Legislation

With more than a million Californians – primarily in disadvantaged communities — lacking safe drinking and bathing water, Senator Anna Caballero (D-12th District-Salinas) has authored Senate Bill 414 (SB 414) and Senate Bill 669 (SB 669) to provide a cooperative governance and funding solution to yield an equitable and sustainable …

As part of the implementation of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), the Department of Water Resources (DWR) announced earlier this week the final decisions for groundwater basin boundary modifications requested by local agencies. Under SGMA, basin boundaries define the geographical area included in each groundwater basin. Once basin boundaries …

Governor Gavin Newsom signed his first two Assembly Bills on Wednesday in hopes of funding emergency drinking water and fire recovery in California. AB 72 and AB 73 are both early action budget bills. They two bills are designed to provide urgent assistance for communities that have contaminated and unsafe …

Late last week, Assemblyman Devon Mathis (R-26th District-Visalia) introduced a bipartisan amendment to the California Constitution for use of the state’s general fund budget for the rebuilding and enhancing of the state’s water infrastructure. Coauthored with Assemblyman Eduardo Garcia (D-56th District-Coachella) the amendment targets a stable, ongoing source of funding …

In spite of last year’s failed “Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Act,” proposed by former California Gov. Jerry Brown, the state’s new Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiled his proposed 2019-20 budget on Thursday with a tax on drinking water targeted to helping disadvantaged communities in their efforts to clean up …

President Donald Trump signed the Water Resources Development Act of 2018 into law Oct. 23 at the White House as lawmakers who played roles in crafting the bipartisan bill looked on. The legislation is the second important federal infrastructure bill to become law in less than three weeks. The new …