Bill > AB497

This bill requires the State Water Resources Control Board (the "board") to update the Water Quality Control Plan for the San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Estuary (Bay-Delta Plan) by August 31, 2026, specifically addressing the Sacramento River and its tributaries, Delta eastside tributaries, and the Delta itself. The bill also exempts the board from certain procedural requirements under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), a state law that mandates environmental impact reviews for projects, when it comes to a specific draft substitute environmental document related to this Bay-Delta Plan update. This exemption means the board will not be required to prepare, provide for review, transmit to state agencies, or include written or oral responses to comments on this particular draft document, and the absence of such responses will not be grounds for legal challenges to the board's actions under CEQA. The bill acknowledges that the board's water quality planning programs are already certified as regulatory programs and are exempt from some CEQA requirements, and it states the Legislature's intent to pass future legislation to further streamline the process for approving this Bay-Delta Plan update.

Agriculture and Natural Resources

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billStatusClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB497