BILL NUMBER: AB 687INTRODUCED BILL TEXT INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Salas FEBRUARY 26, 2009 An act relating to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST AB 687, as introduced, Salas. Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The California Bay-Delta Authority Act establishes the California Bay-Delta Authority in the Natural Resources Agency. The act requires the authority and the implementing agencies to carry out programs, projects, and activities necessary to implement the Bay-Delta Program. This bill would state findings and declarations of the Legislature with respect to the development of the Bay Delta Conservation Plan and the activities of the Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force and the Delta Vision Committee and the need to balance the demands of both the environment and water supplies. Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no. State-mandated local program: no. THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS: SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares all of the following: (a) In September 2006, Governor Schwarzenegger issued Executive Order S-17-06 to initiate a thorough process in the development of a durable vision and strategic plan for sustainable management of the delta that balances the demands of both the environment and water supplies. (b) Executive Order S-17-06 established the Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force, a stakeholder coordination group, and the Delta Vision Committee, which resulted in implementation recommendations to both the Governor and Legislature in January 2009. (c) The Bay Delta Conservation Plan is currently in development, in observance of the federal Endangered Species Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. Sec. 1531 et seq.) and the Natural Community Conservation Planning Act (Chapter 10 (commencing with Section 2800) of Division 3 of the Fish and Game Code), to advance a plan to provide for environmental restoration and reliable water supplies from the delta for more than 20 million people. (d) Acknowledgment of and reference to both the Bay Delta Conservation Plan and the activities of the Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force and the Delta Vision Committee are essential to resolving conflicting demands throughout the delta. (e) Structural improvement to both the form and function of the delta will allow California to more aggressively achieve the Governor' s 20 percent by 2020 water conservation goal throughout the state.