Water is a public trust and it is protected by law. It is important for us, the public, to have at least a cursory or ‘lay-mans’ understanding of the rules that were created to protect us. That which we don’t understand now will cost us later.

It is important to know that a new state law took effect in January 2002. It requires that most large development projects comply with certain basic rules. These are intended to assure the adequacy of a project’s water supply before the project is approved.

This water management legislation: SB221 and SB610 requires an increased effort to identify and assess the reliability of future water supplies. It also demands an increased level of communication between city and county community development, planning departments, impacted property owners, rate-payers, agencies, politicians and support staff.

SB610 strengthens the CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act) process by assuring  that the water supply issues are thoroughly and accurately considered as part of the environmental review process. This bill expands on Senate Bill 901, and further requires detailed water supply assessments, not only to the General Plan, but includes a full environmental impact report (EIR). This applies to a broad range of land-use planning and development action.  For example, if a city or county determines that a ‘project’ is subject to CEQA, it must comply with the water supply assessment procedure as detailed by part 2.10 of the state water code.

Essentially, residential projects of more than 500 units, and or commercial and industrial projects requiring the equal amounts of water, must provide a WSA and be exempted from further assessments. The exemption cannot be allowed if significant changes have occurred in the available water supply, or if new water availability has surfaced, i.e. loss of water contracts, depleted ground water (basin) supply, an extremely dry year, or drought conditions etc.

A city or county, considering a project, is required to request from the local provider the statutory Water Supply Assessment (WSA), at the point of determination, whether an EIR or mitigated negative declaration (ND). This latter is required under CEQA. WSA must include information detailed in the law, including identification of existing water supply contracts and entitlements. For instance, if ground water is anticipated as a water source, the WSA must include additional information on this. The water agency board must approve the WSA at a public meeting. The information from the WSA must be included in the CEQA document being used by the city or county. If this is delayed, the CEQA is halted, and the project’s certification is delayed. Regardless of the WSA’s conclusions, the city or county is required to make findings based on evidence as to whether or not sufficient water supplies exist to meet a project’s anticipated water demands.