73500-73514
WATER CODE
SECTION 73500-73514
73500. This division shall be known as and may be cited as the
Wholesale Regional Water System Security and Reliability Act.
73501. (a) Unless the context otherwise requires, the definitions
set forth in this section govern the construction of this division.
(b) "Association" means the San Francisco Bay Area Water Users
Association.
(c) "Bay area regional water system" means the facilities for the
storage, treatment, and transmission of water located in the Counties
of Tuolumne, Stanislaus, San Joaquin, Alameda, Santa Clara, and San
Mateo, together with three terminal reservoirs in the city.
(d) "Bay area wholesale customers" means the 25 public agencies in
the Counties of San Mateo, Alameda, and Santa Clara that purchase
water from the city pursuant to the master water sales contract,
including the Alameda County Water District, the City of Brisbane,
the City of Burlingame, the Coastside County Water District, the City
of Daly City, the City of East Palo Alto, the Estero Municipal
Improvement District, Guadalupe Valley Municipal Improvement
District, City of Hayward, the Town of Hillsborough, the City of
Menlo Park, the Mid-Peninsula Water District, the City of Millbrae,
the City of Milpitas, the City of Mountain View, the North Coast
County Water District, the City of Palo Alto, the Purissima Hills
Water District, the City of Redwood City, the City of San Bruno, the
City of San Jose, the City of Santa Clara, the Skyline County Water
District, the City of Sunnyvale, and the Westborough Water District,
Stanford University, the California Water Service Company, and the
Cordilleras Mutual Water Association.
(e) "City" means the City and County of San Francisco.
(f) "Master water sales contract" means the agreement entitled
"Settlement Agreement and Master Water Sales Contract between the
City and County of San Francisco and Certain Suburban Purchasers"
entered into in 1984 by the city and the wholesale customers.
(g) "Regional water system" means facilities for the storage,
treatment, and transmission of water owned and operated by a regional
wholesale water supplier, other than the city.
(h) "Regional wholesale water supplier" means any city, county, or
city and county, including the city, that operates a regional water
system, and furnishes water on a wholesale basis to local government
agencies and public utilities that, in turn, supply water to a
combined population of 1.5 million or more residents of geographic
areas outside the boundary of the regional wholesale water supplier.
(i) "Wholesale customers" means local government agencies and
public utilities, including, but not limited to, the bay area
wholesale customers, that purchase water from a regional wholesale
water supplier and distribute that water to retail customers in their
respective service areas.
73502. (a) The city, on or before February 1, 2003, shall adopt the
program of capital improvement projects designed to restore and
improve the bay area regional water system that are described in the
capital improvement program report prepared by the San Francisco
Public Utilities Commission dated February 25, 2002. A copy of the
program shall be submitted, on or before March 1, 2003, to the State
Department of Health Services. The program shall include a schedule
for the completion of design and award of contract, and commencement
and completion of construction of each described project. The
schedule shall require that projects representing 50 percent of the
total program cost be completed on or before 2010 and that projects
representing 100 percent of the total program cost be completed on or
before 2015. The program shall also contain a financing plan. The
city shall review and update the program, as necessary, based on
changes in the schedule set forth in the plan adopted pursuant to
subdivision (d).
(b) The plan shall require completion of the following projects:
Project
Identification
Project Location Number
1. Irvington Alameda/Santa 9970
Tunnel
Alternative Clara Counties
2. Crystal San Mateo 201671
Springs Pump County
Station
& Pipeline
3. BDPL 1 & 2- Alameda/San 99
Repair of
Mateo Counties
Caissons/Pipe
Bridge
4. BDPL Pipeline Alameda County 128
Upgrades at
Hayward Fault
5. Calaveras Alameda County 9897
Fault Crossing
Upgrade
6. Crystal San Mateo 9891
Springs Bypass County
Pipeline
7. BDPL Cross Alameda/Santa 202339
Connections 3 &
Clara Counties
4
8. Conveyance Alameda/Santa 201441
Capacity West of
Clara/San
Irvington Tunnel Mateo
Counties
9. Calaveras Dam Alameda County 202135
Seismic
Improvements
(c) The city shall submit a report to the Joint Legislative Audit
Committee, the Seismic Safety Commission, and the State Department of
Public Health, on or before September 1 of each year, describing the
progress made on the implementation of the capital improvement
program for the bay area regional water system during the previous
fiscal year. The city shall identify in the report any project that
is behind schedule, and, for each project so identified, shall
describe the city's plan and timeline for either making up the delay
or adopting a revised schedule pursuant to subdivision (d).
(d) (1) The city may determine that completion dates for projects
contained in the capital improvement program adopted pursuant to
subdivision (a), including those projects described in subdivision
(b), should be delayed or that different projects should be
constructed.
(2) The city shall provide written notice, not less than 30 days
prior to the date of a meeting of the city agency responsible for
management of the bay area regional water system, that a change in
the program is to be considered. The notice shall include information
about the reason for the proposed change and the availability of
materials related to the proposed change. All bay area wholesale
customers shall be permitted to testify or otherwise submit comments
at the meeting.
(3) If the city adopts a change in the program that deletes one or
more projects from the program, or postpones the scheduled
completion dates, the city shall promptly furnish a copy of that
change and the reasons for that change to the State Department of
Public Health and the Seismic Safety Commission. The State Department
of Public Health and the Seismic Safety Commission shall each submit
written comments with regard to the significance of that change with
respect to public health and safety to the city and the Joint
Legislative Audit Committee not later than 90 days after the date on
which those entities received notice of that change.
73503. (a) The city, in consultation with the association and the
offices of emergency services in Alameda County, Santa Clara County,
and San Mateo County, shall prepare an emergency response plan
describing how water service will be restored to the area served by
the bay area regional water system after an interruption caused by
earthquake or other natural or manmade catastrophe, and thereafter
shall be implemented.
(b) During any interruption in supply caused by earthquake, or
other natural or manmade catastrophe, a regional wholesale water
supplier shall distribute water to customers on an equitable basis,
to the extent feasible given physical damage to the regional water
system, without preference or discrimination based on a customer's
geographic location within or outside the boundary of the regional
wholesale water supplier.
73504. (a) Commencing in 2003, a regional wholesale water supplier
shall submit a report to the Legislature and the State Department of
Public Health, on or before February 1 of each year, describing the
progress made during the previous calendar year on securing
supplemental sources of water to augment existing supplies during dry
years.
(b) In order to supply adequately, dependably, and safely the
requirements of all users of water, the city shall continue its
practice of operating the reservoirs in the Counties of Tuolumne and
Stanislaus in a manner that ensures that the generation of
hydroelectric power will not cause any reasonably anticipated adverse
impact on water service. The city shall assign higher priority to
delivery of water to the bay area than to the generation of electric
power, unless the Secretary of the Interior, in writing, notifies the
city that doing so would violate the Raker Act (63 P.L. 41). The
city shall make available to the public, on request, its plans of
operations (rule curves) for these reservoirs.
(c) The city shall be deemed to be a local public agency for the
purposes of Article 4 (commencing with Section 1810) of Chapter 11 of
Part 2 of Division 2.
73505. The State Department of Health Services shall conduct an
audit, or arrange for an audit to be performed by contract, of the
city's program of maintenance of the bay area regional water system
prior to July 1, 2004. The audit shall include both of the following:
(a) A review of the adequacy of the city's procedures and
resources for all of the following:
(1) Identifying needed maintenance.
(2) Planning, budgeting, scheduling, and completing maintenance.
(3) Recordkeeping of maintenance activities.
(b) A field investigation of the major facilities of the bay area
regional water system to determine the general condition of those
facilities and the adequacy of existing maintenance efforts.
(c) The State Department of Health Services shall submit a report
to the city, the Joint Legislative Audit Committee, and the Seismic
Safety Commission on its findings and recommendations based on the
audit on or before January 1, 2005.
73506. The State Department of Health Services shall conduct an
audit of the regional water systems operated by all regional
wholesale water suppliers, other than the city, subject to this
division and shall submit to the Legislature a report thereon on or
before February 1, 2006.
73508. If the city and the bay area wholesale customers that are
public agencies form a special district with authority and
responsibility to own, operate, and manage the bay area regional
water system and whose governing board's composition reflects the
proportionate use of water delivered by the bay area regional water
system within the city and within the aggregate geographic area
served by the bay area wholesale customers, the obligations imposed
on the city by this division shall be applicable to that district.
The city shall be relieved of all obligations under this division at
the time the ownership and control of the bay area regional water
system are transferred to that district.
73510. Notwithstanding Section 116500 of the Health and Safety
Code, the State Department of Public Health shall ensure that the bay
area regional water system is operated in compliance with the
California Safe Drinking Water Act (Chapter 4 (commencing with
Section 116275) of Part 12 of Division 104 of the Health and Safety
Code) and the guidelines established by the United States
Environmental Protection Agency for the purposes of administering the
comparable provisions of the federal Safe Drinking Water Act (42
U.S.C. Sec. 300f et seq.).
73511. A special district composed of some or all of the bay area
wholesale customers may receive state funds for the purpose of
protecting the bay area regional water system against seismic risk,
without regard to whether the city is a member of that district.
73512. A regional wholesale water supplier shall reimburse the
state for all costs incurred by the State Department of Public Health
or the Seismic Safety Commission in carrying out the duties imposed
by this division. The bay area wholesale customers shall reimburse
the city for their share of those costs as provided in the master
water sales contract. The wholesale customers of regional wholesale
water suppliers other than the city are responsible for reimbursing
the regional wholesale water supplier for their proportionate share
of those costs, through the imposition of water charges.
73513. Nothing in this division affects the rights and obligations
of the city, the Modesto Irrigation District, or the Turlock
Irrigation District, as between themselves, whether arising from
statute or contract.
73513.5. Nothing in this division changes the governance, control,
or ownership of the bay area regional water system.
73514. This division shall remain in effect only until January 1,
2015, and as of that date is repealed, unless a later enacted
statute, that is enacted before January 1, 2015, deletes or extends
that date.