BILL NUMBER: SB 1264INTRODUCED BILL TEXT INTRODUCED BY Senator Cannella FEBRUARY 18, 2016 An act relating to the Monterey County Water Resources Agency, making an appropriation therefor, and declaring the urgency thereof, to take effect immediately. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST SB 1264, as introduced, Cannella. Monterey County Water Resources Agency: Salinas River System. Existing law establishes the Monterey County Water Resources Agency as a flood control and water agency within the County of Monterey. Existing law authorizes the agency to prevent the contamination or pollution of surface or subsurface water used or useful in the agency. This bill would appropriate $1,000,000 from the General Fund to the Monterey County Water Resources Agency, for use in the Salinas River, to assist in the removal of excess vegetation and trash, increase efficiency of instream flow using sediment and vegetation management strategies, and support the development and implementation of long-term management policies. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the Salinas River System. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute. Vote: 2/3. Appropriation: yes. Fiscal committee: yes. 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) The Salinas River System, which includes the Salinas River and the Salinas River Lagoon, undergoes an annual aggressive vegetative insurgence, causing an accumulation of waste in the river and putting the surrounding communities and prime agricultural lands at risk of flooding. (b) Because the Salinas River System is predominately privately-owned and required to meet permitting standards set by local, state, and federal agencies, maintenance on the river represents a unique opportunity for public and private partnerships. (c) The Salinas River System has been designated by the National Marine Fisheries Service as critical habitat for federally-threatened South-Central California Coast steelhead trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss). (d) Because the Salinas River lies upstream from the Monterey Bay, waste and vegetation in the river threaten the health of the bay. Thousands of people every year travel to Monterey Bay to enjoy its natural beauty and, as a public resource and source of tourism revenue, the state has an interest in protecting it. (e) Annual vegetative insurgence, along with the accumulation of waste in the river, puts surrounding communities, including farming communities and the land that is farmed, at risk for flooding. (f) The Salinas River Lagoon is home to rare, threatened, and endangered species, including tidewater goby (Eucyclogobius newberryi) and western snowy plover (charadrius nivosus), and home to numerous plant communities. (g) The Salinas River Lagoon is surrounded by some of the most productive agricultural lands in the world, which support an annual $40,000,000 artichoke crop agricultural industry. (h) Lagoon management is essential to the safety of the developed residential and agricultural areas surrounding the lagoon within the 100-year floodplain due to the periodic flooding from high river flows and ocean storms almost annually or, in some cases, multiple inundations in one year. (i) Management of the lagoon is a component of the long-term Salinas River Management Program and represents an essential element of the Salinas River system. (j) The Board of Directors and Board of Supervisors of the Monterey County Water Resources Agency have approved the Winter 2015-2016 Sandbar Management Plan Project, and permitting agencies expect that measurable progress occur on obtaining full, nonemergency, permits and a commitment to developing a long-term plan. (k) Providing the Monterey County Water Resources Agency with the resources necessary to address annual aggressive vegetative insurgence, trash, and sediment management in the Salinas River is critical in helping maintain the natural splendor of the Monterey Bay environment and its economies, while protecting the people in surrounding communities. SEC. 2. The Legislature finds and declares that a special law is necessary and that a general law cannot be made applicable within the meaning of Section 16 of Article IV of the California Constitution because of the unique need to maintain the Salinas River and the Salinas River Lagoon in order to protect the ecosystem of the Monterey Bay, as both a public resource and a source of tourism revenue, and to protect surrounding communities from the risk of flooding. SEC. 3. There is hereby appropriated one million dollars ($1,000,000) from the General Fund to the Monterey County Water Resources Agency to initiate efforts to do any of the following in the Salinas River: (a) Assist in the removal of excess vegetation and trash. (b) Increase the efficiency of instream flow using sediment and vegetation management strategies. (c) Support the development and implementation of long-term management policies. SEC. 4. This act is an urgency statute necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety within the meaning of Article IV of the Constitution and shall go into immediate effect. The facts constituting the necessity are: In order to protect the Salinas Valley and Monterey Bay from flooding during a historic El Nio weather pattern, it is necessary that this act take effect immediately.