California AB 2480: Source watersheds, financing

California Assembly Bill 2480 formally recognizes the state’s watersheds as water infrastructure. The law makes it possible to funnel infrastructure financing towards the restoration of five watersheds that feed Northern California’s primary reservoirs, along with the state’s traditional water infrastructure like dams, canals and levees. Watersheds - which include forests, meadows, streams and rivers - are cited for their significance as key water supply assets in the face of climate change. 

Section 108.5 has been added to the Water Code which, in part, reads:

(a) It is hereby declared to be the established policy of the state that source watersheds are recognized and defined as integral components of California’s water infrastructure.

(b) (1) As climate change advances, source watersheds that provide the majority of the state’s drinking and irrigated agricultural water are of particular importance to maintaining the reliability, quantity, timing, and quality of California’s environmental, drinking, and agricultural water supply.

(2) Recognizing the critical role of source watersheds in enhancing water supply reliability, the maintenance and repair of source watersheds is eligible for the same forms of financing as other water collection and treatment infrastructure.

Eligible maintenance and repair activities include:

  1. Upland vegetation management to restore the watershed’s productivity and resiliency.
  2. Wet and dry meadow restoration.
  3. Road removal and repair.
  4. Stream channel restoration.

 

John Chiang, California’s state treasurer at the time of passage states that “These watersheds provide the vast majority of the water for the State Water Project, supplying drinking water for more than 25 million people, irrigation for 8 million of acres of farmland and 85 percent of the water to San Francisco Bay…Improving the condition of our watersheds is the least costly approach to enhancing water reliability while also improving the timing and quality of water flows.”

 

 

Publication Date: September 27, 2016

Related Organizations:

  • State of California

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  • Funding program
  • Laws

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