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SACRAMENTO

Central Valley Business Times

June 28, 2010 10:08pm

• Under review is bill to give state board more power

• ‘A blatant attempt to rewrite the California water code’

A hearing was scheduled for Tuesday by the California state Assembly’s Committee on Water, Parks and Wildlife on a bill that would give the State Water Resources Control Board new penalty and investigative powers.

The powers are contained in a proposal by Southern California state Sen. Fran Pavley, D-Agoura Hills.

The bill, SB 565, is co-authored by Senate President Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento. The bill’s Assembly co-author is Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, who chairs the committee scheduled to review the bill Tuesday afternoon.

Ms. Pavley’s bill is criticized as “reducing or eliminating existing due process and property rights protections for California water rights holders” by Restore the Delta, which describes itself as a grassroots campaign committed to improving the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

Restore the Delta says SB 565 give the water board “new invasive power to inspect private property for vaguely defined purposes to ascertain whether the beneficial purposes of water use are being met.”

SB 565 would impose fines of up to $5,000 per day on anyone illegally taking water – a ten-fold increase over current penalties.

“Many Delta farmers believe, and we concur, that these new authorities will be used to litigate Delta farmers out of existence,” says the organization. “This is a blatant attempt to rewrite the California water code to justify taking away the historical water rights held by Delta families.”

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