HomeMy WebLinkAbout03-16-21 CPRLL Committee PacketOTAY WATER DISTRICT
CONSERVATION, PUBLIC RELATIONS, LEGAL & LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE MEETING
and
SPECIAL MEETING OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
BY TELECONFERENCE
2554 SWEETWATER SPRINGS BOULEVARD
SPRING VALLEY, CALIFORNIA
TUESDAY
March 16, 2021
1:00 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 BUT NOT AN ITEM ON TODAY'S AGENDA
This meeting is being held via teleconference. Members of the public may submit their
comments on agendized and non-agendized items by either of the following two meth-
ods:
a) No later than a half hour before the start of the meeting, complete a Request to
Speak Form. Your request to speak will be acknowledged during the “Public
Participation” portion of the meeting when the committee will hear your public
comment. When called to speak, please state your Name and the City in which
you reside. You will be provided three minutes to speak.
OR
b) No later than a half hour before the start of the meeting, email your comment to
BoardSecretary@otaywater.gov and it will be read aloud during the “Public Par-
ticipation” portion of the meeting. Please provide your Name and the City in
which you reside, with your comment. Your comment must not take more than
three minutes to read.
The District’s meeting is live streamed. Information on how to watch and listen to the
District’s meeting can be found at this link: https://otaywater.gov/board-of-
directors/agenda-and-minutes/committee-meetings/
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DISCUSSION ITEMS
3. ADOPT THE 2021 OTAY WATER DISTRICT LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM POLICY
GUIDELINES AND PRIORITIES (OTERO)
4. ADJOURNMENT
BOARD MEMBERS ATTENDING:
Mark Robak, Chair
Ryan Keyes
All items appearing on this agenda, whether or not expressly listed for action, may be delib-
erated and may be subject to action by the Board.
The Agenda, and any attachments containing written information, are available at the Dis-
trict’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 Acting District Secretary at
(619) 670-2253.
If you have any disability that would require accommodation in order to enable you to partici-
pate in this meeting, please call the Acting District Secretary at 670-2253 at least 24 hours
prior to the meeting.
Certification of Posting
I certify that on March 12, 2021 I posted a copy of the foregoing agenda near the regu-
lar 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 12, 2021.
/s/ Tita Ramos-Krogman, Acting District Secretary
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STAFF REPORT
TYPE MEETING:Regular Board Meeting MEETING DATE: April 7, 2021
SUBMITTED BY:Tenille M. Otero PROJECT: Various DIV. NO. All
APPROVED BY: Jose Martinez, General Manager
SUBJECT:2021 Legislative Program Policy Guidelines and Priorities
GENERAL MANAGER’S RECOMMENDATION: That the Board of Directors adopt the 2021 Otay Water District Legislative Program Policy Guidelines and 2021 Top 10 Legislative
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 important issues that could impact the District and/or other local water agencies.
To present to the Board of Directors the 2021 Legislative Program
Priorities, which staff and legislative advocates will proactively monitor and/or act on during the 2021 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. The legislative guidelines are updated annually and/or as needed with the proposed updates presented to the District’s Board of Directors for review, comment, and adoption. The
2021 Legislative Program represents policy guidelines on legislation for the Board’s consideration.
Normally, representatives to 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 go on to be
signed by the governor and become law. These new laws can
AGENDA ITEM 3
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fundamentally affect special districts. The same is true with each session of the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate.
The 2020 legislative session commenced quite differently compared to “normal” years of legislative sessions. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, state and federal representatives were limited on the
number of bills that would be considered. Last year represents the fewest number of bills considered by a governor in many years. The
governor considered 428 bills passed by the legislature. Of those measures, the governor signed 372 bills into law and vetoed 56 bills. The number of bills introduced and considered in 2021 were more
consistent with the number of new bill introductions from previous years, excluding 2020. District staff and its legislative advocates
continue to monitor legislation or issues that could impact the District.
The 2021 Legislative Program establishes guidelines and policy
direction that can be used by staff and legislative advocates when monitoring legislative activity to facilitate actions that can be
taken 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 is a comprehensive program at a wholesale and regional level. District staff has evaluated and carefully chosen
policies and issues from the Water Authority’s guidelines that may have a direct or indirect 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.
The 2021 Legislative Program Policy Guidelines presents staff’s recommendations for the Board’s review and seeks the Board’s feedback for any additional modifications. Staff will then incorporate the
Board’s recommendations into the final document.
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In general, the guidelines look 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 COVID-19, water-use efficiency, recycled water, seawater desalination, capital improvement project development, organization-wide safety and
security, binational cooperation, climate change, and funding, including the equitable distribution of water bond proceeds. These
guidelines also demonstrate the District’s strong and collaborative support and efforts to advocate against a “one-size-fits-all” approach and any unfunded mandates by legislation or regulation.
The proposed redlined 2021 Legislative Program Policy Guidelines are included in Attachment B. Revisions, updates, and recommended
additions are underlined, while deletions are reflected by strikethroughs. 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 the proposed redlined 2021 guidelines presented to the Board in Attachment B, staff made modifications to several sections. Staff
also added the following sections:
• Biological and Habitat Preservation
• Desalination
• Water Quality Issues
• Workforce Development
In addition, staff is presenting the District’s anticipated Top 10 Legislative Priorities for the year (Attachment D). This list highlights, in no particular order, specific 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 Feb. 19, 2021. Typically, lobbyists and legislative staff wait until the last couple of days leading up to the deadline, and then hundreds of bills will be introduced. Based on the bills/issues that were introduced by this year’s deadline, staff worked with the District’s legislative
consultant to develop a list of priority issues for 2021. 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.
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District staff continues 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 District and its staff remain engaged in these issues as they could have an impact on how the District conducts day-to-day
operations and operates and maintains its facilities, thus affecting its ratepayers. FISCAL IMPACT: Joe Beachem, Chief Financial Officer
None. STRATEGIC GOAL: Execute and deliver services that meet or exceed customer
expectations, and increase customer engagement in order to improve District Services. Enhance and build awareness and engagement among the District’s customers and stakeholders and within the San Diego Region about the
District’s strategies, policies, projects, programs, and legislative/regulatory issues. LEGAL IMPACT: None.
Attachments: A) Committee Action
B) Proposed 2021 Otay Water District Legislative Program Policy Guidelines (Redlined) C) Proposed 2021 Otay Water District Legislative Program Policy
Guidelines D) Top 10 Legislative Priorities for 2021
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ATTACHMENT A
SUBJECT/PROJECT:
2021 Legislative Program Policy Guidelines and Priorities
COMMITTEE ACTION:
The Conservation, Public Relations, Legal and Legislative Committee is scheduled to review these items at the monthly Board meeting to be held on March 16, 2021. The attachment will
be updated with notes from the committee’s discussion.
Otay Water District Legislative Program 20192021
1 | Page
Effective Date: 042/076/202119
Legislative Program Policy Guidelines
Purpose
The Otay Water District’s legislative policy guidelines reflect policy positions adopted by the Board of Directors through 20212018. The guidelines provide direction to staff and the 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 San Diego County Water Authority (Water Authority), the
District and other state and other local water agencies, 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 agencies. Otay District staff, including the District’s legislative team, 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 20192021
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Table of Contents
The Otay Water Legislative Policy Program Guidelines for the 2019 2021Legislative Session includes the following categories: I. Binational Issues…………………………………………....……………... Page X3
II. Biological and Habitat Preservation………………………………………Page XX I.III. Desalination……………………………………………………………….. Page X II.IV. Drought Response………………………………………………………… Page X3
III.V. Energy……………………………………………………………………… Page X4 IV.VI. Financial Issues…………………………………………………………… Page X5 A. Fees, Taxes, and Charges………………………….......................... Page 5X
B. Funding…………………………………………………………….. Page X7
C. Rates………………………………………………………………... Page X9 D. Water Bonds……………………………………………………….. Page X9 V.VII. Governance and Local Autonomy……………………………………….. Page 10X
VI.VIII. Imported Water Issues……………………………………………………. Page 11X A. Bay-Delta……………………………………………………………… Page 11X i. Co-equal Goals……………………………………………………. Page 11X ii. Water FixBay-Delta Conveyance
Project………………………………………………………….. Page 12X
B. Metropolitan Water District…………………………………………… Page 12X C. Colorado River………………………………………………………… Page 13X D. State Water Project…………………………………………………….. Page 13X
VII.IX. Optimize District Effectiveness……………………...…………....………. Page 14 X Water Recycling and Potable Reuse……………………………………… Page 14 VIII.X. Safety, Security, and Information Technology……………....................... Page 16 X
XI. Water Quality Issues………………………………………………………. Page XX XII. Water Recycling and Potable Reuse……………………………………… Page XX
IX.XIII. Water Service and Facilities……………………………………………… Page 16X XIV. Water-Use Efficiency……………………………………………………… Page 19X
Otay Water District Legislative Program 20192021
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X.XV. Workforce Development………………………………………………….. Page XX
Otay Water District Legislative Program 20192021
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I. Binational Issues
Support initiatives that: 1. Promote and provide funding for cross-border water supply and infrastructure development projects such as water pipelines, desalination plants or water treatment facilities to serve the San Diego/Baja California border region while protecting local interests. 2. 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. 2.3.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. 3.4.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 ecosystem, rather than individual species. 2. Exempt operation, maintenance, ad 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. Oppose initiatives that:
1. Reduce or limit the use of existing water rights or supplies,
2. Restrict the development of future water supplies.
3. Impose endangered species or habitat conservation requirements that restrict the operation,
maintenance, or repair of public water supply, conveyance, treatment, or storage facilities.
Otay Water District Legislative Program 20192021
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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 protects 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.
II.IV. Drought Response
Support initiatives that:
1. Ensure the District and other local agencies including the Water Authority and San Diego
County water agencies receive the water supply benefits of its investment in local water
supply sources.
2. Allow local agencies to achieve compliance with emergency or non-emergency drought
regulations or objectives through a combination of water conservation measures and
development and implementation of local water supply sources that are not derived from the
Delta.
3. Allow for 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.
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 with respect to their ability to
withstand the impacts and effects of drought.
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III.V. Energy
Support initiatives that:
1. Provide opportunities for reduced energy rates under tariff schedules for the District.
2. Provide protection to the District from energy rate increases and provides rate relief for
member agencies.the District.
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 generation and
acquisition of electrical and natural gas power.
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.
9. Promote the classification of electricity generated by in-line hydroelectric and closed-loop
pumped-energy storage facilities as a clean, environmentally sound, and renewable energy
resource.
10. Promote the expansion of closed-loop pumped-energy storage facilities to provide clean and
environmentally sound energy resource 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. Promote large-scale (greater than 50 MW) pumped storage as counting toward energy storage
procurement targets.
14.13. Provide clear statutory, regulatory, or administrative authority for the San Diego
County Water Authority to wheel acquired or produced power to itself, the DistrictDistrict, or
entities with which the Water Authority is under contract for the purchase, treatment,
transport, or production of water.
15.14. Recognize all grid services that energy storage provides, and supports fair
compensation in the wholesale energy market for such services.
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16.15. Provides timely, efficient, and cost- effective interconnection of new energy resources
such as solar, inline hydroelectric, pumped-energy storage, and other renewable energy
generation or storage technologies to the electric distribution and transmission grid.
17.16. Recognize the value of large-scale hydropower and pumped-energy storage
hydropower facilities in assisting the state to meet its renewable and zero-carbon emission
goals of 100 percent by 2045.
Oppose initiatives that:
1. Adversely affect the cost 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 member public agencies, or 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 the purchase of natural gas and electricity from the United States, the State of
California, and any other public agency or private entity and sell the gas and electricity to any
public agency or private entity engaged in retail sales of electricity and gas.
5. Reduce the District’s ability to maintain high operational efficiency at all timesalways
maintain high operational efficiency.
6. Restrict the District’s ability to expand or improve infrastructure or facilities.
7. Restrict or caps future energy demands needed for possible expansion of recycled water,
potable reuse, and 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 their 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, or 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 new energy
resources, such as solar, inline- hydroelectric, pumped-energy storage, and other renewable
energy generation or storage technologies to the electric distribution and transmission grid.
IV.VI. Financial Issues
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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 for 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. 2. Pre-empt the Water Authority’s or its member agencies’ ability to impose or change rates, charges, fees, or assessments. 3. Weaken the protections afforded the Water Authority or its member agencies under
California’s Proposition 1A (November 2, 2004).
4. Reallocate special districts reserves in an effort 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 San Diego County 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.
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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 in order to create a state fund that can be used to finance undefined future projects and programs. 19. Allow the state to retain more than five percent 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. 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. 2. Provide the Water Authority and its member 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 Water Authority and its member agencies with grant funding for public
facilities.
4.5.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.
5.6.Authorize financing of water quality, water security, and water supply infrastructure
improvement programs.
6.7.Establish spending caps on State of California overhead when administering voter
approved grant and disbursement programs.
7.8.Require disbursement decisions in a manner appropriate to the service in question.
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8.9.Encourage funding infrastructure programs that are currently in place and that have been
proven effective.
9.10. Provide financial incentives for energy projects that increase reliability, diversity, and
reduce greenhouse gasses. 10.11. Continue energy rate incentives for the utilization of electricity during low-peak periods. 11.12. Provide loan or grant programs that encourage water conservation for water users who are least able to pay for capital projects.
12.13. Provide for population-based distribution of IRWM funds to ensure adequate distribution of grant funding throughout the state. 13.14. 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. 14.15. Improve and streamline the state’s reimbursement process to ensure timely remittance
of IRWM funds.
15.16. Promote the ability of the Regional Water Management Group to more directly administer state grant funds specifically identified for IRWM Programs. 16.17. Require the state to rely on the local process for selection and ranking of projects included in an approved IRWM plan.
17.18. Provide funding or other incentives for conservation, peak management programs,
water recycling, potable reuse, groundwater recovery and recharge, 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.
18.19. Provide financial incentives to assist in the disposal of concentrate, sludge, and other
byproducts created in the water treatment process. 19.20. 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.
20.21. Provide funding for potable reuse demonstration projects and studies.
21.22. 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. 22.23. Provide state and/or federal funding for the restoration of the Salton Sea.
23.24. 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. 25. 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.
26. Permit the use of grant funding for projects implemented under public-private partnerships where the grant provides funding for a public benefit. 27. 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 that the state
agencies consider and respond to comments received through the outreach process.
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Oppose initiatives that:
1. Impose additional administrative requirements and/or restricts the Water Authority’s or its member 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 limits 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. 6.
C. Rates
Support initiatives that:
1. Maintain the authority 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.
Oppose initiatives that: 1. Impair the Water Authority’s or its member agencies’ ability to provide reliable reasonable 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. 6. Usurp special district funds, reserves, or other state actions that force special districts to raise rates, fees, or charges.
D. Water Bonds
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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, 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. Ensures 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 five percent of bond funding amounts.
8. Place as much emphasis and provides 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 including those in San Diego County.
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 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 resolves 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.
V.VII. Governance/Local Autonomy
Support initiatives that: 1. Expand local autonomy in governing special district affairs.
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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. Establish clear and reasonable guidelines for appropriate community sponsorship activities. 6.5.Reaffirm the existing “all-in” financial structure, or protect the San Diego County 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 and open and transparent process for adoption of regulations, policies, and guidelines. 7.8.Preserve the District and other local water agencies’ ability to establish local priorities for
water resources planning decisions.
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.
6.7.Modify the committee or board voting structure or District and member agency board representation on the San Diego County Water Authority Board of Directors unless such changes have been expressly authorized by the District’s Board. 7.8.Create unfunded local government mandates.
8.9.Create costly, unnecessary, or duplicative oversight roles for the state government of special
district affairs. 9.10. Create new oversight roles or responsibility for monitoring special district affairs. 10.11. Change the San Diego County Water Authority Act regarding voting structure, unless it is based on population.
11.12. 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. 12.13. Place a significant and unreasonable burden on public agencies, resulting in increased cost for public works construction or their operation. 13.14. Impair the ability of water districts to acquire property or property interests required
for essential capital improvement projects. 14.15. Increase the cost of property and right-of-way acquisition, or restricts the use of right-of-ways. 15.16. 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. 16.17. Prescribe mandatory conservation-based or other rate structures that override the authority of the board of directors to set its rate structure.
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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. 17.21. Limit the District’s ability to establish local priorities for water resources planning decisions.
VI.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 Delta improvements to the Legislature and the public. 2. Provides conveyance and storage facilities that are cost-effective for the San Diego region’s ratepayers, 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 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 that 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 agreement that are fair to the users of both projects and do not unfairly shift costs to SWP contractors.
7. Support continued state ownership and operation of the SWP, including WaterFix project facilities, as a public resource. 8. 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.
9. Authorize and appropriate the federal share of funding for the long-term Bay-Delta solution, including for the EcoRestore Program. 10. Provide the ongoing state share of funding for the EcoRestore Program. 11. Provide state funding for aquatic toxicity 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:
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1. Impose water user fees to fund ecosystem restoration and other public purpose, nonwater-supply improvements in the 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. WaterFixBay-Delta Conveyance Project
Support initiatives that: 1. Are consistent with the Water Authority’s Board of Directors’ Aug. 9, 2018July 25, 2019
adopted Bay-Delta and WaterFix 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.
a.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 the WaterFix project, as currently proposed, conditioned upon the project costs being characterized by the Department of
Water Resources (DWR) MWD properly allocating the costs of the project as
conservation, or supply charges, as similar facilities historically have been defined in the Metropolitan Water District’s (MWD)’s SWP contract with DWR. b.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 the Current 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 the WaterFix 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 WaterFix project facilities, to facilitate water transfers. B. Metropolitan Water District
Support initiatives that: 1. Provide an appropriate level of accountability and cost control over MWD spending. 2. Protect and safeguard the Water Authority’s Preferential Rights in the Metropolitan Water District Act.
1.3.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 established pursuant to state legislation.
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2.4.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. 3.5.Amend the Metropolitans Water District Act to change voting allocation on its Board of Directors based on a member agency’s total financial contribution to MWD, and in a manner similar to the voting allocation method of the County Water Authority Act.
C. Colorado River
Support initiatives that: 1. Supports implementation and funding of the California Colorado River Water Use Plan, including the Lower Colorado River Multi-Species Conservation Program
2. Provide funding for Colorado River salinity control projects and other water quality management efforts. 3. 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 solutions, 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. Limit the Quantification Settlement Agreement mitigation costs imposed on funding parties to the amount committed in accordance with the original QSA legislation. 4. Revise the Quantification Settlement Agreement mitigation measures for the Salton Sea to limit the costs imposed on the funding parties to the amount committed in accordance with the
QSA legislation.
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 through the renegotiation of the new
interim shortage guidelines for continued operation of the River.
7. 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. 6.8.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. 7.9.Preserve the California Colorado River Board
8.10. Ensure the interests of the members of the California Colorado River Board continue to be addressed in any state government reorganization. 9. Eliminate the California Colorado River Board without providing a comparable structure or forum that ensures the Water Authority's interests in the Colorado River are preserved. 11. 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:
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1. Impose additional mitigation costs or obligations for the Salton Sea on the non-state parties to the Quantification Settlement Agreement.
2. Eliminate the California Colorado River Board without providing a comparable structure or forum that ensures the Water Authority's interests in the Colorado River are preserved. D. State Water Project
Support initiatives that: 1. Provide for development of a comprehensive state water plan that balances California's competing water needs and results in a reliable and affordable supply of high-quality water for 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.
XVI. Optimize District Effectiveness
Support initiatives that: 1. Manage District resources in a transparent and fiscally responsible manner. 2. Give utilities the ability 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 Be constitutional, federally legal, and technically possible.
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.
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6. Require new reporting criteria on energy intensity involved in water supply.
VII. 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. Increasing funding for water recycling projects.
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.
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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.
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 to 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.
XIVIII. 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
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disasters (e.g., wildfires, earthquakes), power outages as well as terrorist and other criminal activities.
12. Provide state grant 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.
13.15. 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 general public.
XII. 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 principals in adopting drinking water standards for drinking water concerns. 3. Revise NPDES standards and procedures to facilitate inland discharge and use of recycled water.
4. Establish appropriate quality standards, testing procedures, and treatment processes for
emerging contaminants. 5. 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. Exempt purified wastewater from regulation as a discharge under the Clean Water Act.
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 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 improving water quality.
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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 is maintained in any reorganized entity.
XIII. 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. Increasing funding for water recycling projects. 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.
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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. 4. Establish unreasonable regulatory requirements or fees to 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. IXIV. 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. Provide financial support to projects designed to mitigate the potential negative impacts of Global Climate Change on water supply reliability. 3. Promote the coordination and integration of local, state, and federal climate change policies
and practices to the greatest extent feasible.
4. Fund or otherwise facilitate ongoing implementation of the Quantification Settlement Agreement. 5. Provide reliable water supplies to meet California’s short and long-term needs.
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6. Promote desalination pilot studies and projects. 7. Encourage feasibility studies of water resource initiatives.
8. 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. 9. Fund enhancements to water treatment, recycling, and other facilities to meet increased
regulations.
10. Mandate uniform or similar regulations and procedures by state agencies in the processing and administering of grants and programs. 11. Streamline grant application procedures. 12. Reduce regulations and other impediments for willing sellers and buyers to engage in water
transfer agreements.
13. Promote or assist voluntary water transfers between willing buyers and willing sellers and move those transactions through without delay. 14. Streamline the permitting and approval process for desalination and other water-related facilities and implementing water transfers that will improve water management.
15. Establish reasonable statewide approaches to sewer reporting standards. 16. 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. 17. Target efforts to fix specific issues with water supplies within the state’s Drinking Water
Program. 18. 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. 19. 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. 20. 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. 21. 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.
22. 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. 23. Provide funding for water infrastructure development, infrastructure security, and
rehabilitation and replacement projects that benefit ratepayers. 24. Provide funding for habitat preservation programs that address impacts resulting from construction or operation of water system facilities.
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25. Provide funding for projects that enhance security against terrorist acts or other criminal threats to water operation, services, facilities, or supplies.
26. Provide incentives that encourage contractors to recycle or reduce waste associated with
construction of water facilities. 27. 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.
28. Protect the local agencies’ properties from restrictions when surrounding properties are incorporated into preservation areas. 29. Encourage the use of current and emerging technologies for monitoring and assessing the condition of large diameter pipelines. 30. Encourage water supplier 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. 31. 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.
32. Protect the District, other agencies and the Water Authority properties from restrictions when
surrounding properties are incorporated into preservation areas. 33. Provide funding to water agencies for the voluntary retrofit of facilities for on-site generation of chlorine. 34.
28. 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. 35. Provide for restrictions on price gouging during public safety power shutoff events and for at least 72 hours following restoration of power.
36. Provide that de-energization or public safety power shutoff events may be included as a
condition constituting a state of emergency or local emergency. 37. Provide a tax emption for the sale of, or storage, use, or consumption of, a backup electrical resources, that 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.
38. 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. 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. 1.2.Make urban water supplies less reliable or substantially increase the cost of imported water without also improving the reliability and/or quality of the water.
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2.3.Create unrealistic or costly water testing or reporting protocol. 3.4.Disproportionately apportion the cost of water.
4.5.Create undo hurtles for seawater desalination projects. 5.6.Create unreasonable or confusing sewer reporting standards. 6.7.Create administrative or other barriers to sales between willing buyers and willing sellers that delay water transfers. 7.8.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. 8.9.Create unrealistic or costly to obtain water quality standards for potable water, recycled water, or storm water runoff. 9.10. Change the focus of the state’s Drinking Water Program or weaken the parts of the
program that work well. 10.11. Lessen the focus on public health of the state’s Drinking Water Program. 11. Create one-size-fit-all approaches to emergency drought regulations that ignore variations among communities, regions, and counties with respect to their ability to withstand the impact and effects of drought.
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. Impairs 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. Limits local agencies’ sole jurisdiction over planning, design, routing, approval, construction, operation, or maintenance of water facilities. 16. Restricts 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. Authorizes 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 the 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 local agencies’ 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.
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25. Establish prescriptive leak loss control requirements for the operation, maintenance, and asset management of water conveyance and distribution systems, that 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 its 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. 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.
32. 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 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.
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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.
11.12. Develop incentives for developers and existing customers to install water-efficient landscape in existing developments or new construction. 12.13. Encourage large state users to save water by implementing water-efficient technologies in all facilities both new and retrofit. 13.14. Encourage large state water users to save water outdoors.
14.15. Educate all Californians on the importance of water, and the need to conserve, manage, and plan for the future needs. 15.16. Encourage technological research targeted to more efficient water use. 16.17. Give local agencies maximum discretion in selecting water-use efficiency and conservation programs that work for their customers and the communities they serve.
17.18. Require the Department of Water Resources to implement a uniform statewide turf rebate subsidy or incentive program. 19. Restrict Property Owners 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. 18.22. Establish standards for the utilization of high-efficiency commercial coin-operated and
residential clothes washers.
19.23. Provides for federal tax-exempt status for water-use efficiency rebates, consistent with income tax treatment at the state level. 20.24. Encourage the use of graywater where it complies with local guidelines and regulations and is cost-effective.
21.25. 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.
22.27. 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. 23.28. 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. 24. 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. 25.29. Encourage reasonable tracking of water use and improved efficiency in the
Commercial, Industrial, and Institutional (CII) sector.
26.30. 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.
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31. Further the statewide goal of a 20 percent reduction in per capita water use by 2020 as set forth in SBX7-7, enacted in November 2009, and preserves water agency discretion and
options for achieving this objective. 32. Ensure accurate and meaningful reporting of implementation of water-use efficiency and conservation measures. 27.33. 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. 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.
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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 general public.
Oppose initiatives that:
1. Hinder military veterans from using previous experience, education, and knowledge toward a career in water. 1.2.Regulate agencies from hiring an experienced, educated, and talented water-industry workforce.
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Effective Date: 04/07/2021
Legislative Program Policy Guidelines
Purpose
The Otay Water District’s legislative policy guidelines reflect policy positions adopted by the Board of Directors through 2021. The guidelines provide direction to staff and the 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 San Diego County Water Authority (Water Authority), the
District and other state and other local water agencies, 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 agencies. District staff, including the District’s legislative team, 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
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Table of Contents
The Otay Water Legislative Policy Program Guidelines for 2021 includes the following categories: I. Binational Issues…………………………………………....……………... Page 3 II. Biological and Habitat Preservation…………………………………….. Page 3
III. Desalination……………………………………………………………….. Page 4 IV. Drought Response………………………………………………………… Page 4
V. Energy……………………………………………………………………… Page 5 VI. Financial Issues…………………………………………………………… Page 6 A. Fees, Taxes, and Charges………………………….......................... Page 6 B. Funding…………………………………………………………….. Page 8
C. Rates………………………………………………………………... Page 10
D. Water Bonds……………………………………………………….. Page 10 VII. Governance and Local Autonomy……………………………………….. Page 11
VIII. Imported Water Issues……………………………………………………. Page 13 A. Bay-Delta……………………………………………………………… Page 13 i. Co-equal Goals……………………………………………………. Page 13 ii. Bay-Delta Conveyance Project…………………………………… Page 13 B. Metropolitan Water District…………………………………………… Page 14
C. Colorado River………………………………………………………… Page 14 D. State Water Project…………………………………………………….. Page 15 IX. Optimize District Effectiveness……………………...…………....………. Page 16
X. Safety, Security, and Information Technology……………....................... Page 16 XI. Water Quality Issues………………………………………………………. Page 17 XII. Water Recycling and Potable Reuse……………………………………… Page 18
XIII. Water Service and Facilities……………………………………………… Page 19 XIV. Water-Use Efficiency……………………………………………………… Page 23
XV. Workforce Development………………………………………………….. Page 25
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I. Binational Issues
Support initiatives that:
1. Promote and provide funding for cross-border water supply and infrastructure development projects such as water pipelines, desalination plants or water treatment facilities to serve the San Diego/Baja California border region while protecting local interests. 2. 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. 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. 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 ecosystem, rather than individual species. 2. Exempt operation, maintenance, ad 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. Oppose initiatives that:
1. Reduce or limit the use of existing water rights or supplies,
2. Restrict the development of future water supplies.
3. Impose endangered species or habitat conservation requirements that restrict the operation,
maintenance, or repair of public water supply, conveyance, treatment, or storage facilities.
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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 protects 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.
IV. Drought Response
Support initiatives that:
1. Ensure the District and other local agencies including the Water Authority and San Diego
County water agencies receive the water supply benefits of its investment in local water
supply sources.
2. Allow local agencies to achieve compliance with emergency or non-emergency drought
regulations or objectives through a combination of water conservation measures and
development and implementation of local water supply sources that are not derived from the
Delta.
3. Allow for 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.
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 with respect to their ability to
withstand the impacts and effects of drought.
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V. Energy
Support initiatives that:
1. Provide opportunities for reduced energy rates under tariff schedules for the District.
2. Provide protection to the District from energy rate increases and provides rate relief for the
District.
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 generation and
acquisition of electrical and natural gas power.
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.
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 resource 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 San Diego County
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 all grid services that energy storage provides and supports fair compensation in the
wholesale energy market for such services.
15. Provides timely, efficient, and cost-effective interconnection of new energy resources such as
solar, inline hydroelectric, pumped-energy storage, and other renewable energy generation or
storage technologies to the electric distribution and transmission grid.
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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 percent by
2045.
Oppose initiatives that:
1. Adversely affect the cost 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 the purchase of natural gas and electricity from the United States, the State of
California, and any other public agency or private entity and sell the gas and electricity to any
public agency or private entity engaged in retail sales of electricity and gas.
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 caps future energy demands needed for possible expansion of recycled water,
potable reuse, and 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 new energy
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.
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3. Provide for 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. 2. Pre-empt the Water Authority’s or its member agencies’ ability to impose or change rates, charges, fees, or assessments. 3. Weaken the protections afforded the Water Authority or its member agencies under
California’s Proposition 1A (November 2, 2004).
4. Reallocate special districts reserves in an effort 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 San Diego County 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.
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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 in order to create a state fund that can be used to finance undefined future projects and programs. 19. Allow the state to retain more than five percent 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.
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. 2. Provide the Water Authority and its member 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 Water Authority and its member agencies with grant funding for public
facilities.
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 gasses. 11. Continue energy rate incentives for the utilization of electricity during low-peak periods.
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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. 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 more directly administer state grant funds specifically identified 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. Provide funding or other incentives for conservation, peak management programs, water
recycling, potable reuse, groundwater recovery and recharge, 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. Provide financial incentives to assist in the disposal of concentrate, sludge, and other
byproducts created in the water treatment process.
20. 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. Provide funding for potable reuse demonstration projects and studies.
22. 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. 23. Provide state and/or federal funding for the restoration of the Salton Sea. 24. 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. 25. 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. 26. Permit the use of grant funding for projects implemented under public-private partnerships
where the grant provides funding for a public benefit.
27. 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 that the state agencies consider and respond to comments received through the outreach process.
Oppose initiatives that: 1. Impose additional administrative requirements and/or restrict the Water Authority’s or its member 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.
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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 limits 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 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. Oppose initiatives that:
1. Impair the Water Authority’s or its member 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.
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,
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. Ensures 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.
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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 five percent of bond funding amounts. 8. Place as much emphasis and provides 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 including those in San Diego County. 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 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 resolves 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. VII. Governance/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.
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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 such changes have been
expressly authorized by the District’s Board.
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 restricts 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.
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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 Delta improvements to the Legislature and the public.
2. Provides conveyance and storage facilities that are cost-effective for the San Diego region’s ratepayers, 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 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 that 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 agreement that are fair to the users of both projects and do not unfairly shift costs to SWP contractors. 7. Support continued state ownership and operation of the SWP, including project facilities, as a public resource. 8. 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. 9. Authorize and appropriate the federal share of funding for the long-term Bay-Delta solution, including for the EcoRestore Program. 10. Provide the ongoing state share of funding for the EcoRestore Program.
11. Provide state funding for aquatic toxicity 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 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:
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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 accountability and cost control over MWD spending. 2. Protect and safeguard the Water Authority’s Preferential Rights in the Metropolitan Water District Act.
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 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, and in a manner similar to the voting allocation method of the County Water Authority Act.
C. Colorado River
Support initiatives that: 1. Supports implementation and funding of the California Colorado River Water Use Plan, including the Lower Colorado River Multi-Species Conservation Program
2. Provide funding for Colorado River salinity control projects and other water quality management efforts. 3. 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
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the Salton Sea Management Program consistent with its obligations under Chapters 611, 612, and 613 of the Statutes of 2003.
4. Limit the Quantification Settlement Agreement mitigation costs imposed on funding parties to
the amount committed in accordance with the original QSA legislation. 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 through the renegotiation of the new
interim shortage guidelines for continued operation of the River. 7. 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. 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.
9. Preserve the California Colorado River Board
10. Ensure the interests of the members of the California Colorado River Board continue to be addressed in any state government reorganization. 11. 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 Agreement.
2. Eliminate the California Colorado River Board without providing a comparable structure or forum that ensures the Water Authority's interests in the Colorado River are preserved. D. State Water Project
Support initiatives that:
1. Provide for development of a comprehensive state water plan that balances California's competing water needs and results in a reliable and affordable supply of high-quality water for 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
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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 ability 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. 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.
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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 grant 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 general 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 principals in adopting drinking water standards for drinking water
concerns. 3. Revise NPDES standards and procedures to facilitate inland discharge and use of recycled water. 4. Establish appropriate quality standards, testing procedures, and treatment processes for emerging contaminants.
5. 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. Exempt purified wastewater from regulation as a discharge under the Clean Water Act. 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 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.
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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 improving 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 is maintained in any reorganized entity. 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. Increasing funding for water recycling projects. 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.
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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. 4. Establish unreasonable regulatory requirements or fees to 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. XIII. 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. Provide financial support to projects designed to mitigate the potential negative impacts of Global Climate Change on water supply reliability. 3. Promote the coordination and integration of local, state, and federal climate change policies and practices to the greatest extent feasible.
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4. Fund or otherwise facilitate ongoing implementation of the Quantification Settlement Agreement.
5. Provide reliable water supplies to meet California’s short and long-term needs.
6. Promote desalination pilot studies and projects. 7. Encourage feasibility studies of water resource initiatives. 8. 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. 9. Fund enhancements to water treatment, recycling, and other facilities to meet increased regulations. 10. Mandate uniform or similar regulations and procedures by state agencies in the processing
and administering of grants and programs.
11. Streamline grant application procedures. 12. Reduce regulations and other impediments for willing sellers and buyers to engage in water transfer agreements. 13. Promote or assist voluntary water transfers between willing buyers and willing sellers and
move those transactions through without delay.
14. Streamline the permitting and approval process for desalination and other water-related facilities and implementing water transfers that will improve water management. 15. Establish reasonable statewide approaches to sewer reporting standards. 16. 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. 17. Target efforts to fix specific issues with water supplies within the state’s Drinking Water Program. 18. 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. 19. 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.
20. 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. 21. 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. 22. 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. 23. Provide funding for water infrastructure development, infrastructure security, and rehabilitation and replacement projects that benefit ratepayers.
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24. Provide funding for habitat preservation programs that address impacts resulting from construction or operation of water system facilities.
25. Provide funding for projects that enhance security against terrorist acts or other criminal
threats to water operation, services, facilities, or supplies. 26. Provide incentives that encourage contractors to recycle or reduce waste associated with construction of water facilities. 27. 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. 28. Protect the local agencies’ properties from restrictions when surrounding properties are incorporated into preservation areas. 29. Encourage the use of current and emerging technologies for monitoring and assessing the
condition of large diameter pipelines.
30. Encourage water supplier 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.
31. 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. 32. Protect the District, other agencies and the Water Authority properties from restrictions when surrounding properties are incorporated into preservation areas. 33. Provide funding to water agencies for the voluntary retrofit of facilities for on-site generation
of chlorine.
34. 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. 35. Provide for restrictions on price gouging during public safety power shutoff events and for at
least 72 hours following restoration of power.
36. Provide that de-energization or public safety power shutoff events may be included as a condition constituting a state of emergency or local emergency. 37. Provide a tax emption for the sale of, or storage, use, or consumption of, a backup electrical resources, that 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.
38. 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. 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 increase the cost of imported water without also improving the reliability and/or quality of the water.
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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 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, that 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.
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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 its 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. 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.
32. 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.
XIV. Water-Use 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.
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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 coin-operated and residential clothes washers. 23. Provides for 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. Further the statewide goal of a 20 percent reduction in per capita water use by 2020 as set forth in SBX7-7, enacted in November 2009, and preserves water agency discretion and
options for achieving this objective.
32. Ensure accurate and meaningful reporting of implementation of water-use efficiency and conservation measures. 33. 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.
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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. XV. 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.
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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 general public.
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.
Anticipated Top 10 Legislative Priorities for 2021
1.COVID-19 Financial Relief: Low-income Water Rate Assistance/Discontinuation ofResidential Water Service – The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted Californians across thestate in a multitude of ways, not least of which include crushing financial hardships and debt.A recent survey by the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) showed that there iscurrently between $600 and $700 million in drinking water-related debt, not including debt
related to past due wastewater bills. Additionally, there is more than $300 million in unpaid
bills to publicly owned electric utilities. This mounting debt is negatively impactingcommunities across the state and continues to grow. In response, Senator Dodd hasintroduced two bills – SB 222 and SB 223, which we will describe in more detail, below.
SB 222 would establish the Water Affordability Assistance Fund in the State Treasury and
establish the Water Affordability Assistance Program to help provide water affordabilityassistance for both drinking and wastewater services to low-income ratepayers experiencingeconomic hardships. SB 222 does not currently identify a funding source or appropriatefunding. However, should funding be appropriated, the program would assist with the
following: direct water bill assistance; water bill credits to renters; water crisis assistance;
water efficiency measures for low-income households; and short-term assistance to publicwater systems. The Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA) has recently taken anOppose Unless Amended position on this bill, has communicated significant concerns to theAuthor’s office, and submitted proposed amendments to the bill. Conversations on this bill
will continue.
SB 223 seeks to expand and extend existing statutorily required protocols and procedures toprotect low-income households that face or have already experienced water servicedisconnections due to the water customer’s inability to pay their water bill. Significant
provisions include requiring water agencies to develop arrearage management plans
including debt discharge and the prohibition of disconnection for an extended period.
While these two bills seek to address the significant impact COVID-19 pandemic has had onCalifornians across the state, there is a separate and alternative advocacy effort taking place
to provide additional state relief for utility and water debt more broadly. Specifically, a
coalition comprised of the California Municipal Utilities Association, California SpecialDistricts Association, California Association of Sanitation Agencies, and ACWA is urgingthe Governor and Legislature to allocate additional dedicated relief funding of at least $1billion for past-due public water and wastewater agency and publicly owned electric utility
bills. The Otay Water District signed on in support of this coalition request.
We will continue to monitor the development of Senator Dodd’s legislation as well asdevelopments with respect to the coalition budget request for financial relief.
While we are not currently aware of any proposals to modify Proposition 218 to provide
specifically for flexibility with customer assistance during the COVID-19 pandemic, ACWAhas introduced a sponsored bill, SB 323 (Caballero) which would which would improvefinancial stability for public agencies by creating a statute of limitations for legal challenges
Attachment D
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to water and sewer service rates, while still ensuring that adopted rates and charges comply with Proposition 218 and other existing laws. As you are acutely aware, the impacts of
COVID-19, including the necessary disruptions to in-person work and Governor Newsom’s
executive order prohibiting water shutoffs, have made water districts’ revenue and financial planning vastly more unpredictable. SB 323 is an important measure to ensure that existing legal protections are consistent in order to improve financial predictability for utility providers. The Otay Water District is currently considering supporting this measure.
With respect to local general obligation bonds, ACA 1 (Aguiar-Curry) was reintroduced in 2021, which would amend the California Constitution to lower the two-thirds threshold needed for a local agency to pass a local general obligation bond to 55%. This would provide local agencies, including cities and special districts such as water districts, more
opportunities to raise necessary funds to build and repair critical water infrastructure while
maintaining requirements for voter protection, public notice, and financial accountability. 2. Water Quality – As you may recall, in 2019, ACWA sponsored AB 1204 (Rubio) which would have established a three-year compliance period for any new Maximum Contaminant
Level (MCL) set by the SWRCB. However, the bill failed to move forward due to ongoing
negotiations with the SWRCB and the Assembly Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials Committee. Having reached consensus with the SWRCB on a feasible solution with respect to MCL
compliance periods, ACWA plans to introduce a similar proposal in 2021. While the
language is not yet in print, the proposal would require the SWRCB to set a compliance period for each new MCL established – a slightly different take on the former proposal, aimed at addressing the same goal of providing water providers a reasonable amount of time to comply with drinking water standards.
The MCL compliance issue will come into play particularly as we anticipate a draft MCL for Hexavalent Chromium (Chromium-6) in March or April of 2021, triggering a one-year clock for rulemaking at the SWRCB. We expect that the SWRCB will adopt a final MCL for Chromium-6 by the first quarter of 2022.
Another ongoing issue in 2021 will be Constituents of Emerging Concern (CECs). SB 230 (Portantino), a re-introduction of a bill from 2020, would require the SWRCB to establish and then maintain an ongoing dedicated program for CECs to proactively improve the understanding of their occurrence and public health significance in drinking water sources.
The bill also establishes a Science Advisory Panel to gather and develop information for the
program, requires the program to provide opportunities for public participation through periodic stakeholder meetings and workshops, establishes a CEC Action Fund through which (upon appropriation) funds could be used to establish and maintain the panel, collect occurrence data, develop standardized analytical methods to detect CECs, and support
research to fill information gaps, and authorizes the SWRCB to provide financial assistance
to certain public water systems to address costs associated with complying with the bill.
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Further, a bill that is garnering attention in Sacramento is AB 377 (R. Rivas) the California Clean Water Act, sponsored by the California Coastkeeper Alliance, which would require all
California surface waters to be fishable, swimmable, and drinkable by January 1, 2050 – an
aspirational goal for water quality standards in California. In the bill, “drinkable” applies to waters subject to a regional water quality control plan and means that the waters are drinkable to the extent required by the regional water quality control plan. ACWA recently adopted an Oppose position on AB 377 and it is our understanding that there is growing
opposition across industries.
We will continue to monitor discussions on all water quality related proposals as they move forward.
3. Climate Resiliency/Water Bonds – Over the past several years, there have been multiple
attempts to pass climate and water focused bonds in the Legislature as well as through the initiative process. Most recent examples were in the 2019-2020 Legislative Session, with the introduction of SB 45 (Portantino) – a $5.5 billion bond proposal, AB 352 (E. Garcia) – a $6.9 billion bond proposal, Governor Newsom’s $4.75 billion bond proposal, as well as a $8
billion bond initiative which ultimately failed to qualify for the November 2020 ballot. In
2021, we have seen the re-introduction of two bond proposals – SB 45 (Portantino) and AB 1500 (E. Garcia), which we will discuss in more detail, below. It is important to note, that both bond proposals have a strong focus and tie to California’s climate resiliency goals.
SB 45, the Wildfire Prevention, Safe Drinking Water, Drought Preparation, and Flood
Protection Bond Act of 2022, would authorize $5.5 billion in bonds to finance projects for a wildfire prevention, safe drinking water, drought preparation, and flood protection program, and if passed, would be submitted to voters at the November 8, 2022 statewide general election.
AB 1500, the Safe Drinking Water, Wildfire Prevention, Drought Preparation, Flood Protection, Extreme Heat Mitigation, and Workforce Development Bond Act of 2022, would authorize the issuance of state obligation bonds in the amount of $6.7B to finance projects for safe drinking water, wildfire prevention, drought preparation, flood protection, extreme heat
mitigation, and workforce development programs, and if passed, would also be submitted to
the voters at the November 8, 2022 statewide general election. Given the unprecedented economic impact the state is experiencing due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, it remains to be seen whether a bond proposal will move forward this year.
However, we have heard that there is a desire in the Legislature to move a bond proposal
forward to submit to the voters in 2022. ACWA remains engaged in the bond discussions and is currently in the process of proposing significant amendments to SB 45, increasing the bond dollar amount significantly, as well as including many key priority categories not addressed in the current bond language.
SB 45 will have its first hearing in the Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee on March 16. AB 1500 has not yet been set for hearing. We will continue to monitor discussions on bonds and the likelihood of passage in the 2021-2022 legislative session.
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4. Water Use and Efficiency
As you know, in 2018, two water conservation bills AB 1668 (Friedman) and SB 606
(Hertzberg) were signed into law which establish a new long-term water conservation framework for California. These efforts are currently in the implementation phase within the Department of Water Resources and the State Water Resources Control Board.
In 2021, Assemblymember Friedman introduced AB 1434 which would revise the indoor
residential water use standards within the context of the AB 1668 and SB 606 water-use efficiency statutes. Specifically, AB 1434 would modify the indoor water use standards, as follows: 48 gallons per capita per day beginning January 1, 2023; 44 gallons per capita per day beginning January 1, 2025; and 40 gallons per capita per day beginning January 1, 2030
(current law is 55, 52.5 and 50 gallons per capita per day, respectively).
We will continue to monitor this bill as it moves forward and provide updates on new developments.
With respect to Water Loss Performance Standards pursuant to SB 555 (2015), in December
2020, the SWRCB released a revised regulatory framework and draft economic model to calculate volumetric performance standards for water loss. These revisions intend to assess full life-cycle costs to develop agency specific performance standards. Specifically, the proposed regulation would require the state’s approximately 415 larger urban water
suppliers, that together serve approximately 36 million people (more than 90 percent of
California’s population), to meet individual volumetric water loss standards determined through a water system-specific economic model developed by the SWRCB. According to the SWRCB, an average urban water supplier in California loses about 34 gallons per day from leakage from each service connection, equivalent to about 326,000 acre-feet or 106
billion gallons annually. The proposed water loss standards are anticipated to reduce water
loss statewide by about 40 percent, reduce energy use for water treatment, improve infrastructure maintenance, and prevent breaks that cause property damage and water outages.
We anticipate the adoption of the proposed regulations between March and July of 2021. We
will continue to monitor the development of Water Loss Performance Standards Regulations and keep the Otay Water District apprised of new developments. 5. Recycled Water
While recycled water remains a critical component of the state’s water supply, it remains to
be seen if this will be a priority in the Legislature in 2021. It is important to note that there is funding in both bonds SB 45 and AB 1500 for recycled water projects – $100 million in SB 45 and $300 million in AB 1500. We understand that both ACWA and the WateReuse Association will be advocating for additional funding for recycled water projects, through SB
45 in the coming months. These negotiations are ongoing.
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With respect to other recycling related legislation, SB 496 (Laird) would authorize the board of supervisors of a county to appropriate and spend money from the general fund of the
county for the reuse of flood waters in connection with streams or rivers in the county.
Additionally, SB 273 (Hertzberg) would authorize municipal wastewater agencies to enter into voluntary agreements with entities responsible for stormwater management – including municipal, industrial, and commercial stormwater dischargers – to manage stormwater and
dry weather runoff more effectively. This bill is aimed at promoting regional interagency
cooperation, improving water quality, and making efficient use of publicly owned infrastructure by removing barriers that prevent stormwater capture, treatment, and recycling. We will continue to monitor for additional proposals related to recycled water this
Legislative Session.
6. Veteran Water Industry Advocacy – In 2019, the Otay Water District cosponsored with the San Diego County Water Authority AB 1588 (Gloria), signed by Governor Newsom on October 11, 2019, which helps ensure that military veterans receive appropriate and
satisfactory credit towards water and wastewater treatment systems certifications in
California for the work experience and knowledge gained working on these systems in military service. Parallel to this effort, following the bill signing, we worked with the Otay Water District to
draft a letter of recommendation for Jose Martinez in his candidacy for sitting on a water or
wastewater advisory committee within the SWRCB. We were successful in obtaining a signed letter of recommendation from now former Assemblymember Todd Gloria, author of AB 1588, recommending Jose Martinez for this position.
In 2021, we learned that Jose Martinez was selected to sit on the Drinking Water Operator
Certificate Program Advisory Committee and will continue his advocacy work on issues such as veteran water industry workforce while sitting on this committee. We will remain vigilant of the work of this committee going forward and keep the Otay Water District apprised of potential legislation in this space.
7. Voluntary Agreements/Bay-Delta – As you are aware, habitat restoration and proper management of the Bay-Delta continue to remain a top priority for California. The Voluntary Agreements – which represent comprehensive plans for protecting the Bay-Delta from further environmental harm, while providing adequate water supplies for farms and cities –
propose a suite of integrated actions that are far broader than the approach proposed by the
SWRCB. State agencies are currently analyzing Voluntary Agreements to determine their adequacy to move forward. However, we understand that ACWA has been advocating strongly for
adoption of the Voluntary Agreements and have proposed a roadmap on how to achieve the
desired outcomes for California, consistent with the vision outlined in the Water Resilience Portfolio.
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This will remain a high priority issue in the water space in 2021.
8. Delta Conveyance/State Water Project – The planning process for the proposed Delta
Conveyance project, which seeks to modernize State Water Project conveyance, continues to move forward. At this point in time, public information and community engagement will remain a central and important focus for the Department of Water Resources (DWR). Within the next few years and in preparation of the release of a Draft Environmental Impact Report
(EIR) for public review in mid-2022, DWR has prepared a public outreach plan that
identifies information and engagement opportunities and milestones. The objectives of this plan are to provide tools for the public to meaningfully navigate and participate in the planning and environmental review process; build capacity among the
public to engage in the process and better understand the technical information ahead of the
release of the Draft EIR; continue to advance planning activities for successful completion of required permitting and project approvals – including meeting regulatory standards for public participation; and to continue to refine the proposed project with respect to community benefits and impact minimization/mitigation development, based on public and stakeholder
input. Efforts underway will include informational webinars, a newly initiated Community
Development Program, design-focused stakeholder engagement, multi-agency coordination, and environmental justice and disadvantaged community outreach. We will continue to stay engaged in the developments of the Delta-Conveyance project and
any legislation pertaining to the State Water Project more broadly. 9. Water Resilience Portfolio In July of 2020, Governor Newsom released a final version of the Water Resilience Portfolio
– California’s blueprint for preparing for extreme droughts and floods, rising temperatures,
declining fish populations, over-reliance on groundwater, and other challenges in future years. The Governor’s January budget included investments to support the work towards regional
water resiliency including funding for State Water Efficiency and Enhancement Program
Grants, Sustainable Groundwater Management Program implementation, flood preparedness, delta resilience, wetlands management and deferred maintenance for critical repairs, among other critical investments.
We have also seen several legislative proposals which align with the some of the goals set
forth by the Water Resilience Portfolio on issues such as CECs, sustainable groundwater management, stormwater diversion and capture, and water quality, to name a few. The state agencies involved are planning to track and share progress on portfolio
implementation with an annual report and stakeholder gathering. We will continue to monitor
for progress and reporting on implementation of the Water Resilience Portfolio, including opportunities for engagement.
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10. Wildfires and Climate Change – Wildfire prevention and mitigation will continue to be a priority for the Governor and Legislature in 2021. The Governor’s budget included a $1
billion comprehensive package of resources to increase the pace and scale of forest health
activities and decrease fire risk. The Legislature has also introduced at least 20 bills to address wildfires so far in 2021. As you can imagine, the wildfires that burned over 4 million acres in California during 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic placed enormous stress on the state’s emergency response system. The state will continue to focus on strengthening its
ability to respond to emergencies and recover from such emergencies in the future. Continuing Governor Brown’s legacy, addressing climate change remains a priority for the Newsom Administration. Last September, Governor Newsom issued Executive Order N-79-20, which prohibits the sale of gasoline passenger vehicles by 2035, requires drayage trucks
to be zero emission by 2035, and requires zero emission heavy-duty trucks by 2045. As it
relates to the energy grid, AB 1317 by Assemblyman Berman will expedite California’s 100% clean and renewable energy standard while SB 67 by freshman Senator Josh Becker will modify the state’s Renewable Portfolio Standard to renewable energy load supplied as opposed to renewable energy procured. SB 260, introduced by Senator Scott Wiener, will
require companies with sales in excess of $1 billion to report their greenhouse gas emissions
while giving the Air Resources Board the authority to set science based, custom emission reduction targets. In 2021, we will see bills related to carbon capture and sequestration for large industrial facilities, development of offshore wind, a ban on fracking, policies related to California’s 2045 carbon neutrality and a host of climate adaptation measures.