay-Delta i. Co-Equal Goals Support initiatives that: 1. Require the Delta Stewardship Council or DWR to provide periodic analyses of the cost of the proposed Bay-Delta improvements to the Legislature and the public. 2. Provide conveyance and storage facilities that are cost-effective for the San Diego region’s ratepayers and are proportionate to the benefits they receive, improve the reliability and quality of the San Diego region’s water supplies, and protect the Bay-Delta’s ecosystem. 3. Continue to support the co-equal goals of water supply reliability and environmental restoration embodied in the 2009 Delta bill package. 4. Improve the ability of water-users to divert water from the Bay-Delta during wet periods, when impacts on fish and the ecosystem are lower and water quality is higher. 5. Encourage the development of a statewide water transfer market tothat will improve water management and allow more efficient use of available resources. 6. Support improved coordination of Central Valley Project and State Water Project (SWP) operations and implementation of voluntary agreementwater quality requirements that are fair to the users of both projects and do not unfairly shift costs to SWP contractors or MWD or its member agencies. 7. Support administrative/legislative actions and funding to advance the Delta Freshwater Pathway, levee improvements including levee modernization for the existing Delta levee system, levee maintenance programs including real-time monitoring for the existing Delta levee system, and secure Delta flood-fighting materials and stockpiles. 6.8.Support state and federal administrative/legislative actions and funding to address the impacts of subsidence on the SWP and prevent future damage caused by unsustainable groundwater pumping. 7.9.Support continued state ownership and operation of the SWP, including project facilities, as a public resource. 8.10. Ensure that any reorganization of the State Water Project, including operations and management, preserves the ability for non-State Water Project contractors to access the facility for transportation of water to a non-State Water Project contractor. Otay Water District Legislative Program 20242025 16 | P a g e 9.11. Authorize and appropriate the federal share of funding for the long-term Bay-Delta solution, including for the California EcoRestore Program. 10.12. Provide the ongoing state share of funding for the California EcoRestore Program. 11.13. Provide state funding for aquatic toxicity water quality monitoring in the Bay-Delta. Such legislation should not place a surcharge on water supply exports, nor should it substantively reduce funding for other measures that protect the environment and public health. Oppose efforts that: 1.Impose water user fees to fund ecosystem restoration and other public purpose, nonwater- supply improvements in the Bay-Delta that benefit the public at large. 2.Transfer operational control of the State Water Project or any of its facilities to the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD), the State Water Contractors, the Central Valley Project Contractors, the State and Federal Contractors Water Agency, or any entity comprised of MWD or other water project contractors, or any other special interest group. ii.Bay-Delta Conveyance Project Support initiatives that: 1.Are consistent with the Water Authority’s Board of Directors’ July 25, 2019 adopted Bay- Delta project policy principles, including the following: a.On April 29, 2019, Governor Newsom signed Executive Order N-10-19, directing the preparation of a water resilience portfolio approach that meets the needs of California’s communities, economy, and environment through the 21st century, including consideration of multi-benefit approaches that meet multiple needs at once, and a single-user tunnel Bay-Delta project. b.The Water Authority’s Board supports Governor Newsome’s Executive Order N-10- 19 and directs staff to inform the Newsome Administration that its support for a single-tunnel Bay-Delta project is expressly conditioned upon the project costs being characterized by the Department of Water Resources (DWR) as conservation, or supply charges, as similar facilities historically have been defined in the Metropolitan Water District’s (MWD) SWP contract with DWR. c.As reflected in Table 2 of DWR’s Appendix B to Bulletin 132-17, Data and Computation Used to Determine Water Charges, and for which costs are recovered in Article 22(a) of Delta Water Charge of MWD’s SWP Contract; allow for the exemption of north-of-Delta SWP contractors. 2.Support the establishment of an independent and transparent oversight function to monitor and provide regular updates on project implementation progress, including expenditure tracking, construction progress, project participants’ contributions, and all other relevant activities and developments. 3.Allow access to all SWP facilities, including project facilities, to facilitate water transfers. B.Metropolitan Water District Support initiatives that: Otay Water District Legislative Program 20242025 17 | P a g e 1.Provide an appropriate level of transparency in rate setting, and accountability and cost control over MWD spending. 2.Protect and safeguard acknowledge the investments the Water Authority’s has made in the form of its Ppreferential Rrights in under the Metropolitan Water District Act and allow member agencies to realize the value of their respective and varying investments. 3.Require MWD to refund or credit to its member agencies revenues collected from them that result in reserve balances greater than the maximum reserve levels in the manner established pursuant to state legislation. 4.Require MWD to implement actions that advance and support its long-term financial stability, fiscal sustainability, and that moderate fluctuations in rates and charges for its member agencies from year to year, in a publicly transparent manner. 5.Amend the Metropolitan Water District Act to change voting allocation on its Board of Directors based on a member agency’s total financial contribution to MWD, in a manner that is fair and equal to ratepayers, and similar to the voting allocation method of the County Water Authority Act. 6.Ensure fair and equitable cost allocation of projects and programs based on the varying needs and demands of its member agencies. 5. C.Colorado River Support initiatives that: 1.Support federal funding through the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to fund near-term and long-term conservation projects that protect California’s water rights and the San Diego region’s river supplies while bolstering the river. 2.Support the sustainability of the Colorado River and provide operational flexibility through the development of storage, including in Lake Mead, and through the renegotiation of the new interim shortage guidelines for the river’s continued operation. 3.Advance strategic long-term water management that includes the ability to transfer, share, and exchange supplies both within the state of California and across state lines. 4.Incorporate seawater desalination as part of a slate of long-term infrastructure projects to support the Colorado River. 5.Recognize the 2003 Quantification Settlement Agreement (QSA) as a model for other Basin states to follow as a means to implement conservation while protecting agriculture and the environment. 1.6.Supports implementation and funding of the California Colorado River Water Use Plan, including the Lower Colorado River Multi-Species Conservation Program 2.7.Provide funding for Colorado River salinity control projects and other water quality management efforts. 3.8.Provide for state and federal authorizations and appropriations of non-fee-based funds to implement Salton Sea mitigation and the State’s phased approach to restoration in the form of the Salton Sea Management Program consistent with its obligations under Chapters 611, 612, and 613 of the Statutes of 2003. 4.9.Limit the Quantification Settlement Agreement QSA mitigation costs imposed on funding parties to the amount committed in accordance with the original QSA legislation. Otay Water District Legislative Program 20242025 18 | P a g e 5.Provide a governing structure and/or specified managing office over the state's Salton Sea Management Program to provide guidance and oversight of restoration activities. 6.Support the sustainability of the Colorado River and provide operational flexibility through the development of storage, including Lake Mead and additional storage opportunities regionally, and through the renegotiation of the new interim shortage guidelines for continued operation of the River. 7.10. Allow for the option to create an alternate conveyance route, when technically and financially feasible, for reliable delivery of the Water Authority’s Independent Colorado River water supplies and integration of compatible partnership projects along the proposed conveyance routes as a model of the Governor’s Water Resilience Portfolio approach to water management. 8.11. Support the Sstate’s Salton Sea Management Program under the guidelines of the revised Water Order (Stipulated Order) adopted by the State Water Resources Control Board in November 2017. 9.12. Preserve the California Colorado River Board 10.13. Ensure the interests of the members of the California Colorado River Board continue to be addressed in any state government reorganization. 11.14. Allow for storage of the Water Authority’s Colorado River water supplies to provide enhanced flexibility with annual transfer volumes, support drought contingency planning, and align with the Governor’s Water Resilience Portfolio approach to water management. Oppose initiatives that: 1.Impose additional mitigation costs or obligations for the Salton Sea on the non-state parties to the Quantification Settlement AgreementQSA. 2.Eliminate the California Colorado River Board without providing a comparable structure or forum that ensures the Water Authority and member agencies's interests in the Colorado River are preserved. 3.Implement additional long-term conservation projects to address drought and climate change that do not address potential impacts to the environment, specifically the Salton Sea. 4.As part of the development of the next set of river management guidelines, impose potential future reductions on just the Lower Basin rather than balancing potential reductions between both the Upper and Lower Basins. 2. D.State Water Project Support initiatives that: 1.Provide for development of a comprehensive state water plan that balances California's competing water needs, incorporates the water resources and infrastructure concepts included in the Governor’s “Water Resilience Portfolio” and “California’s Water Supply Strategy Adapting to a Hotter, Drier, Future,” and results in a reliable and affordable supply of high- quality water for the State of California and the San Diego region. Oppose initiatives that: 1.Make urban water supplies less reliable or substantially increases the cost of imported water without also improving the reliability and/or quality of the water. Otay Water District Legislative Program 20242025 19 | P a g e 2. Revise the Central Valley Project Improvement Act to Jeopardize the Act's environmental integrity, compromise State Water Project supply reliability a n d/or limit the ability of urban agencies to transfer and/or bank CVP water for use both within and outside the CVP service area. 3. Transfer operational control of the State Water Project or any of its facilities to MWD, the State Water Project contractors, Central Valley Project contractors, the State and Federal Contractors Water Agency, any entity comprised of MWD or other water project contractors, or any other special interest group. IX. Optimize District Effectiveness Support initiatives that: 1. Manage District resources in a transparent and fiscally responsible manner. 2. Give utilities the abilityAllow utilities to avoid critical peak energy pricing or negotiate energy contracts that save ratepayers money. 3. Develop reasonable Air Pollution Control District engine permitting requirements. 4. Reimburse or reduce local government mandates. 5. Allow public agencies to continue offering defined benefit plans. 6. Result in predictable costs and benefits for employees and taxpayers. 7. Eliminate abuses. 8. Retain local control of pension systems. 9. Are constitutional, federally legal, and technically possible. 9.10. Promote cost effective and reasonably feasible requirements. Oppose initiatives that: 1. Restrict the use of, or reallocate, district property tax revenues to the detriment of special districts. 2. Create unrealistic ergonomic protocol. 3. Micromanage special district operations. 4. Balance the state budget by allowing regulatory agencies to increase permitting fees. 5. Tax-dependent benefits. 6. Require new reporting criteria on energy intensity involved in water supply. X. Safety, Security, and Information Technology Support initiatives that: 1. Provide funding for information security upgrades to include integrated alarms, access/egress, and surveillance technology. 2. Provide incentives for utilities and other local agencies to work cooperatively, share costs or resources. 3. Provide funding for communication enhancements, wireless communications, GIS, or other technological enhancements. 4. Encourage or promote compatible software systems. 5. Fund infrastructure and facility security improvements that include facility roadway access, remote gate access, and physical security upgrades. Otay Water District Legislative Program 20242025 20 | P a g e 6.Protect state, local, and regional drinking water systems from terrorist attack or deliberate acts of destruction, contamination, or degradation. 7.Provide funds to support training or joint training exercises to include contingency funding for emergencies and emergency preparedness. 8.Equitably allocate security funding based on need, threats, and/or population. 9.Encourage or promote compatible communication systems. 10.Encourage and promote funding of Department of Homeland Security Risk Mitigation programs. 11.Recognizes water agencies as emergency responders in the event of a sudden, unexpected occurrence that poses a clear and imminent danger, requiring immediate action to prevent and mitigate loss or impairment of life, health, property, or essential public services due to natural disasters (e.g., wildfires, earthquakes), power outages as well as terrorist and other criminal activities. 12.Provide state grants or other funding opportunities to support seismic risk assessment and mitigation plans, or to mitigate vulnerabilities. 13.Provide funding for projects that enhance security against terrorist acts or other criminal threats to water operation, services, facilities, or supplies. 14.Provide funding for projects that improve the security of the District facilities and operations. 15.Provide funding to support technologies that support remote working, when necessary to prevent loss of or damage to life, health, property, or essential public services. Oppose initiatives that: 1.Create unnecessary, costly, or duplicative security or safety mandates. 2.Require expanded water system descriptions or additional public disclosure of public water systems details for large water suppliers in Urban Water Management Planning documents, potentially compromising public water systems, and creating a conflict with the Department of Homeland Security’s recommendation to avoid reference to water system details in plans available to the public. XI.Water Quality Issues Support initiatives that: 1.Assure cost-effective remediation and cleanup of contaminates of concern that have impacted groundwater and surface water. 2.Incorporate sound scientific principles in adopting drinking water standards for drinking water concerns. 3.Exempt the conveyance, storage, or release of water supplies from regulation as a discharge under the Clean Water Act and other water quality control laws. 3.4.Revise NPDES standards and procedures to facilitate inland discharge and use of recycled water. 4.5.Establish appropriate quality standards, testing procedures, and treatment processes for emerging contaminants. 5.6.Alter the definition of “lead free” to reduce the permissible amount of lead in fixtures, plumbing, and pipe fittings to be installed for the delivery of drinking water. 6.7.Exempt purified wastewater from regulation as a discharge under the Clean Water Act. Otay Water District Legislative Program 20242025 21 | P a g e 7.Protect child public health by requiring schools to undertake lead testing in school drinking water systems. 8.Implement source control for management prevention of contamination by constituents of emerging concern. 9.Provide the necessary funding for research on the occurrence, treatment, health effects, and environmental cleanup related to contamination of drinking water sources. 10.Implement and fund the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board’s triennial review of water quality standards. 11.Provide funding and support for Colorado River salinity control projects and other water quality management efforts. 12.Direct the state’s participation or assistance in water quality issues related to or threatening the Colorado River water source. 13.Streamline permitting of facilities constructed for the purpose of improvingto improve water quality. 14.Ensure consistent application of the law by the State Water Resources Control Board and the nine regional water quality control boards. Oppose initiatives that: 1.Eliminate the State Water Resources Control Board and/or the nine regional water quality control boards without ensuring the functions and expertise of the boards are maintained in any reorganized entity. 2.Regulate the conveyance, storage, or release of water supplies as discharge under the Clean Water Act and other water quality control laws. 3.Make water suppliers financially and legally responsible for mitigation of pollution contamination by third parties. 4.Make water suppliers financially and legally responsible for testing or correction of any water quality-related issues associated with private property or on-site plumbing systems. XII.Water Recycling and Potable Reuse Support initiatives that: 1.Reduce restrictions on recycled water usage or promote consistent regulation of recycled water projects to reduce impediments to the increased use of recycled water. 2.Reduce restrictions on injecting recycled water into basins where there is no direct potable use. 3.Advocate for direct potable reuse. 4.Advocate for recycled water use upstream of lakes and reservoirs if protected by urban water runoff protection systems. 5.Provide financial incentives for recharge of groundwater aquifers using recycled water. 6.Make recycled water regulations clear, consolidated, and understandable to expedite related project permitting. 7.Promote recycled water as a sustainable supplemental source of water. 8.Allow the safe use of recycled water. 9.Facilitate development of technology aimed at improving water recycling. 10.Increase funding for water recycling projects. Otay Water District Legislative Program 20242025 22 | P a g e 11.Support continued funding of the Title XVI Water Reclamation and Reuse Program including Water Reclamation and Reuse Projects, the WaterSMART Program, and the Desalination and Water Purification Research Program. 12.Increase awareness of the ways recycled water can help address the region’s water supply challenges. 13.Create federal and state incentives to promote recycled water use and production. 14.Establish federal tax incentives to support U.S. companies in the development of new water technologies that can lower productions costs, address by products such as concentrates, and enhance public acceptance of recycled water. 15.Establish a comprehensive national research and development, and technology demonstration, program to advance the public and scientific understanding of water recycling technologies to encourage reuse as an alternative source of water supply. 16.Provide incentives for local agencies to work cooperatively, share costs or resources to promote or expand the use of recycled water. 17.Further refine emergency regulations to reward local suppliers that have invested in using recycled water for landscape irrigation to maintain an incentive to continue expanding areas served by recycled water. 18.Encourage the use of recycled water in commercial, industrial, institutional, and residential settings. 19.Recognize and support the development of potable reuse as a critical new water supply. 20.Define purified recycled water as a source of water supply and not as waste. 21.Mandate the reduction of wastewater discharges to the ocean absent inclusion of funding to offset the significant costs of implementation. 22.Authorize local governmental agencies to regulate the discharge of contaminants to the sewer collection system that may adversely affect water recycling and reuse. 23.Authorize and facilitate expanded use of local water resources including water recycling, potable reuse, graywater, and rainwater harvesting (e.g., cisterns and rain barrels), and brackish groundwater. 24.Streamline regulatory processes and requirements to encourage and support the development of potable reuse and non-potable reuse as a municipal water supply. 25.Recognize the entire interconnected urban water cycle, as well as public health and safety, must be taken into consideration in long-term water use efficiency policies, particularly including the unintended consequences of declining flows on water, wastewater, potable reuse, and recycled water systems. 26.Encourage dual plumbing in new development where non-potable recycled water is likely to available to enable utilization of recycled water. 27.Promote uniform regulatory interpretation of state recycled water system standards. 28.Support beneficial revisions to the California Plumbing Code that facilitate recycled water systems. Oppose initiatives that: 1.Restrict use of recycled water for groundwater recharge. 2.Establish new water or recycled water fees solely to recover State costs without also providing some benefit. 3.Limit the ability of local governmental agencies to regulate the discharge of contaminants to the sewer collection system that may adversely affect water recycling and reuse. Otay Water District Legislative Program 20242025 23 | P a g e 4.Establish unreasonable regulatory requirements or fees for the safe use of recycled water, which may unreasonably impede or create a disincentive to its further development. 5.Mandate the reduction of wastewater discharges to the ocean absent inclusion of funding to offset the significant costs of implementation. 6.Establish Wwater use efficiency standards (AB 1668), which do not reflect the impact that higher TDS recycled water has on the usage rates to reduce salt loading in areas of use. XIII. Water Rights Modernization Support initiatives that: 1.Protect existing water rights, water-rights priority, and local agencies’ ability to use water resources for their present and future water supply reliability and environmental well-being. 2.Support funding for data modernization tools needed to monitor and enforce water rights priorities and protect State Water Project supplies, including funding and technical assistance to fully implement existing law requiring metering of diversions and potential legislation or regulation aimed at providing real-time water diversion data. 3.Support voluntary water transfers and exchanges as the means to reallocate water supplies, including for the environment, to meet water supply reliability goals and achieve voluntary agreements on the implementationco-equal goals of the Bay-Delta Water Quality Control Plan and interstate solutions to limited Colorado River supplies. 4.Support more flexible regulations to enhance the ability to divert water in times of high storm runoff and snow melt while protecting existing water rights and the environment. 5.Support increases in civil penalties to deter violations of State Board orders, including curtailment orders. XIV.Water Services and Facilities Support initiatives that: 1.Provide funding to implement actions identified in the California Water Action Plan to lay a solid fiscal foundation for implementing near-term actions, including funding for water efficiency projects, wetland and watershed restoration, groundwater programs, conservation, flood control, and integrated water management and result in a reliable supply of high-quality water for the San Diego region. 2.Promote the coordination and integration of local, state, and federal climate change policies and practices to the greatest extent feasible. 3.Fund or otherwise facilitate ongoing implementation of the Quantification Settlement Agreement. 4.Provide reliable water supplies to meet California’s short and long-term needs. 5.Promote desalination pilot studies and projects. 6.Encourage feasibility studies of water resource initiatives. 7.Increase funding for infrastructure and grant programs for construction, modernization or expansion of water, wastewater treatment, reclamation facilities and sewer systems including water recycling, groundwater recovery and recharge, surface water development projects and seawater desalination. 8.Fund enhancements to water treatment, recycling, and other facilities to meet increased regulations. Otay Water District Legislative Program 20242025 24 | P a g e 9. Mandate uniform or similar regulations and procedures by state agencies in the processing and administering of grants and programs. 10. Streamline grant application procedures. 11. Reduce regulations and other impediments for willing sellers and buyers to engage in water transfer agreements. 12. Promote or assist voluntary water transfers between willing buyers and willing sellers and move those transactions through without delay. 13. Streamline the permitting and approval process for desalination and other water-related facilities and implement water transfers that will improve water management. 14. Establish reasonable statewide approaches to sewer reporting standards. 15. Generate greater efficiencies, better coordinate program delivery, and eliminate duplication in programs for source water protection without lessening the focus on public health of the state’s Drinking Water Program. 16. Target efforts to fix specific issues with water supplies within the state’s Drinking Water Program. 17. Establish federal tax incentives to support U.S. companies in the development of new desalination technologies that can lower productions costs, eliminate, or reduce impingement or entrainment, reduce energy use, and enhance public acceptance of desalinated water. 18. Establish a comprehensive national research and development, and technology demonstration program to advance the scientific understanding of desalination to expand its use as an alternative source of water supply. 19. Require the State Water Resources Control Board to exercise its authority, ensure robust funding, and implement the Salton Sea mitigation and restoration plan, meet state obligations, and work with QSA stakeholders to find workable solutions to ensure the continuation of IID water transfers. 20. Support solutions to water supply issues that address common challenges, provide a comprehensive approach that is fair to all users, balance the needs of urban and rural communities, and take into consideration the interests of all stakeholders as well as the impact to the environment. 21. Further refine emergency drought regulations to eliminate a cap on credits and adjustments so as not to impose undue burden, financial or otherwise, on communities that have already invested in water conservation, development of new water sources, storage, or loss prevention. 22. Provide funding for water infrastructure development, infrastructure security, and rehabilitation and replacement projects that benefit ratepayers. 23. Provide funding for habitat preservation programs that address impacts resulting from construction or operation of water system facilities. 24. Provide funding for projects that enhance security against terrorist acts or other criminal threats to water operation, services, facilities, or supplies. 25. Provide incentives that encourage contractors to recycle or reduce waste associated with construction of water facilities. 26. Improve the local agencies’ efforts to maintain and protect its property, rights of way, easements, pipelines, and related facilities and minimizes liability to local agencies and the District. 27. Protect the local agencies’ properties from restrictions when surrounding properties are incorporated into preservation areas. Otay Water District Legislative Program 20242025 25 | P a g e 28.Encourage the use of current and emerging technologies for monitoring and assessing the condition of large diameter pipelines. 29.Encourage water suppliers to develop and execute asset management programs that include visual inspections, internal/external inspections, asset condition assessments, corrosion mitigation, and reis analysis in a manner that recognizes the individuality and uniqueness of each water supplier and its systems. 30.Improve the District’s efforts to maintain and protect its property, rights of way, easements, pipelines, and related facilities and minimizes liability to the District. 31.Protect the District, other agencies and the Water Authority properties from restrictions when surrounding properties are incorporated into preservation areas. 32.Provide funding to water agencies for the voluntary retrofit of facilities for on-site generation of chlorine. 33.Provide funding for water supplier asset management programs that involve the active monitoring, repair, or replacement of physical assets and infrastructure, which includes pipes, valves, facilities, equipment, and other infrastructure. 34.Provide for restrictions on price gouging during public safety power shutoff events and for at least 72 hours following restoration of power. 35.Provide that de-energization or public safety power shutoff events may be included as a condition constituting a state of emergency or local emergency. 36.Provide a tax emption for the sale of, or storage, use, or consumption of, a backup electrical resources, which is purchased for exclusive use by a city, county, special district, or other entity of local government during a de-energization or public safety power shutoff event. 37.State that the use of alternative power sources (such as generators) by essential public services during de-energization or public safety power shutoff events shall not be limited by any state or local regulations or rules. 38.Recognize the critical role the District, local agencies, and the Water Authority play as Public Safety Partners in Public Safety Power Shutoff events and other natural or man-made disasters. Further recognizes the importance of the agency’s ability to provide immediate and sustained response for extended periods of time. 39.Provide financial support to local projects designed to mitigate or adapt to potential negative impacts of climate change on water supply reliability. 40.Investigate and provide financial support to projects designed to mitigate potential negative impacts of climate change on water supply reliability. Oppose initiatives that: 1.Restrict local control and discretions over water facilities, asset management, and facility operations. 2.Make urban water supplies less reliable or substantially increases the cost of imported water without also improving the reliability and/or quality of the water. 3.Create unrealistic or costly water testing or reporting protocol. 4.Disproportionately apportion the cost of water. 5.Create undo hurtles for seawater desalination projects. 6.Create unreasonable or confusing sewer reporting standards. 7.Create administrative or other barriers to sales between willing buyers and willing sellers that delay water transfers. Otay Water District Legislative Program 20242025 26 | P a g e 8. Create a broad-based user fee that does not support a specific local program activity or benefit; any fee must provide a clear nexus to the benefit local ratepayers or local water supplies from the establishment that charge or fee would provide. 9. Create unrealistic or is costly to obtain water quality standards for potable water, recycled water, or storm water runoff. 10. Change the focus of the state’s Drinking Water Program or weaken the parts of the program that work well. 11. Lessen the focus on public health of the state’s Drinking Water Program. 12. Impose undue burden, financial or otherwise, on communities that have already invested in water conservation, development of new water sources, storage, or loss prevention. 13. Impose additional mitigation costs or obligations for the Salton Sea on the non-state parties to the Quantification Settlement Agreement. 14. Impair the District and other local water agencies’ ability to provide and operate the necessary facilities for a safe, reliable, and operational flexible water system. 15. Limit local agencies’ sole jurisdiction over planning, design, routing, approval, construction, operation, or maintenance of water facilities. 16. Restrict local agencies’ ability to respond swiftly and decisively to an emergency that threatens to disrupt water deliveries or restricts the draining of pipelines or other facilities in emergencies for repairs or preventive maintenance. 17. Authorize state and federal wildlife agencies to control, prevent, or eradicate invasive species in a way that excessively interferes with the operations of water supplies. 18. Prohibit or in any way limit the ability of local agencies from making full beneficial use of any water, wastewater, or recycling facility and resource investments. 19. Prohibit the use of alternative contract procurement methods that can be utilized in the construction of water facilities. 20. Shift the risks of indemnity for damages and defense of claims from contractors to the District. 21. Impair local agencies’ efforts to acquire property or property interests required for essential capital improvement projects or acquisition of property to meet pipeline water drain-down needs for existing facilities. 22. Increase the cost of property and right of way acquisition. 23. Restrict the District’s use of public rights of way or increase the cost of using public rights of way. 24. Restrict the transfer of property acquired for purposes of environmental mitigation or environmental mitigation credits to other public or private entities for long-term management. 25. Establish prescriptive leak loss control requirements for the operation, maintenance, and asset management of water conveyance and distribution systems, which fail to consider full life- cycle costing. 26. Establish meter testing requirements for source water meters that fail to consider industry standards and cost-effectiveness. 27. Limit the discretion of the District from protecting security and privacy of comprehensive inventories of all assets, which includes infrastructure location, condition, performance, and useful life. 28. Impair local agencies’ ability to execute the planning, design, and construction of projects using their own employees. Otay Water District Legislative Program 20242025 27 | P a g e 29.Limit the autonomy of discretion of water supplier to develop and execute asset management inspection programs that include visual inspections, internal/external inspections, asset condition assessments, and corrosion mitigation in a manner that recognizes the individuality and uniqueness of each water supplier and its systems. 30.Authorize air quality management districts or other regulatory bodies to adopt or maintain rules that would limit or prohibit a local government entity’s use of a state and/or federally complaint natural gas-powered generator during a de-energization or public safety power shutoff event. 31.Would inhibit the District from fulfilling its critical role as a Public Safety Partner and making immediate and sustained response in a Public Safety Power Shutoff event or and other natural or man-made disasters, such as the CARB Advanced Clean Fleet regulation. 32.Would inhibit the District from fulfilling its critical role as an essential service provider from procuring and operating fleets which meet the needs to perform routine and emergency maintenance of water and wastewater systems, such as the CARB Advanced Clean Fleet regulation. 33.Require incorporation of climate change considerations into regional and local water management planning that does not provide flexibility to the local and regional water agencies in determining the climate change impact and identification of adaptation and mitigation measures. 34.Impose top-down “one-size-fits-all” climate change mandates that fail to account for hydrological, meteorological, economic, and social variation across the state and/or that fail to incorporate local and regional planning and implementation priorities and protocols. XV.Water Use and Efficiency Support initiatives that: 1.Provide funding for incentives for water-use efficiency and water conservation programs including water-efficient devices, practices and demonstration projects and studies. 2.Encourage the installation of water-efficient fixtures in new and existing buildings. 3.Promote the environmental benefits of water-use efficiency and water conservation. 4.Enhance efforts to promote water-use efficiency awareness. 5.Offer incentives for landscape water-efficient devices including, but not limited to ET controllers and soil moisture sensors. 6.Develop landscape retrofit incentive programs and/or irrigation retrofit incentive programs. 7.Permit or require local agencies to adopt ordinances that require or promote water-efficient landscapes for commercial and residential developments. 8.Create tax incentives for citizens or developers who install water-efficient landscapes. 9.Create tax incentives for citizens who purchase high-efficiency clothes washers, dual-flush and high-efficiency toilets, and irrigation controllers above the state standards. 10.Expand community-based water-use efficiency and education programs. 11.Facilitate and encourage the use of rainwater-capture systems, i.e., rain barrels, cisterns, etc. and alternative water sources, i.e., air conditioner condensate for use in irrigation. 12.Develop incentives for developers and existing customers to install water-efficient landscape in existing developments or new construction. 13.Encourage large state users to save water by implementing water-efficient technologies in all facilities both new and retrofit. Otay Water District Legislative Program 20242025 28 | P a g e 14.Encourage large state water users to save water outdoors. 15.Educate all Californians on the importance of water, and the need to conserve, manage, and plan for the future needs. 16.Encourage technological research targeted to more efficient water use. 17.Give local agencies maximum discretion in selecting water-use efficiency and conservation programs that work for their customers and the communities they serve. 18.Require the Department of Water Resources to implement a uniform statewide turf rebate subsidy or incentive program. 19.Restrict Property Owner Associations from forbidding the use of California native plants, other low water use plants, mulch, artificial turf, or semi-permeable materials in well- maintained landscapes. 20.Restrict Property Owner Associations from forbidding retrofits of multiple unit facilities for the purpose of submetering, if feasible. 21.Ensure plumbing codes and standards that facilitate the installation and/or retrofit of water efficient devices. 22.Establish standards for the utilization of high-efficiency commercial and residential clothes washers. 23.Provide federal tax-exempt status for water-use efficiency rebates, consistent with income tax treatment at the state level. 24.Encourage the use of graywater where it complies with local guidelines and regulations and is cost-effective. 25.Provide incentives, funding, and assistance to water agencies so that they can meet the water demand management measure requirements in the Urban Water Management Planning Act. 26.Provide incentives, funding, and other assistance to facilitate water-use efficiency partnerships with the energy efficiency sector. 27.Provide incentives, funding, and other assistance where needed to facilitate market transformation and gain wider implementation of water efficient indoor and outdoor technologies and practices. 28.Recognize local control in determining water use efficiency criteria, such as impact of recycled water salinity on irrigation use and efficiency for the application of non-potable recycled water. 29.Encourage reasonable tracking of water use and improved efficiency in the Commercial, Industrial, and Institutional (CII) sector. 30.Recognize local control in determining how to meet an overall efficient water use goal, based on the combined efficient indoor use, outdoor use, and leak loss, as established under the criteria provided for in statute. 31.Ensure accurate and streamlined reporting of implementation of water-use efficiency and conservation measures. 32.Promote statewide implementation of water-use efficiency best management practices and demand management measures as defined in the Urban Water Management Planning Act. Oppose efforts that: 1.Weaken federal or state water-efficiency standards. 2.Introduce additional analytical and reporting requirements that are time-consuming for local agencies to perform and result in additional costs to consumers yet yield no water savings. Otay Water District Legislative Program 20242025 29 | P a g e 3.Permit Property Owners Associations to restrict low water use plants, mulch, artificial turf, or semi-permeable materials in landscaping. 4.Repeal cost-effective efficiency standards for water-using devices. 5.Repeal cost-effective efficiency standards for water-using devices. 6.Create stranded assets by establishing long-term demand management water-use efficiency and water supply requirements that are inconsistent with the Urban Water Management Planning Act. 7.Prescribe statewide mandatory urban and agricultural water-use efficiency practices, including, but not limited to, methods, measures, programs, budget allocation, and designation of staff dedicated to water conservation programs, that override the authority of the boards of directors of local water agencies to adopt management practices that are most appropriate for the specific needs of their water agencies. 8.Mandate regulation of the CII Sector in a manner that is discriminatory, or sets unachievable Best Management Practices or compliance targets, or would otherwise impair economic activity or the viability of the CII sector. 9.Mandate that water agencies include an embedded energy calculation for their water supply sources in the Urban Water Management Plan or any other water resource planning or master planning document. 10.Require redundant reporting of water conservation-related information. XVI.Workforce Development Support initiatives that: 1.Advocate for local, regional, and state programs that support a high-performing workforce and increase the talent pool for water agencies. 2.Advocate for military veterans in the water industry workforce to ensure that veterans receive appropriate and satisfactory credit towards water and wastewater treatment system certifications in California for work experience, education, and knowledge gained in military service. 3.Lower employment barriers for military veterans and transitioning military and that sustain vital water and wastewater services for the next generation. 4.Recruit and support veterans and transitioning military through internships, cooperative work experiences, and other resources. 5.Recruit and support underserved communities in the water industry through internships, cooperative work experiences, and other resources. 6.Advocate and encourage candidate outreach and recruitment in relation to mission-critical job categories in water and wastewater. 7.Ensure advanced water treatment operators and distribution system operators of potable reuse and recycled water facilities have a career advancement path as certified water and/or wastewater treatment plant operators. 8.Increase the number of educational institutions that provide water-industry related training and related program criteria including but not limited to trades, certifications, and degrees. Otay Water District Legislative Program 20242025 30 | P a g e 9.Increase the talent pool of future water industry workers through educational programs, internships, and other resources. 10.Provide funding to educational institutions, water agencies, and workforce students regarding careers in the water industry. 11.Develop qualified candidates for positions in the water industry. 12.Build awareness of water industry-related jobs through student outreach including but not limited to K-12, community colleges, universities, and other educational institutions as well as outreach to the public. 13.Promote regional water and wastewater workforce development programs. Oppose initiatives that: 1.Hinder military veterans from using previous experience, education, and knowledge toward a career in water. 2.Regulate agencies from hiring an experienced, educated, and talented water-industry workforce. Otay Water District Legislative Program 2025 1 | Page Effective Date: 04/02/2025 Legislative Program Policy Guidelines Purpose The Otay Water District’s 2025 legislative policy guidelines provide direction to staff and the District’s legislative advocates when they evaluate proposed legislation that may affect the District, other local water agencies, or regional water management and use. Legislation that meets or fails to meet the principles set forth in the guidelines may be supported or opposed accordingly. The guidelines permit the General Manager, District staff, and the District’s legislative advocates to act in a timely fashion between Board meetings on issues that are clearly within the guidelines. While the title of this document suggests these policy guidelines are applicable solely to state and federal legislative issues reviewed by the District and its wholesale supplier the San Diego County Water Authority (Water Authority), increasingly state and federal regulatory and administrative bodies are developing rules, guidelines, white papers, and regulations that can significantly affect the District, its wholesale supplier, and other local water agencies. District staff, including the District’s legislative consultant, often utilize these Legislative Policy Guidelines to provide guidance on emerging and active regulatory and administrative issues. Legislation that does not meet the principles set forth in the guidelines or that has potentially complicated or varied implications will not be acted upon by staff or the legislative advocates in between Board meetings and will instead be presented to the Board directly for guidance in advance of any position being taken. The Water Authority has its own set of legislative guidelines that is a comprehensive program at a wholesale and regional level. District staff has evaluated and selected policies and issues from the Water Authority’s guidelines that may have a direct impact on the District. These policies and issues have been incorporated into the District’s guidelines. Although the District is a retail agency and is focused on its local service area, if there are issues or polices contained in the Water Authority’s Legislative Policy Guidelines that could benefit or impact the District, the General Manager, District staff, and the District’s legislative advocates may act on those issues, respectively. Attachment C Otay Water District Legislative Program 2025 2 | Page Table of Contents The Otay Water Legislative Policy Program Guidelines for 2025 includes the following categories: I.Binational Issues…………………………………………....……………... Page 3 II.Biological and Habitat Preservation…………………………………….. Page 3 III.Desalination……………………………………………………………….. Page 4 IV.Drought and Extreme Weather Response………………………………. Page 4 V.Energy……………………………………………………………………… Page 5 VI.Financial Issues…………………………………………………………… Page 7 A.Fees, Taxes, and Charges………………………….......................... Page 7 B.Funding…………………………………………………………….. Page 8 C.Rates………………………………………………………………... Page 11 D.Water Bonds……………………………………………………….. Page 11 E.Affordability……………………………………………………. Page 12 VII.Governance and Local Autonomy……………………………………….. Page 13 VIII.Imported Water Issues……………………………………………………. Page 15 A. Bay-Delta……………………………………………………………… Page 15 i.Co-equal Goals……………………………………………………. Page 15 ii.Bay-Delta Conveyance Project…………………………………… Page 16 B.Metropolitan Water District…………………………………………… Page 16 C.Colorado River………………………………………………………… Page 17 D.State Water Project…………………………………………………….. Page 18 IX.Optimize District Effectiveness……………………...…………....………. Page 18 X.Safety, Security, and Information Technology……………....................... Page 19 XI.Water Quality Issues………………………………………………………. Page 20 XII.Water Recycling and Potable Reuse……………………………………… Page 21 XIII.Water Rights Modernization……………………………………………… Page 22 XIV.Water Service and Facilities……………………………………………….. Page 23 XV.Water Use and Efficiency………………………………………………….. Page 27 XVI.Workforce Development………………………………………………….. Page 29 Otay Water District Legislative Program 2025 3 | Page I.Binational Issues Support initiatives that: 1. Foster binational cooperation to address drought and climate change on the Colorado River ina way that protects the San Diego/Baja California region’s interests and river supplies.2.Promote and provide funding for cross-border water supply and infrastructure developmentprojects to serve the San Diego/Baja California border region while protecting local interests. 3. Encourage enhanced cooperation between entities in San Diego and Baja California indevelopment of supply and infrastructure projects that will benefit the entire border region.4. Encourage state and federal funding to support collaborative binational projects to improvewater quality and protect human health and the environment within the broader San Diegoregion. 5. Develop and enhance communications and understanding of the interdependence ofcommunities on both sides of the border with the goal of improved cross-border cooperation. Oppose initiatives that: 1. Would usurp local control over the financing and construction of water supply and infrastructure projects in the San Diego/Baja California region. II.Biological and Habitat Preservation Support initiatives that:1. Support development of comprehensive multispecies habitat conservation plants thatanticipate and mitigate project development impacts while preserving representative ecosystems, rather than individual species. 2. Exempt operation, maintenance, and repair of water system facilities from endangered speciesand other habitat conservation regulations because they provide beneficial cyclical habitatvalues to declining species and foster biological diversity in California.3. Provide environmental regulatory certainty for implementation of existing and proposed long- term water supply programs. 4.Streamline filing of CEQA notices of determination for multicounty water projects by makingthose notices available on the CEQAnet website through the Governor’s office of Planningand Research.5.Incorporate an emergency exemption for “take” of a listed species listed under the state or federal Endangered Species Acts when necessary to mitigate or prevent loss of or damage to life, health, property, or essential public services.6. Encourage species listings, critical habitat designation, and recovery plans developed pursuantto the state or federal Endangered Species Acts to be consistent with existing interstatecompacts, tribal treaties, and other state and federal agreements. 7. Support the eradication of invasive species or prevention of them from becoming established in watersheds providing water supplies. Oppose initiatives that: 1. Reduce or limit the use of existing water rights or supplies, Otay Water District Legislative Program 2025 4 | Page 2.Restrict the development of future water supplies. 3.Interfere with operating, maintaining, or repairing existing water conveyance and storage facilities. 4. Impose endangered species or habitat conservation requirements that restrict the operation, maintenance, or repair of public water supply, conveyance, treatment, or storage facilities. 5.Provide for after-the-fact reduction in quantity or quality of a public water supply due to new restrictions on the operation or use of water supply facilities unless funding for alternate sources of water is provided. 6. Impose a “utility user fee,” or “surcharge,” on water for the purposes of financing open space/habitat preservation, restoration, or creation. III.Desalination Support initiatives that: 1. Provide funding for seawater desalination studies and facilities. 2.Recognize and support the development of seawater desalination as critical new water supplyfor the state, including San Diego County.3.Streamline permitting of desalination facilities.4.Preserve and protect potential seawater desalination sites and existing coastal facilities, including intake and discharge infrastructure that could be used or reused by a seawater desalination facility.5.Ensure that desalination intake and discharge regulations are science-based, considering site-specific conditions and recognizing that not all technologies or mitigation strategies arefeasible or cost-effective at every site. 6.Incorporate seawater desalination as part of a slate of long-term infrastructure projects to support the Colorado River. IV.Drought and Extreme Weather Response Support initiatives that:1. Ensure the District and other local agencies, including the Water Authority and San Diego County water agencies, including ratepayers, receive the water supply benefits of investments in water supply. 2. Allow local agencies to achieve compliance with emergency or nonemergency drought regulations or objectives through a combination of water conservation measures and development and implementation of water supply sources that are not derived from the Bay- Delta and credit these investments to the agencies and ratepayers making them. 3.Allow local agencies to account for all water supplies available during droughts and other events when calculating the water supply shortage level. Otay Water District Legislative Program 2025 5 | Page 4. Create a process for development and implementation of emergency drought declarations and regulations that recognizes variations among communities, regions, and counties with respect to their abilities to withstand the impacts and effects of drought. 5. Recognize variations among communities, regions, and counties with respect to their abilities to withstand the impacts and effects of droughts and ensure that any temporary or permanent statutory or regulatory direction for improving water-use efficiency to meet statutory or regulatory goals or standards is focused on regional achievement of objectives rather than a one-size-fits-all approach. 6. Unlock federal and state funding to supplement state and local recovery efforts in areas affected by extreme weather. 7. Support and encourage the transfer and storage of water during both emergency and non- emergency conditions to reduce the impact of drought. Oppose initiatives that: 1. Disincentivize or impede water agencies from making investments to maximize the potential for recycled water, potable reuse, desalination, and other drought-resilient water supplies. 2. Create a “one-size-fits-all” approach to emergency drought declarations and regulations that ignores variations among communities, regions, and counties and the investments their ratepayers made to improve their ability to withstand the impacts and effects of drought and climate change. 3. Hinder federal and state funding to supplement state and local recovery efforts in areas affected by extreme weather. V. Energy Support initiatives that: 1. Provide opportunities for reduced energy rates for the District and other local water agencies. 2. Provide protection to the District and other local water agencies from energy rate increases and rate relief for the District and water agencies. 3. Provide funding, including state and federal grants, for in-line hydro-electric, solar, wind, battery storage, biogas, cogeneration, nanogrids, microgrids, closed-loop pumped storage facilities, and other renewable energy generation or storage technology as means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and energy cost. 4. Promote funding for use of renewable energy in the operation of District facilities. 5. Prohibit investor-owned utilities from implementing rate changes that undercut the financial viability of renewable energy facilities obligated under long-term Power Purchase Agreements. 6. Provide greater flexibility in the utilization of the District’s facilities for electrical generation and distribution, and acquisition of electricity and natural gas. 7. Provide the District with greater flexibility in the licensing, permitting, interconnection, construction, and operation of its existing and potential in-line hydroelectric, solar, wind, Otay Water District Legislative Program 2025 6 | Page battery, nanogrid, microgrid, closed-loop pumped-energy storage projects, and other renewable generation or storage technology. 8.Make SWP power available for all water projects that reflect proportional payments made by member agencies. 9.Promote the classification of electricity generated by in-line hydroelectric and closed-loop pumped-energy storage facilities as environmentally sound. 10.Promote the expansion of closed-loop pumped-energy storage facilities to provide clean and environmentally sound energy resources that provides electric and reliability and resiliency, especially during times of potential blackouts. 11.Promote the expansion of in-line hydroelectric energy recovery systems at treatment facility discharge systems. 12. Promote the production, purchase, delivery, and use of alternative sources of energy on a wholesale basis. 13.Provide clear statutory, regulatory, or administrative authority for the Water Authority to wheel acquired or produced power to itself, the District, or entities with which the Water Authority is under contract for the purchase, treatment, transport, or production of water. 14.Recognize and monetize all grid ancillary services that pumped hydro-energy storage provides and support fair compensation in the wholesale energy market for such services. 15. Provide timely, efficient, and cost-effective interconnection of energy loads and resources such as solar, inline hydroelectric, pumped-energy storage, and other renewable energy generation or storage technologies to the electric distribution and transmission grid. 16.Recognize the value of large-scale hydropower and pumped-energy storage facilities in assisting the state to meet its renewable and zero-carbon emission goals of 100% by 2045. Oppose initiatives that: 1.Adversely affect the cost or reliability of energy needed to operate MWD’s facilities, SWP facilities, or the facilities of the Water Authority and the District. 2. Impose greenhouse gas reduction obligations on a public water agency for electricity purchased or produced for the sole purpose of operating its system. 3.Adversely affect the ability of the District or other water agencies in the county to own, operate, and/or construct work for supplying its own facilities with natural gas and electricity. 4.Impede the District or other water agencies in the county, the ability to contract for, deliver, and use natural gas or electricity purchased from the United States, the State of California, and any other public agency or private entity and provide, sell, exchange, or deliver the gas or electricity to itself, any public agency or private entity. 5.Reduce the District’s ability to always maintain high operational efficiency. 6.Restrict the District’s ability to expand or improve infrastructure or facilities. 7.Restrict or cap future energy demands needed for possible expansion of recycled water, potable reuse, and/or desalination projects. Otay Water District Legislative Program 2025 7 | Page 8. Adversely affect the District’s ability to expand cogeneration or polygeneration at planned or existing facilities. 9. Inhibit the scientific advancement of energy and water efficient/conserving technologies that may be implemented at the District or other agency facilities. 10. Prevent the District from enhancing energy reliability and independence for its facilities. 11. Do not count or credit qualified renewable energy projects toward accomplishment and satisfaction of the California Renewables Portfolio Standard objectives. 12. Prohibit the Water Authority from wheeling - or securing statutory, regulatory, or administrative authority necessary to wheel - acquired or produced power to itself, the District, or other entities with which the Water Authority is under contract of the purchase, treatment, transport, or production of water. 13. Result in a lengthy, more complicated, or more costly interconnection of energy loads and resources, such as solar, inline-hydroelectric, pumped-energy storage, and other renewable energy generation or storage technologies to the electric distribution and transmission grid. VI. Financial Issues A. Fees, Taxes, and Charges Support initiatives that: 1. Require the federal government and State of California to reimburse special districts for all mandated costs or regulatory actions. 2. Give special districts the discretion to cease performance of unfunded mandates. 3. Provide fiscal reform to enhance the equity, reliability, and certainty of special district funding. 4. Provide incentives for local agencies to work cooperatively, share costs or resources. 5. Provide for the stable, equitable, and reliable allocation of property taxes. 6. Continue to reform workers’ compensation. 7. Promote competition in insurance underwriting for public agencies. 8. Produce tangible results, such as water supply reliability or quality improvement. 9. Require the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD) to refund or credit to its member agencies revenues collected from them that result in reserve balances greater than the maximum reserve levels established pursuant to state legislation. Oppose initiatives that: 1. Impose mandated costs or regulatory constraints on local agencies and their customers without providing subventions to reimburse local agencies for such costs. 2. Pre-empt the District or local water agencies’ ability to impose or change rates, charges, fees, or assessments. 3. Weaken the protections afforded the District, the Water Authority, or other local water agencies and its ratepayers under California’s Proposition 1A (November 2, 2004) or Proposition 26 (November 2010). 4. Reallocate special districts reserves to balance the state budget. 5. Reallocate special district revenues or reserves to fund infrastructure improvements or other activities in cities or counties. Otay Water District Legislative Program 2025 8 | Page 6. Establish funding mechanisms that put undue burdens on local agencies or make local agencies de facto tax collectors for the state. 7. Adversely affect the cost of gas and electricity or reduce an organization’s flexibility to take advantage of low peak cost periods. 8. Add new reporting criteria, burdensome, unnecessary, or costly reporting mandates to Urban Water Management Plans. 9. Add new mandates to the Department of Water Resources (DWR) to review and approve Urban Water Management Plans beyond those already addressed in DWR guidelines. 10. Mandate that water agencies include an embedded energy calculation for their water supply sources in Urban Water Management Plans or any other water resources planning or master-planning document. 11. Weaken existing project retention and withholding provisions that limit the ability of public agencies to drive contractor performance. 12. Establish change order requirements that place an unreasonable burden on local agencies, or raise financial risk associated with public works contracts. 13. Impair the Water Authority or its member agencies’ ability to provide reasonable service at reasonable costs to member agencies or to charge all member agencies the same rate for each class of service consistent with cost-of-service requirements of the law. 14. Impair the local water agencies’ ability to maintain reasonable reserve funds and obtain and retain reasonable rates of return on its reserve accounts. 15. Mandate a specific rate structure for retail water agencies. 16. Impose a water user fee on water agencies or water users that does not provide a commensurate and directly linked benefit in the local area or region from which the water user fee is collected. 17. Impose a water user fee for statewide projects or programs, for which the projects or programs are not clearly defined, the beneficiaries identified, and reasonable costs identified. 18. Impose a water user fee to create a state fund that can be used to finance undefined future projects and programs. 19. Allow the state to retain more than 5% of water user fees for administrative costs. 20. Do not restrict the use of water user fees to only the specific purposes for which they are imposed, without any possibility of diversion to meet other fiscal needs of the state or water users outside of the Water Authority’s service area. 21. Impose a “public goods charge” or “water tax” on public water agencies or their ratepayers. 22. Impose a fee on water users to repay the principal and interest on a statewide general obligation bond. 23. Establish regulatory or permit fees that lack a nexus to the costs of oversight. 24. Establish a broad-based user fee that does not support a specific program activity; any fee must provide a clear nexus to the benefit the fee would provide. B. Funding Support initiatives that: 1. Require the federal and state governments to provide subvention to reimburse local governments for all mandated costs or regulatory actions. Otay Water District Legislative Program 2025 9 | Page 2. Provide the District, the Water Authority, and other local water agencies with additional forms of cost-effective financing for public facilities. 3. Revitalize the Title XVI federal funding program by converting new authorizations to a competitive grant program with congressional oversight while protecting existing Title XVI authorizations for the San Diego region. 4. Provide the District, Water Authority, and local water agencies with grant funding for public facilities, including developing local water resources and rehabilitation and repair of aging infrastructure, such as dams and pipelines. 5. Provide the District, other local water agencies, and water ratepayers with post-COVID-19 financial relief through a variety of means, including but not limited to, direct financial assistance and flexibility in debt management to assist water ratepayers and water suppliers. 6. Authorize financing of water quality, water security, and water supply infrastructure improvement programs. 7. Establish spending caps on State of California overhead when administering voter approved grant and disbursement programs. 8. Require disbursement decisions in a manner appropriate to the service in question. 9. Encourage funding infrastructure programs that are currently in place and that have been proven effective. 10. Provide financial incentives for energy projects that increase reliability, diversity, and reduce greenhouse gases. 11. Continue energy rate incentives for the utilization of electricity during low-peak periods. 12. Provide loan or grant programs that encourage water conservation for water users who are least able to pay for capital projects. 13. Provide for population-based distribution of IRWM funds to ensure adequate distribution of grant funding to the San Diego region. 14. Provide for the use of state grant funds for binational projects where the projects benefit water supply or water quality in the San Diego region. 15. Improve and streamline the state’s reimbursement process of IRWM funds. 16. Promote the ability of the Regional Water Management Group to administer state grant funds specifically identified more directly for IRWM Programs. 17. Require the state to rely on the local process for selection and ranking of projects included in an approved IRWM plan. 18. Increase collaboration between stakeholders within the IRWM regions when funding and selecting projects. 19. Provide additional resources and assistance to address unique administrative and implementation challenges associated with underrepresented communities. 20. Advocate for state bonds that provide grant funding for San Diego County IRWM Program. 21. Provide funding or other incentives for conservation, peak management programs, water recycling, potable reuse, groundwater recovery and recharge, dam repair and rehabilitation, surface water development and management projects, including reservoir management, source water protection and watershed planning studies and facilities that sustain long-term reliable water resources. Otay Water District Legislative Program 2025 10 | Page 22. Provide financial incentives to assist in the disposal of concentrate, sludge, and other byproducts created in the water treatment process. 23. Authorize, promote, and provide incentives or credits for development of local drought- resilient water supply projects such as desalination, non-potable recycling, and potable reuse projects. 24. Provide funding for potable reuse demonstration projects and studies. 25. Provide funding for infrastructure improvements at desalination facilities with eligibility for public and private partnerships. 26. Authorize federal and state funding to develop and implement regional or subregional conservation programs, including but not limited to property acquisition, revegetation programs, and watershed plans. 27. Provide state and/or federal funding for the restoration of the Salton Sea. 28. Provide federal and/or state funding to implement actions that address the ecological and water supply management issues of the Lower Colorado River from Lee's Ferry to the southerly international border with Mexico. 29. Provide federal and/or state funding to implement actions that address the ecological and water supply management issues of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. 30. Permit the use of grant funding for projects implemented under public-private partnerships where the grant provides funding for a public benefit. 31. Require the state agencies responsible for preparing the IRWM grant program guidelines to conduct a comprehensive public outreach process that ensures stakeholders have an opportunity to provide adequate input on preparation of the guidelines and require that state agencies consider and respond to comments received through the outreach process. 32. Provide incentive, funding, and assistance to water agencies so that they can comply with AB 32 (2006) requirements, and updated statutory requirements imposed pursuant to SB 32 (2016), SB 100 (2018), and SB 1020 (2022). 33. Remove funding caps from state and federal grant and loan funding sources. 34. Streamline federal and state grant reimbursement processes. Oppose initiatives that: 1. Impose additional administrative requirements and/or restrict the District’s, Water Authority’s, or other local water agencies’ ability to finance public facilities through the issuance of long-term debt. 2. Interfere with the responsibility of a region, operating under an Integrated Regional Water Management Plan, for setting priorities and generating projects to be paid from any IRWM accounts and grants. 3. Interfere with the control exercised by the San Diego funding subregion over the use and expenditure of any water-user fee revenues that may be dedicated to the region. 4. Establish IRWM funding criteria that limit local discretion in project selection. 5. Provide for after-the-fact reduction in quantity or quality of a public water supply due to new restrictions on the operation or use of water supply facilities unless funding for alternate sources of water is provided. 6. Impose a "utility user fee" or "surcharge" on water for the purposes of financing open space/habitat preservation, restoration, or creation. Otay Water District Legislative Program 2025 11 | Page C. Rates Support initiatives that: 1. Maintain the authority and requirements of water agencies to establish water rates , consistent with cost-of-service requirements of the law. 2. Maximize the ability of water agencies to design rate structures to meet local water supply goals and that conform to cost-of-service requirements of the law. 3. Encourage and promote education to elected officials, community/business leaders, organizations, and the public about water sales and conservation and the District and its wholesaler’s rates and what those rates support including but not limited to infrastructure, asset management, operations, maintenance, water reliability, and more. Oppose initiatives that: 1. Impair the District’s, the Water Authority’s, or local water agencies’ ability to provide reliable service at reasonable costs to member agencies or to charge all member agencies the same or similar rate for each class of service consistent with cost-of-service requirements of the law. 2. Undermine or weaken cost-of-service rate-making requirements in existing law. 3. Impair the District’s ability to maintain reasonable reserve funds and obtain and retain reasonable rates of return on its reserve accounts. 4. Mandate a specific rate structure for retail water agencies. 5. Prescribe mandatory conservation-based rate structures that override the authority of the boards of directors of local water agencies to set rate structures according to the specific needs of the water agencies in accordance with cost-of-service requirements. 6. Usurp special district funds, reserves, or other state actions that force special districts to raise rates, fees, or charges. D. Water Bonds Support initiatives that: 1. Provide an equitable share of funding to San Diego County, with major funding categories being divided by county and funded on a per-capita basis to ensure bond proceeds are distributed throughout the state in proportion to taxpayers’ payments on the bonds. 2. Focus on statewide priorities, including restoration of fish and wildlife habitat, promotion of greater regional and local self-sufficiency, surface storage, and promotion of water-use efficiency. 3. Ensure funding from various propositions for local and regional water-related projects. 4. Include within IRWM funding money that a region may use over time to develop and refine its plan and to develop institutional structures necessary to establish and implement the plan. 5. Give primary consideration to funding priorities established by local and regional entities through their IRWM planning process. 6. Ensure the application process for funding is not unnecessarily burdensome and costly, with an emphasis on streamlining the process. 7. Limit state overhead to no more than 5% of bond funding amounts. Otay Water District Legislative Program 2025 12 | Page 8. Place as much emphasis and provide at least as much funding for surface storage as for groundwater storage. 9. Define the “San Diego sub-region” and “San Diego county watersheds” as “those portions of the westward-flowing watershed of the South Coast hydrologic region situated within the boundaries of San Diego County.” 10. Fund emergency and carryover storage projects. 11. Consolidate administration of all voter-approved water-related bond funding in one place, preserves existing expertise within the state bureaucracy to manage bond-funding processes, and provide consistent application and evaluation of bond funding applications. 12. Provide the state’s share of funding for projects that advance the achievement of the co-equal goals of water supply reliability and Bay-Delta ecosystem restoration. 13. Provide funding for water infrastructure that resolve conflicts in the state’s water system and provide long-term benefits to statewide issues including water supply, reliability, water quality, and ecosystem restoration. Oppose initiatives that: 1. Do not provide an equitable share of funding to San Diego County based on the San Diego County taxpayers’ proportional contribution to repayment of the bonds. 2. Do not provide funding for infrastructure that resolve statewide or regional conflicts of water supplies. 3. Do not provide funding that result in net increases in real water supply and water supply reliability. 4. Commit a significant portion of bond funding to projects that do not result in net increases in real water supply or water supply reliability. E. Affordability Support initiatives that: 1. Abide by the Human Right to Water (AB 685, 2012) as set forth in Section 106.3 of the California Water Code which reads that, “every human being has the right to safe, affordable, and accessible water adequate for human consumption, cooking, and sanitary purposes.” The State Water Resources Control Board also has a resolution supporting this program. 2. Meet the required standards under Proposition 218 and Proposition 26 in the California Constitution regarding proportionality of water rates and cost-of-service provisions. 3. Rely on data-driven analysis of water affordability, including considerations such as census data and economically disadvantaged communities. As such, the District supports the continued implementation of AB 2334 (2012) that requires the Department of Water Resources to provide this analysis and place it in California’s Water Plan. 4. Support the creation of a permanent low-income water rate assistance program that targets providing financial assistance to low-income ratepayers using federal resources or existing resources within either the state General Fund or cap-and-trade dollars. 5. Does not burden water districts with excessive or overly prescriptive state mandates including the collection of water taxes or water rate and boundary data, and qualification of customers for low-income assistance programs. Otay Water District Legislative Program 2025 13 | Page 6. Support the expansion of the low-income assistance programs (LIHWAP) or other programs, using existing resources from the federal government, with the state General Fund or cap-and-trade dollars or other state financial resources. 7. Provide the Water Authority, its member agencies, and water ratepayers with a permanent low-income customer assistance program. 8. Encourage and promote education to elected officials, community/business leaders, organizations, and the public about affordability. Oppose initiatives that: 1. Is not targeted appropriately: Any low-income water rate assistance program must be limited in scope to those individuals. By seeking to do too much, effectiveness could be limited. Examples of this could include extending program resources to domestic wells or water-use efficiency programs. 2. Does not have a funding source: Any low-income water rate assistance program needs to identify specific sources of sustainable funding and does not include a water tax or water surcharge. 3. Does not reinvent the wheel: Any low-income water rate assistance program should be built upon and use the resources of an existing benefit distribution organization or system, such as CalFresh, rather than requiring water agencies to add the operating expense of creating and administering a new method. VII. Governance and Local Autonomy Support initiatives that: 1. Expand local autonomy in governing special district affairs. 2. Promote comprehensive long-range planning. 3. Assist local agencies in the logical and efficient extension of services and facilities to promote efficiency and avoid duplication of services. 4. Streamline the Municipal Service Review Process or set limits on how long services reviews can take or cost. 5. Reaffirm the existing “all-in” financial structure or protect the Water Authority voting structure based on population. 6. Promote measures that increase broader community and water industry representation/appointments on State decision making bodies. 7. Ensure an open and transparent process for adoption of regulations, policies, and guidelines. 8. Preserve the District and other local water agencies’ ability to establish local priorities for water resources planning decisions. 9. Promote cost effective and reasonably feasible requirements. Oppose initiatives that: 1. Assume the state legislature is better able to make local decisions that affect special district governance. 2. Create one-size-fits-all approaches to special district reform. 3. Unfairly target one group of local elected officials. Otay Water District Legislative Program 2025 14 | Page 4. Usurp local control from special districts regarding decisions involving local special district finance, operations, or governance. 5. Diminish the power or rights of the District’s governing body to govern the District’s affairs. 6. Diminish the power or rights of the District to govern relations with its employees. 7. Modify the committee or board voting structure or District and member agency board representation on the Water Authority Board of Directors unless the District’s Board has expressly authorized such changes. 8. Create unfunded local government mandates. 9. Create costly, unnecessary, or duplicative oversight roles for the state government of special district affairs. 10. Create new oversight roles or responsibility for monitoring special district affairs. 11. Change the San Diego County Water Authority Act regarding voting structure unless it is based on population. 12. Shift the liability to the public entity and relieve private entities of reasonable due diligence in their review of plans and specifications for errors, omissions, and other issues. 13. Place a significant and unreasonable burden on public agencies, resulting in increased cost for public works construction or their operation. 14. Impair the ability of water districts to acquire property or property interests required for essential capital improvement projects. 15. Increase the cost of property and right-of-way acquisition or restrict the use of right-of-ways. 16. Work to silence the voices of special districts and other local government associations on statewide ballot measures impacting local government policies and practices, including actions that could prohibit special districts and associations from advocating for positions on ballot measures by severely restricting the private resources used to fund those activities. 17. Prescribe mandatory conservation-based or other rate structures that override the authority of the board of directors to set its rate structure. 18. Circumvent the legislative committee process, such as the use of budget trailer bills, to advance policy issues including impacting special districts without full disclosure, transparency, or public involvement. 19. Restrict the District’s ability to utilize a demand forecasting methodology that is best suited locally and for the region. 20. Impose mandates requiring specific water resources be developed by water agencies that fail to consider local factors such as water reliability, hydrologic and geographic characteristics, and the economic, political, public acceptance, social environment, which can influence selection of resources and/or fails to consider or conflicts with existing local and regional planning policies and implementation priorities. 21. Limit the District’s ability to establish local priorities for water resources planning decisions. 22. Impede the District’s ability to conduct its critical mission efficiently and effectively of always providing and sustaining critical services and under all conditions. 23. Impose regulations that place unreasonable, inequitable, and costly requirements on local agencies without adequate support and resources. Otay Water District Legislative Program 2025 15 | Page VIII. Imported Water Issues A. Bay-Delta i. Co-Equal Goals Support initiatives that: 1. Require the Delta Stewardship Council or DWR to provide periodic analyses of the cost of the proposed Bay-Delta improvements to the Legislature and the public. 2. Provide conveyance and storage facilities that are cost-effective for the San Diego region’s ratepayers and are proportionate to the benefits they receive, improve the reliability and quality of the San Diego region’s water supplies, and protect the Bay-Delta’s ecosystem. 3. Continue to support the co-equal goals of water supply reliability and environmental restoration embodied in the 2009 Delta bill package. 4. Improve the ability of water-users to divert water from the Bay-Delta during wet periods, when impacts on fish and the ecosystem are lower and water quality is higher. 5. Encourage the development of a statewide water transfer market to improve water management and allow more efficient use of available resources. 6. Support improved coordination of Central Valley Project and State Water Project (SWP) operations and implementation of water quality requirements that are fair to the users of both projects and do not unfairly shift costs to SWP contractors or MWD or its member agencies. 7. Support administrative/legislative actions and funding to advance the Delta Freshwater Pathway, levee improvements including levee modernization for the existing Delta levee system, levee maintenance programs including real-time monitoring for the existing Delta levee system, and secure Delta flood-fighting materials and stockpiles. 8. Support state and federal administrative/legislative actions and funding to address the impacts of subsidence on the SWP and prevent future damage caused by unsustainable groundwater pumping. 9. Support continued state ownership and operation of the SWP, including project facilities, as a public resource. 10. Ensure that any reorganization of the State Water Project, including operations and management, preserves the ability for non-State Water Project contractors to access the facility for transportation of water to a non-State Water Project contractor. 11. Authorize and appropriate the federal share of funding for the long-term Bay-Delta solution, including for California EcoRestore. 12. Provide the ongoing state share of funding for California EcoRestore. 13. Provide state funding for water quality monitoring in the Bay-Delta. Such legislation should not place a surcharge on water supply exports, nor should it substantively reduce funding for other measures that protect the environment and public health. Oppose efforts that: 1. Impose water user fees to fund ecosystem restoration and other public purpose, nonwater-supply improvements in the Bay-Delta that benefit the public at large. 2. Transfer operational control of the State Water Project or any of its facilities to the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD), the State Water Contractors, the Central Valley Project Contractors, the State and Federal Contractors Water Agency, or any entity comprised of MWD or other water project contractors, or any other special interest group. Otay Water District Legislative Program 2025 16 | Page ii. Bay-Delta Conveyance Project Support initiatives that: 1. Are consistent with the Water Authority’s Board of Directors’ July 25, 2019 adopted Bay-Delta project policy principles, including the following: a. On April 29, 2019, Governor Newsom signed Executive Order N-10-19, directing the preparation of a water resilience portfolio approach that meets the needs of California’s communities, economy, and environment through the 21st century, including consideration of multi-benefit approaches that meet multiple needs at once, and a single-user tunnel Bay-Delta project. b. The Water Authority’s Board supports Governor Newsome’s Executive Order N-10- 19 and directs staff to inform the Newsome Administration that its support for a single-tunnel Bay-Delta project is expressly conditioned upon the project costs being characterized by the Department of Water Resources (DWR) as conservation, or supply charges, as similar facilities historically have been defined in the Metropolitan Water District’s (MWD) SWP contract with DWR. c. As reflected in Table 2 of DWR’s Appendix B to Bulletin 132-17, Data and Computation Used to Determine Water Charges, and for which costs are recovered in Article 22(a) of Delta Water Charge of MWD’s SWP Contract; allow for the exemption of north-of-Delta SWP contractors. 2. Support the establishment of an independent and transparent oversight function to monitor and provide regular updates on project implementation progress, including expenditure tracking, construction progress, project participants’ contributions, and all other relevant activities and developments. 3. Allow access to all SWP facilities, including project facilities, to facilitate water transfers. B. Metropolitan Water District Support initiatives that: 1. Provide an appropriate level of transparency in rate setting, and accountability and cost control over MWD spending. 2. Protect and acknowledge the investments the Water Authority has made in the form of its preferential rights under the Metropolitan Water District Act and allow member agencies to realize the value of their respective and varying investments. 3. Require MWD to refund or credit to its member agencies revenues collected from them that result in reserve balances greater than the maximum reserve levels in the manner established pursuant to state legislation. 4. Require MWD to implement actions that advance and support its long-term financial stability, fiscal sustainability, and that moderate fluctuations in rates and charges for its member agencies from year to year, in a publicly transparent manner. 5. Amend the Metropolitan Water District Act to change voting allocation on its Board of Directors based on a member agency’s total financial contribution to MWD, in a manner that is fair and equal to ratepayers, and similar to the voting allocation method of the County Water Authority Act. Otay Water District Legislative Program 2025 17 | Page 6. Ensure fair and equitable cost allocation of projects and programs based on the varying needs and demands of its member agencies. C. Colorado River Support initiatives that: 1. Support federal funding through the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to fund near-term and long-term conservation projects that protect California’s water rights and the San Diego region’s river supplies while bolstering the river. 2. Support the sustainability of the Colorado River and provide operational flexibility through the development of storage, including in Lake Mead, and through the renegotiation of the new interim shortage guidelines for the river’s continued operation. 3. Advance strategic long-term water management that includes the ability to transfer, share, and exchange supplies both within the state of California and across state lines. 4. Incorporate seawater desalination as part of a slate of long-term infrastructure projects to support the Colorado River. 5. Recognize the 2003 Quantification Settlement Agreement (QSA) as a model for other Basin states to follow as a means to implement conservation while protecting agriculture and the environment. 6. Support implementation and funding of the California Colorado River Water Use Plan, including the Lower Colorado River Multi-Species Conservation Program 7. Provide funding for Colorado River salinity control projects and other water quality management efforts. 8. Provide for state and federal authorizations and appropriations of non-fee-based funds to implement Salton Sea mitigation and the State’s phased approach to restoration in the form of the Salton Sea Management Program consistent with its obligations under Chapters 611, 612, and 613 of the Statutes of 2003. 9. Limit the QSA mitigation costs imposed on funding parties to the amount committed in accordance with the original QSA legislation. 10. Allow for the option to create an alternate conveyance route, when technically and financially feasible, for reliable delivery of the Water Authority’s Independent Colorado River water supplies and integration of compatible partnership projects along the proposed conveyance routes as a model of the Governor’s Water Resilience Portfolio approach to water management. 11. Support the state’s Salton Sea Management Program under the guidelines of the revised Water Order (Stipulated Order) adopted by the State Water Resources Control Board in November 2017. 12. Preserve the California Colorado River Board 13. Ensure the interests of the members of the California Colorado River Board continue to be addressed in any state government reorganization. 14. Allow for storage of the Water Authority’s Colorado River water supplies to provide enhanced flexibility with annual transfer volumes, support drought contingency planning, and align with the Governor’s Water Resilience Portfolio approach to water management. Oppose initiatives that: Otay Water District Legislative Program 2025 18 | Page 1. Impose additional mitigation costs or obligations for the Salton Sea on the non-state parties to the QSA. 2. Eliminate the California Colorado River Board without providing a comparable structure or forum that ensures the Water Authority and member agencies interests in the Colorado River are preserved. 3. Implement additional long-term conservation projects to address drought and climate change that do not address potential impacts to the environment, specifically the Salton Sea. 4. As part of the development of the next set of river management guidelines, impose potential future reductions on just the Lower Basin rather than balancing potential reductions between both the Upper and Lower Basins. D. State Water Project Support initiatives that: 1. Provide for development of a comprehensive state water plan that balances California's competing water needs, incorporates the water resources and infrastructure concepts included in the Governor’s “Water Resilience Portfolio” and “California’s Water Supply Strategy Adapting to a Hotter, Drier, Future,” and results in a reliable and affordable supply of high-quality water for the State of California and the San Diego region. Oppose initiatives that: 1. Make urban water supplies less reliable or substantially increases the cost of imported water without also improving the reliability and/or quality of the water. 2. Revise the Central Valley Project Improvement Act to Jeopardize the Act's environmental integrity, compromise State Water Project supply reliability a n d/or limit the ability of urban agencies to transfer and/or bank CVP water for use both within and outside the CVP service area. 3. Transfer operational control of the State Water Project or any of its facilities to MWD, the State Water Project contractors, Central Valley Project contractors, the State and Federal Contractors Water Agency, any entity comprised of MWD or other water project contractors, or any other special interest group. IX. Optimize District Effectiveness Support initiatives that: 1. Manage District resources in a transparent and fiscally responsible manner. 2. Allow utilities to avoid critical peak energy pricing or negotiate energy contracts that save ratepayers money. 3. Develop reasonable Air Pollution Control District engine permitting requirements. 4. Reimburse or reduce local government mandates. 5. Allow public agencies to continue offering defined benefit plans. 6. Result in predictable costs and benefits for employees and taxpayers. 7. Eliminate abuses. 8. Retain local control of pension systems. 9. Are constitutional, federally legal, and technically possible. Otay Water District Legislative Program 2025 19 | Page 10. Promote cost effective and reasonably feasible requirements. Oppose initiatives that: 1. Restrict the use of, or reallocate, district property tax revenues to the detriment of special districts. 2. Create unrealistic ergonomic protocol. 3. Micromanage special district operations. 4. Balance the state budget by allowing regulatory agencies to increase permitting fees. 5. Tax-dependent benefits. 6. Require new reporting criteria on energy intensity involved in water supply. X. Safety, Security, and Information Technology Support initiatives that: 1. Provide funding for information security upgrades to include integrated alarms, access/egress, and surveillance technology. 2. Provide incentives for utilities and other local agencies to work cooperatively, share costs or resources. 3. Provide funding for communication enhancements, wireless communications, GIS, or other technological enhancements. 4. Encourage or promote compatible software systems. 5. Fund infrastructure and facility security improvements that include facility roadway access, remote gate access, and physical security upgrades. 6. Protect state, local, and regional drinking water systems from terrorist attack or deliberate acts of destruction, contamination, or degradation. 7. Provide funds to support training or joint training exercises to include contingency funding for emergencies and emergency preparedness. 8. Equitably allocate security funding based on need, threats, and/or population. 9. Encourage or promote compatible communication systems. 10. Encourage and promote funding of Department of Homeland Security Risk Mitigation programs. 11. Recognizes water agencies as emergency responders in the event of a sudden, unexpected occurrence that poses a clear and imminent danger, requiring immediate action to prevent and mitigate loss or impairment of life, health, property, or essential public services due to natural disasters (e.g., wildfires, earthquakes), power outages as well as terrorist and other criminal activities. 12. Provide state grants or other funding opportunities to support seismic risk assessment and mitigation plans, or to mitigate vulnerabilities. 13. Provide funding for projects that enhance security against terrorist acts or other criminal threats to water operation, services, facilities, or supplies. 14. Provide funding for projects that improve the security of the District facilities and operations. 15. Provide funding to support technologies that support remote working, when necessary to prevent loss of or damage to life, health, property, or essential public services. Oppose initiatives that: 1. Create unnecessary, costly, or duplicative security or safety mandates. Otay Water District Legislative Program 2025 20 | Page 2. Require expanded water system descriptions or additional public disclosure of public water systems details for large water suppliers in Urban Water Management Planning documents, potentially compromising public water systems, and creating a conflict with the Department of Homeland Security’s recommendation to avoid reference to water system details in plans available to the public. XI. Water Quality Issues Support initiatives that: 1. Assure cost-effective remediation and cleanup of contaminates of concern that have impacted groundwater and surface water. 2. Incorporate sound scientific principles in adopting drinking water standards for drinking water concerns. 3. Exempt the conveyance, storage, or release of water supplies from regulation as a discharge under the Clean Water Act and other water quality control laws. 4. Revise NPDES standards and procedures to facilitate inland discharge and use of recycled water. 5. Establish appropriate quality standards, testing procedures, and treatment processes for emerging contaminants. 6. Alter the definition of “lead free” to reduce the permissible amount of lead in fixtures, plumbing, and pipe fittings to be installed for the delivery of drinking water. 7. Exempt purified wastewater from regulation as a discharge under the Clean Water Act. 8. Implement source control for management prevention of contamination by constituents of emerging concern. 9. Provide the necessary funding for research on the occurrence, treatment, health effects, and environmental cleanup related to contamination of drinking water sources. 10. Implement and fund the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board’s triennial review of water quality standards. 11. Provide funding and support for Colorado River salinity control projects and other water quality management efforts. 12. Direct the state’s participation or assistance in water quality issues related to or threatening the Colorado River water source. 13. Streamline permitting of facilities constructed to improve water quality. 14. Ensure consistent application of the law by the State Water Resources Control Board and the nine regional water quality control boards. Oppose initiatives that: 1. Eliminate the State Water Resources Control Board and/or the nine regional water quality control boards without ensuring the functions and expertise of the boards are maintained in any reorganized entity. 2. Regulate the conveyance, storage, or release of water supplies as discharge under the Clean Water Act and other water quality control laws. 3. Make water suppliers financially and legally responsible for mitigation of pollution contamination by third parties. 4. Make water suppliers financially and legally responsible for testing or correction of any water quality-related issues associated with private property or on-site plumbing systems. Otay Water District Legislative Program 2025 21 | Page XII.Water Recycling and Potable Reuse Support initiatives that: 1.Reduce restrictions on recycled water usage or promote consistent regulation of recycledwater projects to reduce impediments to the increased use of recycled water. 2.Reduce restrictions on injecting recycled water into basins where there is no direct potable use.3.Advocate for direct potable reuse.4.Advocate for recycled water use upstream of lakes and reservoirs if protected by urban waterrunoff protection systems. 5.Provide financial incentives for recharge of groundwater aquifers using recycled water. 6.Make recycled water regulations clear, consolidated, and understandable to expedite relatedproject permitting.7.Promote recycled water as a sustainable supplemental source of water.8.Allow the safe use of recycled water. 9.Facilitate development of technology aimed at improving water recycling. 10.Increase funding for water recycling projects.11. Support continued funding of the Title XVI Water Reclamation and Reuse Program includingWater Reclamation and Reuse Projects, the WaterSMART Program, and the Desalination andWater Purification Research Program. 12.Increase awareness of the ways recycled water can help address the region’s water supply challenges.13.Create federal and state incentives to promote recycled water use and production.14. Establish federal tax incentives to support U.S. companies in the development of new watertechnologies that can lower productions costs, address by products such as concentrates, and enhance public acceptance of recycled water. 15. Establish a comprehensive national research and development, and technology demonstration,program to advance the public and scientific understanding of water recycling technologies toencourage reuse as an alternative source of water supply.16.Provide incentives for local agencies to work cooperatively, share costs or resources to promote or expand the use of recycled water. 17.Further refine emergency regulations to reward local suppliers that have invested in usingrecycled water for landscape irrigation to maintain an incentive to continue expanding areasserved by recycled water.18. Encourage the use of recycled water in commercial, industrial, institutional, and residential settings. 19. Recognize and support the development of potable reuse as a critical new water supply.20.Define purified recycled water as a source of water supply and not as waste.21. Mandate the reduction of wastewater discharges to the ocean absent inclusion of funding tooffset the significant costs of implementation. 22.Authorize local governmental agencies to regulate the discharge of contaminants to the sewer collection system that may adversely affect water recycling and reuse. Otay Water District Legislative Program 2025 22 | Page 23. Authorize and facilitate expanded use of local water resources including water recycling, potable reuse, graywater, and rainwater harvesting (e.g., cisterns and rain barrels), and brackish groundwater. 24. Streamline regulatory processes and requirements to encourage and support the development of potable reuse and non-potable reuse as a municipal water supply. 25. Recognize the entire interconnected urban water cycle, as well as public health and safety, must be taken into consideration in long-term water use efficiency policies, particularly including the unintended consequences of declining flows on water, wastewater, potable reuse, and recycled water systems. 26. Encourage dual plumbing in new development where non-potable recycled water is likely to available to enable utilization of recycled water. 27. Promote uniform regulatory interpretation of state recycled water system standards. 28. Support beneficial revisions to the California Plumbing Code that facilitate recycled water systems. Oppose initiatives that: 1. Restrict use of recycled water for groundwater recharge. 2. Establish new water or recycled water fees solely to recover State costs without also providing some benefit. 3. Limit the ability of local governmental agencies to regulate the discharge of contaminants to the sewer collection system that may adversely affect water recycling and reuse. 4. Establish unreasonable regulatory requirements or fees for the safe use of recycled water, which may unreasonably impede or create a disincentive to its further development. 5. Mandate the reduction of wastewater discharges to the ocean absent inclusion of funding to offset the significant costs of implementation. 6. Establish water use efficiency standards, which do not reflect the impact that higher TDS recycled water has on the usage rates to reduce salt loading in areas of use. XIII. Water Rights Modernization Support initiatives that: 1. Protect existing water rights, water-rights priority, and local agencies’ ability to use water resources for their present and future water supply reliability and environmental well-being. 2. Support funding for data modernization tools needed to monitor and enforce water rights priorities and protect State Water Project supplies, including funding and technical assistance to fully implement existing law requiring metering of diversions and potential legislation or regulation aimed at providing real-time water diversion data. 3. Support voluntary water transfers and exchanges as the means to reallocate water supplies, including for the environment, to meet water supply reliability goals and achieve co-equal goals of the Bay-Delta and interstate solutions to limited Colorado River supplies. 4. Support more flexible regulations to enhance the ability to divert water in times of high storm runoff and snow melt while protecting existing water rights and the environment. 5. Support increases in civil penalties to deter violations of State Board orders, including curtailment orders. Otay Water District Legislative Program 2025 23 | Page XIV. Water Services and Facilities Support initiatives that: 1. Provide funding to implement actions identified in the California Water Action Plan to lay a solid fiscal foundation for implementing near-term actions, including funding for water efficiency projects, wetland and watershed restoration, groundwater programs, conservation, flood control, and integrated water management and result in a reliable supply of high-quality water for the San Diego region. 2. Promote the coordination and integration of local, state, and federal climate change policies and practices to the greatest extent feasible. 3. Fund or otherwise facilitate ongoing implementation of the Quantification Settlement Agreement. 4. Provide reliable water supplies to meet California’s short and long-term needs. 5. Promote desalination pilot studies and projects. 6. Encourage feasibility studies of water resource initiatives. 7. Increase funding for infrastructure and grant programs for construction, modernization or expansion of water, wastewater treatment, reclamation facilities and sewer systems including water recycling, groundwater recovery and recharge, surface water development projects and seawater desalination. 8. Fund enhancements to water treatment, recycling, and other facilities to meet increased regulations. 9. Mandate uniform or similar regulations and procedures by state agencies in the processing and administering of grants and programs. 10. Streamline grant application procedures. 11. Reduce regulations and other impediments for willing sellers and buyers to engage in water transfer agreements. 12. Promote or assist voluntary water transfers between willing buyers and willing sellers and move those transactions through without delay. 13. Streamline the permitting and approval process for desalination and other water-related facilities and implement water transfers that will improve water management. 14. Establish reasonable statewide approaches to sewer reporting standards. 15. Generate greater efficiencies, better coordinate program delivery, and eliminate duplication in programs for source water protection without lessening the focus on public health of the state’s Drinking Water Program. 16. Target efforts to fix specific issues with water supplies within the state’s Drinking Water Program. 17. Establish federal tax incentives to support U.S. companies in the development of new desalination technologies that can lower productions costs, eliminate, or reduce impingement or entrainment, reduce energy use, and enhance public acceptance of desalinated water. 18. Establish a comprehensive national research and development, and technology demonstration program to advance the scientific understanding of desalination to expand its use as an alternative source of water supply. 19. Require the State Water Resources Control Board to exercise its authority, ensure robust funding, and implement the Salton Sea mitigation and restoration plan, meet state obligations, and work with QSA stakeholders to find workable solutions to ensure the continuation of IID water transfers. Otay Water District Legislative Program 2025 24 | Page 20. Support solutions to water supply issues that address common challenges, provide a comprehensive approach that is fair to all users, balance the needs of urban and rural communities, and take into consideration the interests of all stakeholders as well as the impact to the environment. 21. Further refine emergency drought regulations to eliminate a cap on credits and adjustments so as not to impose undue burden, financial or otherwise, on communities that have already invested in water conservation, development of new water sources, storage, or loss prevention. 22. Provide funding for water infrastructure development, infrastructure security, and rehabilitation and replacement projects that benefit ratepayers. 23. Provide funding for habitat preservation programs that address impacts resulting from construction or operation of water system facilities. 24. Provide funding for projects that enhance security against terrorist acts or other criminal threats to water operation, services, facilities, or supplies. 25. Provide incentives that encourage contractors to recycle or reduce waste associated with construction of water facilities. 26. Improve the local agencies’ efforts to maintain and protect its property, rights of way, easements, pipelines, and related facilities and minimizes liability to local agencies and the District. 27. Protect the local agencies’ properties from restrictions when surrounding properties are incorporated into preservation areas. 28. Encourage the use of current and emerging technologies for monitoring and assessing the condition of large diameter pipelines. 29. Encourage water suppliers to develop and execute asset management programs that include visual inspections, internal/external inspections, asset condition assessments, corrosion mitigation, and reis analysis in a manner that recognizes the individuality and uniqueness of each water supplier and its systems. 30. Improve the District’s efforts to maintain and protect its property, rights of way, easements, pipelines, and related facilities and minimizes liability to the District. 31. Protect the District, other agencies and the Water Authority properties from restrictions when surrounding properties are incorporated into preservation areas. 32. Provide funding to water agencies for the voluntary retrofit of facilities for on-site generation of chlorine. 33. Provide funding for water supplier asset management programs that involve the active monitoring, repair, or replacement of physical assets and infrastructure, which includes pipes, valves, facilities, equipment, and other infrastructure. 34. Provide for restrictions on price gouging during public safety power shutoff events and for at least 72 hours following restoration of power. 35. Provide that de-energization or public safety power shutoff events may be included as a condition constituting a state of emergency or local emergency. 36. Provide a tax emption for the sale of, or storage, use, or consumption of, a backup electrical resources, which is purchased for exclusive use by a city, county, special district, or other entity of local government during a de-energization or public safety power shutoff event. 37. State that the use of alternative power sources (such as generators) by essential public services during de-energization or public safety power shutoff events shall not be limited by any state or local regulations or rules. Otay Water District Legislative Program 2025 25 | Page 38. Recognize the critical role the District, local agencies, and the Water Authority play as Public Safety Partners in Public Safety Power Shutoff events and other natural or man-made disasters. Further recognizes the importance of the agency’s ability to provide immediate and sustained response for extended periods of time. 39. Provide financial support to local projects designed to mitigate or adapt to potential negative impacts of climate change on water supply reliability. 40. Investigate and provide financial support to projects designed to mitigate potential negative impacts of climate change on water supply reliability. Oppose initiatives that: 1. Restrict local control and discretions over water facilities, asset management, and facility operations. 2. Make urban water supplies less reliable or substantially increases the cost of imported water without also improving the reliability and/or quality of the water. 3. Create unrealistic or costly water testing or reporting protocol. 4. Disproportionately apportion the cost of water. 5. Create undo hurtles for seawater desalination projects. 6. Create unreasonable or confusing sewer reporting standards. 7. Create administrative or other barriers to sales between willing buyers and willing sellers that delay water transfers. 8. Create a broad-based user fee that does not support a specific local program activity or benefit; any fee must provide a clear nexus to the benefit local ratepayers or local water supplies from the establishment that charge or fee would provide. 9. Create unrealistic or is costly to obtain water quality standards for potable water, recycled water, or storm water runoff. 10. Change the focus of the state’s Drinking Water Program or weaken the parts of the program that work well. 11. Lessen the focus on public health of the state’s Drinking Water Program. 12. Impose undue burden, financial or otherwise, on communities that have already invested in water conservation, development of new water sources, storage, or loss prevention. 13. Impose additional mitigation costs or obligations for the Salton Sea on the non-state parties to the Quantification Settlement Agreement. 14. Impair the District and other local water agencies’ ability to provide and operate the necessary facilities for a safe, reliable, and operational flexible water system. 15. Limit local agencies’ sole jurisdiction over planning, design, routing, approval, construction, operation, or maintenance of water facilities. 16. Restrict local agencies’ ability to respond swiftly and decisively to an emergency that threatens to disrupt water deliveries or restricts the draining of pipelines or other facilities in emergencies for repairs or preventive maintenance. 17. Authorize state and federal wildlife agencies to control, prevent, or eradicate invasive species in a way that excessively interferes with the operations of water supplies. 18. Prohibit or in any way limit the ability of local agencies from making full beneficial use of any water, wastewater, or recycling facility and resource investments. 19. Prohibit the use of alternative contract procurement methods that can be utilized in the construction of water facilities. Otay Water District Legislative Program 2025 26 | Page 20. Shift the risks of indemnity for damages and defense of claims from contractors to the District. 21. Impair local agencies’ efforts to acquire property or property interests required for essential capital improvement projects or acquisition of property to meet pipeline water drain-down needs for existing facilities. 22. Increase the cost of property and right of way acquisition. 23. Restrict the District’s use of public rights of way or increase the cost of using public rights of way. 24. Restrict the transfer of property acquired for purposes of environmental mitigation or environmental mitigation credits to other public or private entities for long-term management. 25. Establish prescriptive leak loss control requirements for the operation, maintenance, and asset management of water conveyance and distribution systems, which fail to consider full life-cycle costing. 26. Establish meter testing requirements for source water meters that fail to consider industry standards and cost-effectiveness. 27. Limit the discretion of the District from protecting security and privacy of comprehensive inventories of all assets, which includes infrastructure location, condition, performance, and useful life. 28. Impair local agencies’ ability to execute the planning, design, and construction of projects using their own employees. 29. Limit the autonomy of discretion of water supplier to develop and execute asset management inspection programs that include visual inspections, internal/external inspections, asset condition assessments, and corrosion mitigation in a manner that recognizes the individuality and uniqueness of each water supplier and its systems. 30. Authorize air quality management districts or other regulatory bodies to adopt or maintain rules that would limit or prohibit a local government entity’s use of a state and/or federally complaint natural gas-powered generator during a de-energization or public safety power shutoff event. 31. Would inhibit the District from fulfilling its critical role as a Public Safety Partner and making immediate and sustained response in a Public Safety Power Shutoff event or and other natural or man-made disasters, such as the CARB Advanced Clean Fleet regulation. 32. Would inhibit the District from fulfilling its critical role as an essential service provider from procuring and operating fleets which meet the needs to perform routine and emergency maintenance of water and wastewater systems, such as the CARB Advanced Clean Fleet regulation. 33. Require incorporation of climate change considerations into regional and local water management planning that does not provide flexibility to the local and regional water agencies in determining the climate change impact and identification of adaptation and mitigation measures. 34. Impose top-down “one-size-fits-all” climate change mandates that fail to account for hydrological, meteorological, economic, and social variation across the state and/or that fail to incorporate local and regional planning and implementation priorities and protocols. Otay Water District Legislative Program 2025 27 | Page XV. Water Use and Efficiency Support initiatives that: 1. Provide funding for incentives for water-use efficiency and water conservation programs including water-efficient devices, practices and demonstration projects and studies. 2. Encourage the installation of water-efficient fixtures in new and existing buildings. 3. Promote the environmental benefits of water-use efficiency and water conservation. 4. Enhance efforts to promote water-use efficiency awareness. 5. Offer incentives for landscape water-efficient devices including, but not limited to ET controllers and soil moisture sensors. 6. Develop landscape retrofit incentive programs and/or irrigation retrofit incentive programs. 7. Permit or require local agencies to adopt ordinances that require or promote water-efficient landscapes for commercial and residential developments. 8. Create tax incentives for citizens or developers who install water-efficient landscapes. 9. Create tax incentives for citizens who purchase high-efficiency clothes washers, dual-flush and high-efficiency toilets, and irrigation controllers above the state standards. 10. Expand community-based water-use efficiency and education programs. 11. Facilitate and encourage the use of rainwater-capture systems, i.e., rain barrels, cisterns, etc. and alternative water sources, i.e., air conditioner condensate for use in irrigation. 12. Develop incentives for developers and existing customers to install water-efficient landscape in existing developments or new construction. 13. Encourage large state users to save water by implementing water-efficient technologies in all facilities both new and retrofit. 14. Encourage large state water users to save water outdoors. 15. Educate all Californians on the importance of water, and the need to conserve, manage, and plan for the future needs. 16. Encourage technological research targeted to more efficient water use. 17. Give local agencies maximum discretion in selecting water-use efficiency and conservation programs that work for their customers and the communities they serve. 18. Require the Department of Water Resources to implement a uniform statewide turf rebate subsidy or incentive program. 19. Restrict Property Owner Associations from forbidding the use of California native plants, other low water use plants, mulch, artificial turf, or semi-permeable materials in well- maintained landscapes. 20. Restrict Property Owner Associations from forbidding retrofits of multiple unit facilities for the purpose of submetering, if feasible. 21. Ensure plumbing codes and standards that facilitate the installation and/or retrofit of water efficient devices. 22. Establish standards for the utilization of high-efficiency commercial and residential clothes washers. 23. Provide federal tax-exempt status for water-use efficiency rebates, consistent with income tax treatment at the state level. 24. Encourage the use of graywater where it complies with local guidelines and regulations and is cost-effective. 25. Provide incentives, funding, and assistance to water agencies so that they can meet the water demand management measure requirements in the Urban Water Management Planning Act. Otay Water District Legislative Program 2025 28 | Page 26. Provide incentives, funding, and other assistance to facilitate water-use efficiency partnerships with the energy efficiency sector. 27. Provide incentives, funding, and other assistance where needed to facilitate market transformation and gain wider implementation of water efficient indoor and outdoor technologies and practices. 28. Recognize local control in determining water use efficiency criteria, such as impact of recycled water salinity on irrigation use and efficiency for the application of non-potable recycled water. 29. Encourage reasonable tracking of water use and improved efficiency in the Commercial, Industrial, and Institutional (CII) sector. 30. Recognize local control in determining how to meet an overall efficient water use goal, based on the combined efficient indoor use, outdoor use, and leak loss, as established under the criteria provided for in statute. 31. Ensure accurate and streamlined reporting of implementation of water-use efficiency and conservation measures. 32. Promote statewide implementation of water-use efficiency best management practices and demand management measures as defined in the Urban Water Management Planning Act. Oppose efforts that: 1. Weaken federal or state water-efficiency standards. 2. Introduce additional analytical and reporting requirements that are time-consuming for local agencies to perform and result in additional costs to consumers yet yield no water savings. 3. Permit Property Owners Associations to restrict low water use plants, mulch, artificial turf, or semi-permeable materials in landscaping. 4. Repeal cost-effective efficiency standards for water-using devices. 5. Repeal cost-effective efficiency standards for water-using devices. 6. Create stranded assets by establishing long-term demand management water-use efficiency and water supply requirements that are inconsistent with the Urban Water Management Planning Act. 7. Prescribe statewide mandatory urban and agricultural water-use efficiency practices, including, but not limited to, methods, measures, programs, budget allocation, and designation of staff dedicated to water conservation programs, that override the authority of the boards of directors of local water agencies to adopt management practices that are most appropriate for the specific needs of their water agencies. 8. Mandate regulation of the CII Sector in a manner that is discriminatory, or sets unachievable Best Management Practices or compliance targets, or would otherwise impair economic activity or the viability of the CII sector. 9. Mandate that water agencies include an embedded energy calculation for their water supply sources in the Urban Water Management Plan or any other water resource planning or master planning document. 10. Require redundant reporting of water conservation-related information. Otay Water District Legislative Program 2025 29 | Page XVI.Workforce Development Support initiatives that: 1. Advocate for local, regional, and state programs that support a high-performing workforce and increase the talent pool for water agencies. 2. Advocate for military veterans in the water industry workforce to ensure that veterans receive appropriate and satisfactory credit towards water and wastewater treatment system certifications in California for work experience, education, and knowledge gained in military service. 3.Lower employment barriers for military veterans and transitioning military and that sustain vital water and wastewater services for the next generation. 4. Recruit and support veterans and transitioning military through internships, cooperative work experiences, and other resources. 5.Recruit and support underserved communities in the water industry through internships, cooperative work experiences, and other resources. 6. Advocate and encourage candidate outreach and recruitment in relation to mission-critical job categories in water and wastewater. 7.Ensure advanced water treatment operators and distribution system operators of potable reuse and recycled water facilities have a career advancement path as certified water and/or wastewater treatment plant operators. 8.Increase the number of educational institutions that provide water-industry related training and related program criteria including but not limited to trades, certifications, and degrees. 9.Increase the talent pool of future water industry workers through educational programs, internships, and other resources. 10. Provide funding to educational institutions, water agencies, and workforce students regarding careers in the water industry. 11. Develop qualified candidates for positions in the water industry. 12.Build awareness of water industry-related jobs through student outreach including but not limited to K-12, community colleges, universities, and other educational institutions as well as outreach to the public. 13.Promote regional water and wastewater workforce development programs. Oppose initiatives that: 1. Hinder military veterans from using previous experience, education, and knowledge toward a career in water.2.Regulate agencies from hiring an experienced, educated, and talented water-industryworkforce. 30809411.1 www.bhfs.com Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP 916.594.9700 main 1415 L Street, Suite 800 Sacramento, California 95814 Memorandum Summary The California legislature reconvened for the 2025 calendar year of the 2025-2026 legislative session on January 6, 2025. Senator Monique Limon (D, Santa Barbara) was appointed Chair of the Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee, replacing Senator Dave Min, who was elected to the House of Representatives. Senator Maria Elena Durazo (D, Los Angeles) retained her position as chair of the Senate Local Government Committee. Assemblymembers Diane Papan (D, San Mateo) and Juan Carrillo (D, Palmdale) retained their chair positions of the Assembly Water, Parks, and Wildlife Committee and Assembly Local Government Committee, respectively. With the term-limited former Senate President pro-Tempore and now gubernatorial candidate Toni Atkins not being able to run for reelection in November, Dr. Akilah Weber Pierson was elected to succeed her in the Senate, being elevated from the State Assembly. For the 2025 session, legislators in both houses became subject to a new two-year limit of 35 bills each, with the Senate reducing its limit from 40 and the Assembly from 50. There were 2,350 bills introduced by the February 21 bill introduction deadline. With the bill-introduction deadline behind us and the spot bill amendment deadline fast approaching on March 17, we can now anticipate this year's legislative and regulatory priorities for the Otay Water District. 1. Water Affordability Otay’s identified top priority for last year’s session was affordability, a key issue addressed with proposals to protect water rates and service-related fees and charges against costly Proposition 218 litigation and proposals to implement low-income household rate assistance (LIRA) programs. With the results of the national and statewide elections in November largely focused on affordability and cost of living, resulting in losses to the Democratic supermajorities in the legislature, California’s legislative leadership has made many announcements about the need to focus on the issue this session. Two bills have been introduced in the water space. •SB 350 (Durazo): Water Rate Assistance Program. o Would establish the Water Rate Assistance Program and create a corresponding fund in the State Treasury to help low-income residents with drinking water and wastewater DATE: March 10, 2025 TO: Board of Directors and General Manager Jose Martinez, Otay Water District FROM: Baltazar Cornejo, Policy Advisor, Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLC RE: 2025 Anticipated Legislative and Regulatory Priorities Attachment D 2 services. The state board would be tasked with managing this fund separately, creating guidelines for the program's implementation, and producing an annual performance report. The guidelines would include eligibility requirements, such as self-certification under penalty of perjury, making it subject to legal accountability. The bill would allow the Attorney General to enforce compliance with its provisions, with no state reimbursement required for local agencies under this act, following certain statutory procedures. Senator Durazo is the same author who last year introduced a problematic opt out bill impacting local agencies. The Community Water Center sponsors this bill, and the Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA) adopted an oppose unless amended position due to concerns about lack of funding and the program being housed in the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) as opposed to the Department of Community Serves and Development. •AB 532 (Ransom): Water rate assistance program. o Would require, upon appropriation by the Legislature, the Department of Community Services and Development to establish and administer the California Low Income Household Water Assistance Program to provide water-rate assistance to residential ratepayers of community water systems with under 3,000 connections or water systems serving predominantly disadvantaged communities, as specified, and would clarify the statutory authority for urban retail water suppliers, defined as systems serving 3,000 or more connections, to run low-income water rate assistance programs within their communities. ACWA adopted a Favor Position as the bill would clarify state law to allow public water systems to establish LIRA programs and create a state-run LIRA program for certain systems, which they argue is a positive step in the right direction. 2.State Budget Funding On January 10, as required by California’s Constitution, Governor Gavin Newsom unveiled his proposed $322.2 billion state budget for the 2025-26 fiscal year (FY), projecting a small surplus of $363 million after two years of state budget deficits. However, it is important to note that the Newsom administration developed this proposal before the southern California wildfires, and it does not take into account the costs associated with recovery and delayed Internal Revenue Service and Franchise Tax Board collections due to tax filing deadline extensions. Furthermore, the proposed budget does not consider future Trump administration policies, such as the impact of tariffs on international trade and the stock market on state revenues. It also does not consider future potential federal cuts to domestic programs that the state would likely attempt to backfill. In regard to water, the Newsom administration proposes to allocate some funding from November’s voter-approved climate bond (Proposition 4) and shift some current general fund (GF) allocations to bond funding to assist in balancing the budget, such as shifting dam safety and recycled water to bond funding. ACWA is advocating to maintain funding for water and climate issues. Below is a list of those proposed actions. 3 The governor proposes allocating $1.074 billion of the bond’s total $3.8 billion for safe drinking water, drought, flood, and water resilience funding during the 2025-26 FY, which includes: •$231.5 million for Dam Safety and Climate Resilience •$183.2 million for Water Quality, Safe Drinking Water, and Tribal Water Infrastructure •$173.1 million for Flood Management Projects •$153.4 million for Water Reuse and Recycling •$173.5 million to improve water storage, replenish groundwater, improve conditions in streams and rivers, and complete various water resilience projects and programs. The problematic proposals include shifting to the climate bond from the general fund, $47 million for dam safety, and $51 million for water recycling, which is not what voters had in mind when voting for additional money for these purposes in November. ACWA, together with a coalition that includes the California Municipal Utilities Association (CMUA), San Diego County Water Authority, WateReuse CA, Southern California Water Coalition, California Association of Sanitation Agencies (CASA), and others, are advocating for the rejection of these proposals. 3. Wildfire Prevention & Emergency Management The recent devastating Southern California wildfires have resulted in a multitude of bills being introduced on this subject. In response, ACWA developed a dedicated webpage with resources to assist members impacted by the wildfires and a fact sheet for advocacy purposes, which can be viewed here. Some of the most notable bills introduced in response to these fires are listed below. •AB 367 (Bennett): County of Ventura Fire Suppression. o Would mandate that water districts in Ventura County, supplying water to more than 20 homes in high or very high fire hazard zones, ensure backup power for wells and pumps for at least 24 hours during power outages, unless systems are gravity-fed. The Ventura County Fire Department must conduct annual inspections of these water facilities. Water districts are required to notify the Ventura County Office of Emergency Services. ACWA adopted an oppose unless amended position because the bill would “place costly requirements on water districts without a suitable funding source, which threatens water affordability, and would dictate how trained water professionals operate their systems.” There is also concern that a bill would be introduced or amended to impose these mandates to agencies statewide. •AB 372 (Bennett): Office of Emergency Services: state matching funds: water system infrastructure improvements. o This is an ACWA-favored bill that proposes the creation of the Rural Water Infrastructure for Wildfire Resilience Program within the California Office of Emergency Services (OES), contingent upon funding from a bond act. This program aims to distribute state matching funds to communities in high-fire hazard areas to enhance water system infrastructure. The OES would coordinate with other state entities and develop criteria to prioritize funding distribution to rural communities based on specified criteria. 4 • AB 514 (Petrie Norris): Emergency Water Supplies. o This is an Irvine Ranch-sponsored bill that would declare that it is the established policy of the state to encourage, but not mandate, the development of emergency water supplies by local water suppliers and to support their use during times of drought or unplanned service or supply disruption. The bill would define “emergency water supplies” as water supplies identified in a water shortage contingency plan or drought plan by a local water supplier that have been developed to increase a water supplier’s water supply reliability during a drought or unplanned service or supply disruption and that are in addition to the baseline water supplies the water supplier draws on during non-shortage times to meet water demands within its service area. ACWA has yet to take a position on this bill. • AB 990 (Hadwick): Public water systems: emergency notification plan o Current law mandates that public water systems have an approved emergency notification plan to promptly inform customers of any significant water safety issues. This bill would authorize public water systems to notify users in their preferred language when updating these emergency plans if resources permit. ACWA has yet to take a position on this bill. • AB 1075 (Bryan): Fire protection: privately contracted firefighters: public water sources o Existing law assigns the Office of Emergency Services the responsibility for emergency and disaster responses and runs the FIRESCOPE program, enhancing multi-agency firefighting efficiency. The office collaborates with the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFire) and FIRESCOPE's board to set standards for private fire prevention resources during active fires. This new bill mandates the office to create regulations that prevent privately contracted firefighters from using public water sources. ACWA has yet to take a position on this bill. 4. Drinking Water Quality & State Mandates Regarding lead, on Oct. 8 of last year, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) announced its final rule on lead and copper concerning drinking water. Drinking water systems will have 10 years to identify and remove all lead pipes in their respective systems. The rules require additional testing of drinking water supplies, lower action thresholds, require more communications at the community level, and come with an announcement of $2.6 billion companion funding for lead pipe replacements through the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund and at least $15 billion through the Biden-Harris Bipartisan Infrastructure Act. With the transition into the Trump administration, new USEPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has asked a court to pause legal proceedings on the rule as the Trump administration evaluates the regulation. The USEPA is requesting a 60-day pause on legal proceedings to allow time for the new administration to “get up to speed on the rule.” 5 In regard to PFAS, on April 10 of last year, the USEPA announced a new national maximum contaminant level (MCL) of 4 parts per trillion (ppt) for perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorinated alkylated substances (PFOS) as individual contaminants and a standard of 10 ppt for three other chemicals — perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA), perfluorohexane sulfonic acid (PFHxs), and hexafluoropropylene oxide dimer acid (HFPO-DA). This enforceable rule requires public water systems to monitor these PFAS, notify the public of the levels of these PFAS, and reduce levels in drinking water if they exceed the MCL. Public agencies have five years to come into compliance. The status of the MCL is now in peril, as there are recent efforts to challenge the federal standards with a new federal administration that could weaken or roll back these protections. On April 5 of last year, the California Office of Environmental Health and Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) adopted public health goals of 0.007 ppt for PFOA and 1.0 ppt for PFOS. A public health goal is a drinking water objective that does not pose a significant health risk. It is not enforceable but is the basis for developing maximum contaminant levels. On February 19, 2025 the SWRCB adopted the Prioritization of Drinking Water Regulations Development for calendar year 2025. The resolution, among other things, directs the Division of Drinking Water to prioritize developing MCLs for per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), disinfection byproducts, arsenic, and n-nitroso-dimethylamine (NDMA), styrene, and cadmium and mercury. Lead and copper rule revisions will also be considered. • AB 794 (Gabriel): California Safe Drinking Water Act: emergency regulations o This bill would expand the SWRCB's authority, allowing it to adopt federal requirements effective January 19, 2025, even if those requirements become less stringent or repealed later. Additionally, the bill would prohibit adopting emergency regulations with less stringent standards and permit more stringent regulations if needed. By January 1, 2026, the SWRCB would be required to adopt an emergency regulation and establish standards for PFAS substances. The bill also details changes to the procedures for adopting public health goals and primary drinking water standards, which ACWA opposes as this bill would bypass that existing process and create a precedent to allow the SWRCB to create drinking water standards, not limited to PFAS, through an emergency regulation. • AB 995 (Caloza): California Safe Drinking Water Act: public water systems: random testing o The California Safe Drinking Water Act mandates the SWRCB to regulate drinking water to ensure public health and authorizes the board to inspect public water systems and access relevant records. This bill would further require the board to implement a program testing water quality by taking random samples from various points within the delivery system to ensure consistent water quality throughout the system. ACWA has yet to take a position on this bill. • SB 454 (McNerney): PFAS mitigation program o An ACWA and CalCities sponsored bill that would establish the PFAS Mitigation Fund within the General Fund to be used by the SWRCB to support initiatives related to 6 reducing PFAS contamination. The SWRCB would be authorized to accept federal and private funding, which would be deposited into a specific PFAS reduction account and used to continuously finance the initiatives. Funds from this account would be able to be provided as grants, loans, or contracts to aid water suppliers and wastewater operators to assist in covering costs associated with ensuring drinking water meets state and federal PFAS standards. To qualify for these funds, water suppliers or operators must demonstrate a clear plan for using them to enhance public safety related to drinking water or treated wastewater. •SB 724 (Richardson): Public water systems: public housing: lead testing o Would mandate public water systems, including those servicing public housing, to inform residents about any available programs offering free lead testing of their water. 5. Local Control (Government Flexibility, Labor Mandates, and Fee Constraints) Each session, there are numerous bills introduced to either provide local agencies with more much- needed flexibility, or bills sponsored by labor organizations seeking to place additional mandates. There has also been a pattern that the legislature has developed to propose legislation that would limit capacity and connection fees in regard to housing development. While no bills have been identified yet on that issue, below are bills that would benefit the agency or place additional labor mandates. •AB 259 (Rubio): Open meetings o Current law authorizes, until January 1, 2026, members of a legislative body of a local agency to use teleconferencing without identifying each teleconference location in the notice and agenda of the meeting, and without making each teleconference location accessible to the public, under specified conditions and with limits on the number of times individual governing body members utilize teleconferencing each year. This is a California Special District Association (CSDA)-sponsored bill that ACWA supports as it would remove the sunset clause and make these teleconferencing provisions permanent. •SB 239 (Arreguin): Open meetings: teleconferencing: subsidiary body o This is an ACWA-favored bill sponsored by California State Association of Counties (CSAC) to allow subsidiary bodies to use alternative teleconferencing provisions, requiring public notice, agenda posting, and camera visibility during meetings accessible online. It would also mandate listing remote participants in meeting minutes and requires initial and annual authorization by majority vote. A 2/3 approval is needed for subsidiary bodies to use these provisions, which do not apply to bodies overseeing police, elections, or budgets. Elected officials on such bodies must meet specific agenda and quorum standards, and any recommendations must be presented to the parent legislative body. Subsidiary bodies would be defined as serving exclusively in an advisory capacity and not authorized to take final action on legislation, regulations, contracts, licenses, grants, permits, or other entitlements. 7 •SB 441 (Hurtado): California Air Resources Board (CARB): membership: removal: regulations: review o This bill would allow the Legislature to remove CARB board members for dereliction of duty, corruption, or incompetence through a majority vote. The bill would also mandate that any proposed regulation costing over $10 million undergo independent economic analysis by the Legislative Analyst. It would require them to respond publicly to this analysis 30 days before adopting the regulation. Additionally, final versions of regulations and related documents would need to be published online 72 hours prior to voting, with no changes allowed afterward. •AB 339 (Ortega): Local public employee organizations: notice requirements o This bill would mandate that public agencies provide at least 120 days written notice to employee organizations before issuing service contracts related to the job classifications they represent. This notice would need to include details such as the contract duration. In emergencies preventing the standard notice, as much advance notice as possible would need to be given. If the employee organization requests to negotiate within 30 days of the notice, the agency would need to meet promptly and in good faith. ACWA adopted a Not Favor position as it “would reduce the flexibility of water agencies to contract for services and work with community partners as needed to continue to provide public services.” •AB 340 (Ahres): Employer-employee relations: confidential communications o Existing laws prohibit employers from actions like imposing reprisals, discriminating, or interfering with employees' rights related to employee organizations. These laws also ensure that employee organizations are granted their legal rights. This bill would further restrict public employers by prohibiting them from questioning employees or their representatives about confidential communications related to organizational representation. It also prevents employers from forcing the disclosure of these communications to a third party. This prohibition does not apply during criminal investigations or when a public safety officer is being investigated under certain conditions. ACWA has yet to take a position on this bill. •AB 614 (Lee): Claims against public entities o The Government Claims Act sets rules on when claims must be filed against a public entity for its actions or failures that cause harm. Currently, claims related to death, personal injury, property, or crops must be filed within six months of the incident, while other claims have a one-year deadline. This bill would require all types of claims to be filed within one year of the incident, removing the shorter six-month deadline for certain cases. ACWA has yet to take a position on this bill. 6.Advanced Clean Fleets 8 In response to its failure to receive a USEPA Clean Air Act waiver to implement the Advanced Clean Fleets (ACF) regulation before the transition of the Biden Presidential administration to the new Trump administration, the CARB withdrew its waiver request, not enforcing portions of the ACF regulation that would have required federal authorization. However, this is only true for portions that apply to high priority and drayage fleets, and CARB will continue to enforce the state and local fleet requirements that became effective as of January 1, 2024. In response to ACWA’s inquiries into why CARB believes it still has authority to enforce the state and local fleet requirements, CARB stated that it is “not required to request a waiver for state and local fleets under the Federal Clean Air Act.” Furthermore, CARB delayed bringing AB 1594 (Garcia, Chapter 585 Statuses of 2023) Amendments to the Advanced Clean Fleets Regulation for CARB Board approval following stakeholder input. The informal comment docket has been reopened to submit written comments to CARB staff. CARB’s continuous push to enforce these requirements and its slow progress in implementing 2023 legislation intended to provide flexibility to local agencies has resulted in the introduction of additional legislation in this space. Below is one bill supported by public agency organizations. •SB 496 (Hurtado): Advanced Clean Fleets Regulation: appeals advisory committee: exemptions. o This bill would establish the Advanced Clean Fleets Regulation Appeals Advisory Committee to review denied exemption requests. This committee will include representatives from various governmental and nongovernmental organizations and meet monthly. Meeting recordings and relevant information about appeals will be available on CARB’s website. The committee must recommend a decision on appeals within 60 days, and CARB will be required to address these recommendations publicly within 60 days. Additionally, the bill expands the emergency vehicle exemption and modifies requirements under the ACF Regulation. It also alters the conditions for daily- usage exemptions and restricts the CARB from requiring documentation of zero- emission vehicle purchase agreements for certain compliance extensions. This bill is cosponsored by CSDA, the League of California Cities, CSAC, and the Rural County Representatives of California. 7.Water Supply & Management Last year saw much needed progress in water supply and management efforts throughout the state. On Dec. 10, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California’s (MWD) board approved $142 million to fund its share of environmental planning and preconstruction costs for the Delta Conveyance Project (DCP) in 2026 and 2027. MWD was later joined by Santa Clara County’s Valley Water District, whose Board in mid-January approved $9.69 million for the DCP planning and design costs for 2026-2027. On February 28, 2025, the SWRCB released a Third Amended Notice of Public Hearing and Procedural Ruling regarding Department of Water Resources’ (DWR) pending Petitions for Change of Water Rights Permits associated with the State Water Project, with public hearings scheduled in late March until early June. Additionally, in mid-February, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) issued to DWR a required Incidental Take Permit for the DCP, which includes “measures to minimize, avoid, and fully mitigate impacts on threatened or endangered species as a 9 result of the construction, operation, and maintenance of the DCP.” Water supply and management- related legislation has been introduced. Below are some of the most notable. •AB 269 (Bennett): Dam Safety and Climate Resilience Local Assistance Program. o This bill would include removing project facilities as additional projects eligible to receive funding under the Dam Safety and Climate Resilience Local Assistance Program. ACWA is opposed as any money that has been allocated for dam safety needs to be used solely for projects that are already eligible for funding under the Dam Safety and Climate Resilience Local Assistance Program, and dam removal projects have other sources of funding available to them. •SB 394 (Allen): Retail water theft. o This ACWA-sponsored bill expands the list of actionable offenses for utilities to include tampering with or diverting water from fire hydrants without authorization and using them for non-firefighting purposes. It broadens the presumption of violation to cover unauthorized use of fire hydrants without paying for water. Moreover, existing law allows local agencies providing water services to enact ordinances against water theft, imposing fines on violators. Currently, fines escalate for repeat offenses within one year; however, the bill alters this to impose fines for any third or further violations regardless of the time frame. The bill also enables local agencies to create ordinances against unauthorized hydrant connections, outlining a fine schedule while preventing these agencies from imposing fines under both water theft and unauthorized hydrant connection ordinances for the same offense. •SB 72 (Caballero) – California Water Plan Long-Term Supply Targets. o This is an ACWA-supported bill that is nearly identical to SB 366 (Caballero from last year, which Otay supported but was vetoed by the Governor. DWR is mandated by law to update "The California Water Plan" every five years. This plan addresses the management and use of the state's water resources. Current requirements involve discussing various water strategies like new storage facilities, conservation, recycling, desalination, and transfers. DWR must also have an advisory committee for plan updates. This bill would revise the plan's provisions, requiring the expansion of the advisory committee to include representatives from tribes, labor, and environmental justice groups. For the 2033 update, DWR must revise the 2050-interim planning target, considering sustainable water needs for urban, agricultural, and environmental sectors and ensuring safe drinking water for all. The plan will need to include detailed cost- benefit analyses of recommended projects to meet water supply targets. Additionally, DWR would be required to report updates to the Legislature and conduct public workshops for feedback from interested parties. 8. Water Recycling & Reuse 10 Last year, the Office of Administrative Law (OAL) approved the direct potable reuse regulations that were adopted by the SWRCB on December 19, 2023 in furtherance of Governor Newsom’s Water Supply Strategy 2030 goal of recycling and reusing 800,000 acre-feet of water and 2040 goal of recycling and reusing 1.8 million acre-feet of water. A notable bill introduced about recycled water is listed below. •AB 628 (Rodriguez): Stormwater: reuses: irrigation o The Stormwater Resource Planning Act allows public agencies to create plans for capturing stormwater and dry weather runoff, following specific standards. SWRCB was initially mandated to issue guidance by July 1, 2016. This bill extends this responsibility, requiring updated guidance by June 1, 2026, specifically for stormwater capture and reuse in irrigating urban public lands, with a focus on using captured stormwater to reduce potable water usage and will include criteria on pathogens, pathogen indicators, and total suspended solids. ACWA has yet to take a position on this bill. •SB 31 (McNerney): Recycled Water. o This is a California WateReuse-sponsored bill that would update Title 22 to expand the use of recycled water for nonpotable purposes. Title 22 for nonpotable uses of recycled water has not been updated in 20 years. The outdated regulations discourage using recycled water in certain spaces like landscape irrigation by homeowners’ associations, decorative bodies of water, public parks, and food handling facilities. ACWA adopted a favor position as this bill updates Title 22 to expand opportunities for nonpotable uses of recycled water, such as in the aforementioned cases. 9. Water Conservation and Water-Use Efficiency The SWRCB received approval from the OAL for the Making Conservation a California Way of Life regulation on Oct. 22 of last year. The board released the Water Use Objective Reporting form and guidance documents on the Resources for Urban Water Suppliers webpage. Urban retail water suppliers were required to submit their reporting form to the SWRCB by January 1, 2025, and annually thereafter. A few bills listed below have been introduced regarding water efficiency. •AB 1203 (Ahrens): Water conservation: water-wise designation o This bill would mandate a statewide "water-wise" designation to be included in the Save Our Water Campaign, recognizing Commercial, Industrial, and Institutional (CII)- sector businesses that adhere to or surpass recommended best water management practices. •SB 614 (Stern): Potable Water: nonfunctional turf o The existing law prohibits the use of potable water for nonfunctional turf in common areas of homeowners' associations and similar entities starting January 1, 2029. This bill proposes to move that prohibition up by one year. 10.Water Rights 11 This year has already seen the reintroduction of water rights legislation problematic to ACWA member agencies, and it is now advocating on two water rights bills nearly identical to legislation from last year. •AB 263 (Rogers): Scott River: Shasta River: watersheds. o Would keep in place emergency regulations adopted by the SWRCB for the Scott River and Shasta River watersheds until permanent rules implementing long-term instream flow requirements are adopted. ACWA adopted an oppose position because it would set a precedent for extending emergency regulations instead of following established processes for emergency regulations in times of drought. •AB 362 (Ramos): Water policy: California tribal communities. o Would define “tribal water uses,” designate them as a beneficial use of water, and allow tribal water uses to be a primary factor in determining the highest water quality that is reasonable in all regulatory decisions. ACWA has adopted an oppose unless- amended position. Otay Water District Anticipated Legislative and Regulatory Priorities for 2025 Presented by: Baltazar Cornejo Policy Advisor March 18, 2025 ATTACHMENT E © 2021 Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP www.bhfs.com | Legislative Update •Legislature reconvened on January 6, 2025. •For the 2025 Session, legislators in both houses became subject to a new 2-year limit of 35 bills each, with the Senate reducing its limit from 40 and the Assembly from 50. There were 2,350 bills introduced by the February 21 bill introduction deadline. With the bill introduction behind us and the spot bill amendment deadline fast approaching on March 17, we can now anticipate the legislative and regulatory priorities for Otay Water District for this year. . •Key Legislative Deadlines: —January 10 –Governor’s Budget Proposal —February 21 –Bill Introduction deadline —May 14 –May Revision of the January Budget (“May Revise”) —June 6 –Last day for each house pass bills introduced in that house. (“House of Origin Deadline”). —June 15 –Budget must be passed by midnight —September 12 –Deadline to pass bills out of Legislature. (“Final Recess upon Adjournment of Session”) —October 12 –Last day for Governor to sign or veto bills passed on or before September 1 2 © 2021 Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP www.bhfs.com | 1. Affordability Water Rate Assistance Program Legislation With the results of the national and statewide elections in November largely focused on affordability and cost of living, resulting in losses to the Democratic supermajorities in the legislature, California’s legislative leadership has made many announcements about the need to focus on the issue this session. Two bills have been introduced in the water space. SB 350 (Durazo): Water Rate Assistance Program. Would establish the Water Rate Assistance Program to help low-income residents with drinking water and wastewater services. The state board would be tasked with managing this fund separately, creating guidelines for the program's implementation that include eligibility requirements, such as self-certification under penalty of perjury, making it subject to legal accountability. Would allow the Attorney General to enforce compliance with its provisions, This bill is sponsored by the Community Water Center and ACWA adopted an OPPOSE unless Amended position due to concerns about lack of funding and the program being housed in the State Water Board as opposed to the Dept. of Community Serves & Development. AB 532 (Ransom): Water rate assistance program. Would require, upon appropriation by the Legislature, the Department of Community Services and Development to establish and administer the California Low Income Household Water Assistance Program to provide water rate assistance to residential ratepayers of community water systems with under 3,000 connections, or water systems serving predominantly disadvantaged communities, as specified, and would clarify the statutory authority for urban retail water suppliers, defined as systems serving 3,000 or more connections, to run low-income water rate assistance programs within their communities. ACWA adopted a Favor Position as the bill. 3 © 2021 Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP www.bhfs.com | 2. State Budget Funding •On January 10 - Governor Gavin Newsom unveiled his proposed $322.2 billion state budget for the 2025-26 fiscal year (FY), projecting a small surplus of $363 million after two years of state budget deficits. •Developed before southern California wildfires and it does not take into account the costs associated with recovery and delayed Internal Revenue Service and Franchise Tax Board collections due to tax filing deadline extensions. •Does not consider future Trump administration policies, such as the impact of tariffs on international trade and the stock market on state revenues. It also does not take into account future potential federal cuts to domestic programs that the state would likely attempt to backfill. •Proposes to allocate some funding from November’s voter-approved climate bond (Proposition 4) and shift some current general fund (GF) allocations to bond funding to assist in balancing the budget, including problematic proposals such as shifting to the climate bond from the general fund $47 million for dam safety, and $51 million for water recycling. •The governor proposes to allocate $1.074 billion of the bond’s total $3.8 billion for safe drinking water, drought, flood and water resilience funding during the 2025-’26 FY, which include: —$231.5 million for Dam Safety and Climate Resilience —$183.2 million for Water Quality, Safe Drinking Water and Tribal Water Infrastructure —$173.1 million for Flood Management Projects —$153.4 million for Water Reuse and Recycling —$173.5 million to improve water storage, replenish groundwater, improve conditions in streams and rivers, and complete various water resilience projects and programs. 4 © 2021 Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP www.bhfs.com | 3. Wildfire Prevention & Emergency Management The recent devastating Southern California wildfires has resulted in a multitude of bills being introduced on this subject. Some of the most notable bills introduced in response to these fires are listed below. AB 367 (Bennett): County of Ventura Fire Suppression. Would mandates that water districts in Ventura County providing water to over 20 homes in high or very high fire hazard zones ensure backup power for wells and pumps for at least 24 hours during power outages, with annual inspections by the Ventura County Fire Department, while requiring districts to notify the county. ACWA opposes it unless amended, citing concerns over costly requirements, potential threats to water affordability, and possible statewide implementation. AB 372 (Bennett): Office of Emergency Services: state matching funds: water system infrastructure improvements. This ACWA-supported bill proposes creating the Rural Water Infrastructure for Wildfire Resilience Program within the OES, contingent upon bond act funding, to distribute state matching funds to high fire hazard rural communities to improve water system infrastructure, with OES coordinating with other state entities to prioritize funding based on specified criteria. AB 514 (Petrie Norris): Emergency Water Supplies. This Irvine Ranch-sponsored bill declares it as state policy to encourage, but not mandate, local water suppliers to develop emergency water supplies, defined as those identified in a water shortage contingency or drought plan to enhance supply reliability during droughts or service disruptions, with ACWA yet to take a position on the bill. AB 990 (Hadwick): Public water systems: emergency notification plan This bill would authorize public water systems to notify customers in their preferred language when updating emergency notification plans, if resources permit, as required by current law, which mandates such systems to have an approved plan for informing users of significant water safety issues, with ACWA yet to take a position. AB 1075 (Bryan): Fire protection: privately contracted firefighters: public water sources This bill would mandate the Office of Emergency Services to create regulations preventing privately contracted firefighters from using public water sources,, with ACWA yet to take a position. 5 © 2021 Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP www.bhfs.com | 4. Drinking Water Quality Mandates Federal Lead and Copper Rule •Approved last year by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), but being reviewed by Trump Administration officials. Federal PFAS MCL •Approved last year but concerns by legislators about Trump Administration efforts to roll back. California Regulatory Developments •Last year, the CA Office of Environmental Health and Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) adopted public health goals of 0.007 ppt for perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and 1.0 ppt for (perfluorinated alkylated substances) PFOS. •On February 19, the State Water Board adopted their prioritization of drinking water regulations development for calendar Year 2025. The resolution, among other things, directs the Division of Drinking Water to prioritize developing maximum contaminant levels (MCLs) for per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), disinfection byproducts, arsenic, and n-nitroso- dimethylamine (NDMA), styrene, and cadmium and mercury. Lead and copper rule revisions will also be considered. Legislation Introduced: AB 794 (Gabriel): California Safe Drinking Water Act: emergency regulations Would expand the Water Resources Control Board's authority to adopt federal requirements for drinking water standards, including PFAS, even if they become less stringent, bypassing the existing process, which ACWA opposes. AB 995 (Caloza): California Safe Drinking Water Act: public water systems: random testing Would require the State Water Board to implement a program for random water quality testing at various points in public water systems to ensure consistent quality, with ACWA yet to take a position. 6 © 2021 Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP www.bhfs.com | SB 454 (McNerney): PFAS mitigation program An ACWA and CalCities sponsored bill that would establish the PFAS Mitigation Fund within the General Fund, allowing the State Water Board to support PFAS reduction initiatives through grants, loans, and contracts for water suppliers and wastewater operators, with funding from federal and private sources. SB 724 (Richardson): Public water systems: public housing: lead testing Would mandate public water systems, including those servicing public housing, to inform residents about any available programs offering free lead testing for their water. 7 © 2021 Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP www.bhfs.com | 5. Local Control (Gov’t Flexibility, Labor Mandates, & Fee Constraints Numerous bills introduced each session to either provide local agencies with more much needed flexibility, or on the other hand seeking to place additional labor mandates, and limit capacity and connection fees for additional housing developments. AB 259 (Rubio): Open meetings Would make teleconferencing provisions for local agencies permanent by removing the sunset clause, allowing members to use teleconferencing without identifying each location or making it publicly accessible. This is a CSDA sponsored bill that ACWA supports. SB 239 (Arreguin): Open meetings: teleconferencing: subsidiary body An ACWA favored bill sponsored by CSAC which would allow subsidiary bodies to use alternative teleconferencing provisions with public notice, camera visibility, and remote participant listings, requiring majority and 2/3 votes for authorization. SB 441 (Hurtado): State Air Resources Board: membership: removal: regulations: review Would allow the Legislature to remove CARB board members for dereliction of duty or incompetency and require independent economic analysis of regulations costing over $10 million, with responses to the analysis before adoption. AB 339 (Ortega): Local public employee organizations: notice requirements Would require public agencies to provide at least 120 days' notice to employee organizations before issuing service contracts, with ACWA opposing it due to concerns over reduced flexibility for water agencies. AB 340 (Ahres): Employer-employee relations: confidential communications Would further restrict public employers by prohibiting questioning employees or their representatives about confidential communications related to organizational representation, with ACWA yet to take a position. AB 614 (Lee): Claims against public entities Would extend the claims filing deadline against public entities from six months to one year for all types of claims, eliminating the shorter deadline for certain cases, with ACWA yet to take a position. 8 © 2021 Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP www.bhfs.com | 6. Advanced Clean Fleets Failure of CARB to receive Clean Air Act waiver by USEPA to fully implement ACF Regulation before transition from Biden administration to Trump administration. CARB argues that it retains authority to implement ACF for state and local fleets. CARB delaying AB 1594 (Garcia, Chapter 585 Statuses of 2023) amendments to the ACF regulation. CARB’s continuous push to enforce these requirements and its slow progress in implementing 2023 legislation to intended to provide flexibility to local agencies, has resulted in the introduction of additional legislation in this space. SB 496 (Hurtado): Advanced Clean Fleets Regulation: appeals advisory committee: exemptions. Would establish the Advanced Clean Fleets Regulation Appeals Advisory Committee to review denied exemption requests, require CARB to address the committee’s recommendations within 60 days, and expand the emergency vehicle exemption while modifying daily usage exemption conditions, with support from several California organizations.. This bill is cosponsored by the California Special Districts Association, the League of California Cities, California State Association of Counties, and the Rural County Representatives of California. 9 © 2021 Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP www.bhfs.com | 7. Water Supply Management Delta Conveyance Project •On December 10, Metropolitan Water District of Southern CA’s (MWD) board approved $142 million to fund its share of environmental planning and pre-construction costs for the Delta Conveyance Project (DCP) in 2026 and 2027. •MWD was later joined by Santa Clara County’s Valley Water District whose Board in mid-January approved $9.69 million for DCP planning and design costs for 2026-27. •On February 28, the State Water Board released a Third Amended Notice of Public Hearing and Procedural Ruling regarding DWR’s pending Petitions for Change of Water Rights Permits associated with the State Water Project, with public hearings scheduled late March until early June. •In mid-February, the CA Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) issued to DWR a required Incidental Take Permit for the DCP, which includes “measures to minimize, avoid, and fully mitigate impacts on threatened or endangered species as a result of the construction, operation, and maintenance of the DCP.” Water supply and management related legislation has been introduced: AB 269 (Bennett): Dam Safety and Climate Resilience Local Assistance Program. Would add the removal of project facilities to the list of eligible projects for funding under the Dam Safety and Climate Resilience Local Assistance Program, which ACWA opposes. SB 394 (Allen): Retail water theft. An ACWA-sponsored bill that expands offenses for utilities to include tampering with or diverting water from fire hydrants for non-firefighting purposes, alters fine structures for repeated violations, and enables local agencies to create ordinances against unauthorized hydrant connections with a fine schedule. SB 72 (Caballero) – CA Water Plan Long-Term Supply Targets. An ACWA-supported bill requiring the DWR to expand its advisory committee for the CA Water Plan to include tribes, labor, and environmental justice groups, and revise the 2050 interim planning target for sustainable water needs in urban, agricultural, and environmental sectors, with detailed cost-benefit analyses and public input. 10 © 2021 Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP www.bhfs.com | 8. Water Recycling & Reuse Last year the Office of Administrative Law (OAL) approved the direct potable reuse regulations that were adopted by the State Water Board in Dec. 2023 in furtherance of Governor Newsom’s Water Supply Strategy 2030 goal of recycling and reusing 800,000 acre-feet of water, and 2040 goal of recycling and reusing 1.8 million acre-feet of water. Notable bills introduced on the subject of recycled water and reuse are listed below: AB 628 (Rodriguez): Stormwater: reuses: irrigation Would extend the State Water Board's responsibility to issue updated guidance by June 1, 2026, on stormwater capture and reuse for irrigating urban public lands, focusing on reducing potable water usage and including criteria on pathogens and total suspended solids, with ACWA yet to take a position. SB 31 (McNerney): Recycled Water. A CA WateReuse sponsored bill that updates Title 22 regulations to expand the use of recycled water for non-potable purposes, such as irrigation for homeowners' associations and public parks, which ACWA supports. 11 © 2021 Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP www.bhfs.com | 9. Water Conservation & Water Use Efficiency State Water Board received approval from the OAL for the Making Conservation a California Way of Life regulation on October 22 of last year. The board has released Water Use Objective Reporting form and guidance documents on the Resources for Urban Water Suppliers webpage. Urban retail water suppliers are required to submit their reporting form to the State Water Board by January 1, 2025, and annually thereafter. Below are bills introduced regarding water efficiency. AB 1203 (Ahrens): Water conservation: water wise designation Would mandate a statewide "water wise" designation, to be included in the Save Our Water Campaign, recognizing CII sector businesses that adhere to or surpass recommended best water management practices. SB 614 (Stern): Potable Water: nonfunctional turf Existing law will prohibit the use of potable water for nonfunctional turf in common areas of homeowners' associations and similar entities starting January 1, 2029. This bill proposes to move that prohibition up by one year. 12 © 2021 Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP www.bhfs.com | 10. Water Rights This year has already seen the reintroduction of water rights legislation problematic to ACWA member agencies, and it is now advocating on two water rights bills nearly identical to legislation from last year. AB 263 (Rogers): Scott River: Shasta River: watersheds. Would keep in place emergency regulations adopted by the State Water Resources Control Board for the Scott River and Shasta River watersheds until permanent rules implementing long-term instream flow requirements are adopted. ACWA adopted an oppose position because it would set precedent for extending emergency regulations in place of following established processes for emergency regulations in times of drought. AB 362 (Ramos): Water policy: California tribal communities. Would define “tribal water uses,” designate them as a beneficial use of water and allow tribal water uses to be a primary factor in determining the highest water quality that is reasonable in all regulatory decisions. ACWA has adopted an oppose unless-amended position. 13 Questions? Baltazar Cornejo bcornejo@bhfs.com (916) 594-9705 1 STAFF REPORT TYPE MEETING: Regular Board Meeting MEETING DATE: April 2, 2025 SUBMITTED BY: Tenille M. Otero PROJECT: Various DIV. NO. All APPROVED BY: Jose Martinez, General Manager SUBJECT: Water Conservation Garden Authority (WCA) Joint Powers Agreement (JPA) Update GENERAL MANAGER’S RECOMMENDATION: No recommendation. This is an informational item only. COMMITTEE ACTION: See Attachment A. PURPOSE: To provide the board with an update on the Water Conservation Garden Authority (WCA) Joint Powers Agreement (JPA). ANALYSIS: The Water Conservation Garden is governed by the Water Conservation Authority (WCA), which was originally established by a 1992 JPA. The Otay Water District became a member of the WCA in 1992. Additional members are the Helix Water District, the City of San Diego, the San Diego County Water Authority, Sweetwater Authority, and the Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District. The JPA requires each member to make an annual funding contribution to support the operation of the Garden. The JPA board discussed options for continued funding and operation of the Garden at its January and February 2025 board meetings. At the WCA’s January meeting, the WCA directed its legal counsel to develop a draft Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that could facilitate continued funding and operation of the Garden past June 30, 2025. The draft MOU is expected to be brought to the JPA board at its late March 2025 meeting. In addition, the WCA directed its members to seek direction from their respective agencies in February and March on their intent to continue participation in the Garden. The San Diego County Water Authority staff and Lauren Magnuson, director of Garden operations, provided an update to the Water Authority board at its Water Planning Committee meeting on February 27, 2025, as an AGENDA ITEM 4 2 informational item. Water Conservation Garden staff are expecting direction from the member agencies on their continued participation at the next WCA meeting in late March 2025 so the WCA and Garden staff can plan appropriately for budget development or transitioning the Garden back to the Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District. All JPA members, except Cuyamaca College, since their contribution is the land, submitted intent letters to withdraw from the Water Conservation Garden JPA in accordance with Article 17 of the Amended and Restated Joint Powers Agreement Creating the Water Conservation Garden Authority, dated July 18, 2019 (Attachment A). The Otay Water District submitted its letter of intent to withdraw from the Water Conservation JPA on July 30, 2024 (Attachment B). If the District and other WCA members do not rescind their notices before they take effect on July 1, 2025, the District, along with others, will waive and release all rights to or interests in any assets owned, operated, or controlled by the Water Conservation Garden Authority effective that date. Also, as a previous action, on May 22, 2023, the JPA board approved a one-year extension to the Operation Agreement between the Water Conservation Garden Authority and the Friends of the Water Conservation Garden (IRS 501(c)(3)) for the continued operation and maintenance of the Water Conservation Garden through June 30, 2024 (Attachment C). Various options that have been discussed among the WCA include the following: 1) Fund the Water Conservation Garden for 12 more months (amount tobe determined).2) Fund the Water Conservation Garden for 24 more months (amount tobe determined).3) Do nothing, and the District’s letter to withdraw stands. FISCAL IMPACT: Joe Beachem, Chief Financial Officer None. STRATEGIC GOAL: Enhance customer and community engagement to increase public awareness of the water industry and the District while continuing to provide superior customer service. LEGAL IMPACT: None. 3 Attachments: A) Committee ActionB) Amended and Restated Joint Powers Agreement Creating the WaterConservation Authority – July 18, 2019 C) Otay Water District’s Withdraw Letter – July 30, 2024D) First Amendment to the Amended and Restated Joint Powers Agreement Creating the Water Conservation Authority – May 2023E)Water Conservation Authority, A Joint Powers AgencyChronological History 4 ATTACHMENT A SUBJECT/PROJECT: Water Conservation Garden Authority (WCA) Joint Powers Agreement (JPA) Update COMMITTEE ACTION: The Conservation, Public Relations, Legal, and Legislative Committee will review these items at its March 18, 2025 meeting. The attachment will be updated with notes from the discussion. Attachment B July 30, 2024 Mark Robak, President Water Conservation Authority 12122 Cuyamaca College Drive W. El Cajon, CA 92019 Subject: Otay Water District Intent to Withdraw from the Water Conservation Authority The Otay Water District has long been a proud champion of the Water Conservation Garden, established to create and maintain a water-efficient demonstration garden that promotes water conservation throughout the San Diego region. In August 1992, the Otay Water District became one of the founding members of the Water Conservation Authority through a joint powers agreement. In 1994, the Otay Water District committed $250,000 to the Water Conservation Garden/Resource Center and has supported it ever since. To enhance the Garden’s financial stability, funding from the Otay Water District and other Joint Power Authority (JPA) members has gradually decreased over the years. The water conservation landscape of today has evolved significantly since 1992, when the formation of the Garden was to serve as a demonstration garden and necessary to help ensure water supply to the region. Currently, the region has secured a surplus of water supplies, but also bears some of the highest water rates in the state. Although water conservation remains a vital practice, justifying the continued expenditure for the Garden has become increasingly challenging in light of the financial impact on Otay’s customers. Therefore, this letter serves as formal notice of the Otay Water District’s intent to withdraw from the Water Conservation Garden Authority in accordance with Article 17 of the Amended and Restated Joint Powers Agreement Creating the Water Conservation Garden Authority, dated July 18, 2019. If the Otay Water District does not rescind this notice before it takes effect on July 1, 2025, the Otay Water District will waive and release all rights to or interests in any assets owned, operated, or controlled by the Water Conservation Garden Authority effective that date. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation as we move forward. Sincerely, Jose Martinez, General Manager Otay Water District cc: Water Conservation Garden Authority Board of Directors Otay Water District Board of Directors Attachment C Attachment D Attachment E 1 STAFF REPORT TYPE MEETING: Regular Board Meeting MEETING DATE: April 2, 2025 SUBMITTED BY: Tenille M. Otero PROJECT: Various DIV. NO. All APPROVED BY: Jose Martinez, General Manager SUBJECT: Authorization for Final Water Conservation Authority (WCA) Invoice Payment for Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 2025 GENERAL MANAGER’S RECOMMENDATION: To authorize the General Manager to remit the remaining Fiscal Year 2024-2025 payment for the WCA Joint Powers Agreement (JPA) in the amount of $46,552.50, for a total annual contribution of $101,105.00. COMMITTEE ACTION: See Attachment A. PURPOSE: To obtain Board approval for the final FY 2024-25 payment to the WCA JPA. ANALYSIS: On June 7, 2024, the WCA Board approved the FY 2025 budget and member agency contribution amounts. The WCA Board also approved a two-installment payment option. The Otay Water District made its first payment of $50,552.50 in August 2024, and this payment represents the second installment, completing the District’s contribution for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2025. The $46,552.50 payment includes a $4,000.00 credit for an overpayment made during the interim funding period (March – June 2024) before establishing the FY 2024-25 budget. During that period, the WCA Board approved an interim contribution of $16,000.00 per member agency, but the District contributed $20,000.00. The $4,000.00 overpayment has been applied as a credit, reducing the second installment accordingly. FISCAL IMPACT: Joe Beachem, Chief Financial Officer The FY 2025 budget includes this amount for the Water Conservation Garden. AGENDA ITEM 5 2 STRATEGIC GOAL: Enhance customer and community engagement to increase public awareness of the water industry and the District while continuing to provide superior customer service. LEGAL IMPACT: None. Attachments: A) Committee Action 3 ATTACHMENT A SUBJECT/PROJECT: Authorization for Final Water Conservation Authority (WCA) Invoice Payment for Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 2025 COMMITTEE ACTION: The Conservation, Public Relations, Legal, and Legislative Committee will review these items at its March 18, 2025 meeting. The attachment will be updated with notes from the discussion.