On Tuesday August 4, President Trump signed the Great Outdoors
Act into law. The new law was passed with bi-partisan support and
will provide up to $9.5 billion over five years to fix deferred
maintenance at national parks, wildlife refuges, forests, and
other federal lands, with $6.5 billion earmarked specifically to
the 419 national park units. The Act is expected to create more
than 108,000 new jobs to repair park infrastructure, including
access roads and bridges in adjacent communities.
Department of Water Resources (DWR) is conducting its first
Sustainable Groundwater Management (SGM) Implementation Grant
solicitation, providing a minimum of $103 million in
Proposition 68 funds for competitive grants. The Round 1 grant
solicitation will provide $26 million for critically overdrafted
(COD) basins only. The future Round 2 grant solicitation will
provide a minimum of $77 million for medium- and high-priority
(including COD) basins. The two rounds of grant solicitations may
fund implementation projects that:
The CSAC AENR team will be monitoring the following bills during
the last month of session and has a support position on the
following two bills which have been set for hearing.
This week, the Office of Administrative Law submitted an approved
emergency rulemaking regarding Fire Safe Regulations to the
Secretary of State. These new rules are now in effect across the
state. Earlier this year, the California Board of Forestry and
Fire Protection (Board) decided to move forward with an emergency
rulemaking to clarify the applicability of the existing SRA Fire
Safe Regulations and inspection authorities to increase the
availability of affordable housing in the state and improve the
safety of communities developed in the SRA.
As many counties are beginning to implement groundwater
management programs under the Sustainable Groundwater Management
Act (SGMA), the Department of Conservation will host two
workshops to answer potential applicants’ questions about the
SGMA Watershed Coordinator Program application. The workshops
will take place on August 6 and
August 11 and are open to all interested
applicants. Each workshop will cover the same content.
CSAC is requesting feedback on the following proposed bills
related to fire insurance in high fire threat areas by close of
business Thursday, July 30. Please email Legislative Analyst
Nick Cronenwett at ncronenwett@counties.org
with any thoughts or feedback.
The Caltrans Landscape Architecture Program, in partnership with
CalRecycle, University of California Riverside, University of
Washington, Filtrexx Sustainable Technologies, Salix Applied
Earthcare, United States Composting Council, California Compost
Coalition, and R. Alexander Associates, Inc., is presenting two
half-day workshops that focus on the use of compost-based best
management practices (BMPs) to improve roadside revegetation,
control erosion, filter stormwater, reduce runoff, and improve
stormwater quality.
Governor Newsom recently visited McClellan Air Force Base to
highlight the state’s wildfire mitigation capabilities and
discuss new efforts to protect emergency personnel and evacuees
from COVID-19 during wildfires. The Governor also announced the
state would hire 858 more firefighters and six California
Conservation Corps (CCC) crews through October because of the
COVID-19 pandemic. These crews are anticipated due, in part, to
the reduction in inmate crews from correctional facilities.
CSAC and a coalition of local government advocates, consumer
rights groups, and telecommunications companies have filed a
joint motion to require the California Public Utilities
Commission to review PSPS after-action reports in order to make a
determination on whether the benefits of the decision to
de-energize outweighed potential impacts to public safety.
In April, CSAC along with RCRC and a number of other local
governments and energy advocates filed a joint motion requesting
the CPUC to issue emergency PSPS de-energization protocols for
electric investor-owned utilities (IOUs) that specifically take
the COVID-19 pandemic into consideration. The CPUC has taken no
action on this request to date. In the face of shelter in place
orders and a global pandemic, PSPS events could be even more
impactful than in previous years.
On June 11th, the CPUC released a
proposed decision that would require wireless providers to
develop comprehensive resiliency strategies to prepare for
catastrophic disasters and power outages. This decision would
promulgate resiliency requirements for wireless provider’s
facilities in Tier 2 and Tier 3 High Fire Threat Districts.
Specifically, the decision would:
CSAC is requesting feedback regarding how the following bills
might impact counties. Policy areas for these bills include
wildfire, PSPS, resource recovery, and flood control. Please
email Legislative Analyst, Nick Cronenwett at ncronenwett@counties.org
with any thoughts or feedback.
The California Fire Foundation is accepting application for its
Fire Prevention Grant Program through July 15. Applications
will be considered on a rolling basis for awards of up to $15,000
per grantee and early application is recommended.
The Legislature has been holding hearings to consider bills in
policy and fiscal committees since it reconvened from emergency
recess in early May. The number of bills has been pared-back
significantly compared to what’s typical for this time of the
year. And although response to COVID-19 and its economic fallout
has become a key legislative focus, other legislative priorities
also continue to advance. CSAC has been actively tracking several
CEQA-related measures described below with implications for small
water projects, housing, and transportation projects.
Next Friday, May 29 from 9:30 to 10:30 AM, CSAC will host a
roundtable Zoom call with PG&E staff and representatives from
counties in PG&E territory. CSAC staff sent out invitations
to this meeting to CSAC’s Board members with PG&E as a
service provider in their county on May 19. CSAC is respectfully
requesting that counties choose one representative to join the
call. Please RSVP your county’s selection to Nick
Cronenwett at ncronenwett@counites.org by
May 27.
