USFS Land Management Planning Rule – Comments Due on May 16

The 90-day public comment period on the US Forest Service (USFS) draft National Land Management Planning Rule closes on Thursday, May 19. The Forest Service land management plans guide management activities on the 155 National Forests and 20 Grasslands in the National Forest System. According to a USFS press release, “The proposed rule includes new provisions to guide forest and watershed restoration and resilience, habitat protection, sustainable recreation, and management for multiple uses of the National Forest System, including timber.”

Details regarding the draft Rule and comment process are available on the USFS Planning Rule website.

CSAC encourages counties to review the draft and submit comments.

Water Quality 

AB 741 (Huffman) – Support
As Amended March 14, 2011

AB 741, by Assembly Member Jared Huffman, would authorize public wastewater agencies to offer voluntary liens to private property owners to finance sewer lateral replacements and conversions from septic to sewer systems to prevent groundwater contamination and protect the environment, public health and safety. CSAC supported a similar version of this bill last year. The previous version would have allowed property owners to finance these improvements through a PACE- like program. In light of the issues with PACE, this bill uses a different financing mechanism to accomplish the same goal of helping private property owners finance the cost of converting from a septic system to a community sewer system and, or the replacement of damaged sewer later laterals. 

This bill will be heard in the Assembly Local Government Committee on April 27, 2011.

Solid Waste

AB 1189 (Miller) - Request for Comments
As Amended April 11, 2011

AB 1189, by Assembly Member Jeff Miller, would create a program to deal with used household batteries. AB 1189 takes a different approach to the issue of used batteries than SB 515, an extended producer responsibility bill that CSAC is currently supporting. Rather than require the producers of the products to deal with their end-of-life management, this bill would place the onus on local governments by requiring any local governmental entity that operates a recycling facility to accept used household batteries. 

The bill would also create a transition project designed to allow producers to take time to collect data in order to develop a product stewardship program. Batteries are considered in law to be Universal Waste and are currently banned from solid waste landfills. The goal of producer responsibility programs is to take the financial burden of product waste management from local governments, ratepayers and taxpayers and place the responsibility with the producers of products. However, this bill does not quite meet the goals of a true producer responsibility program.
 
This bill has been referred to the Assembly Natural Resources Committee.

Groundwater

AB 1152 (Chesbro) - Request for Comments 
As Amended April 14, 2011

AB 1152, by Assembly Member Wes Chesbro, would authorize an alternative groundwater monitoring technique for certain basins and sub-basins. With the passage of SBX7 6 (Chapter 1, 2009), local groundwater management entities, including counties, water replenishment districts, local agencies, groundwater management agencies, or associations are now allowed to volunteer to assume the responsibility of groundwater monitoring in all or part of a basin. However, if local entities, including counties, choose not to assume this responsibility they would exclude themselves from receiving water grants and loans administered by the state, and DWR would assume the responsibility of groundwater monitoring. 

This bill would allow local entities in certain basins to report groundwater elevations using alternate monitoring techniques, instead of monitoring groundwater elevations directly through monitoring wells, if the basin or sub-basin meets the following conditions:

• Groundwater is underlying land controlled by state, tribal, or federal authorities, and groundwater monitoring information is not available.
• If the groundwater is unaffected by land use activities or planned land use activities, or naturally occurring total dissolved solids within the groundwater preclude the use of that water.
• It is underlying an area where geographic or geologic features make monitoring impracticable.

The bill would also require a monitoring entity to submit information to the department every three years establishing its continued eligibility to use the alternate monitoring techniques. This bill will be heard on April 26, 2011 in the Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee.

Williamson Act

AB 1265 (Nielsen) – Support
As Amended April 4, 2011

AB 1265, by Assembly Member Jim Nielsen, would reinstate the Williamson Act alternative funding mechanism contained in SB 863 (Chapter 722, 2010). As you are aware, SB 80 (Chapter 11, 2011), the general government budget trailer bill signed by the Governor on March 24th, struck SB 863 from statute and cut the $10 million subvention appropriation from last year. However, Members from both sides of the aisle expressed support for SB 863 and their desire to give counties this alternative funding approach for the Williamson Act program. Unfortunately, the bill, which contained many other unrelated matters, was not amended and the SB 863 alternative was eliminated from statute. 

AB 1265 would reinstate the program, giving counties the option to implement a critical alternative funding mechanism for the Williamson Act, absent significant subvention funding from the state. This bill will be heard on May 4, 2011 in the Assembly Local Government Committee.