21504-21507
PUBLIC UTILITIES CODE
SECTION 21504-21507
21504. The Legislature finds and declares as follows: (a) Representatives from the aviation community, electric utility industry, and government agencies voluntarily convened a working group in July 1992 to develop a comprehensive program to improve low-level flight safety throughout California. (b) The working group found that the prevention of aircraft wire strikes and losses through (1) pilot education and awareness and (2) selective marking of those wires and supporting structures that present a hazard to low-level flight safety are equally important to improving low-level flight safety throughout the state. (c) The working group developed criteria for marking selected wires and supporting structures based upon visibility and likelihood of aircraft activity, which now must be evaluated in the field. (d) It is, therefore, the intent of the Legislature in enacting this chapter to implement recommendations of the working group to undertake a pilot education and awareness program and to evaluate the criteria for marking selected wires and supporting structures in the field. 21505. (a) The Division of Aeronautics, in cooperation with the aviation industry and the electric utility industry and in consultation with the Federal Aviation Administration, shall coordinate and disseminate information provided by the working group to pilots to increase awareness of wire hazards and to communicate techniques for identifying and avoiding wires. (b) For purposes of coordinating and disseminating the information provided to the division by the working group pursuant to subdivision (a), every electrical corporation and publicly owned electrical utility in this state which serves 250,000 or more customers shall pay a one-time fee in a sufficient amount so that the total of all fees collected does not exceed one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000). The fee shall be in the proportion that each utility's total miles of transmission line greater than 110 kilovolts bears to the total miles of transmission line greater than 110 kilovolts statewide. (c) All fees collected pursuant to subdivision (b) shall be deposited in the Aeronautics Account in the State Transportation Fund to be continuously appropriated to the Department of Transportation for the purposes set forth in subdivision (a). 21507. All costs incurred by an electrical corporation pursuant to this chapter shall be deemed reasonable by the commission and shall be fully recoverable through rates.