Dams and reservoirs: exclusions: publicly owned or operated regulating basins.

Existing law requires the Department of Water Resources to supervise the maintenance and operation of dams and reservoirs as necessary to safeguard life and property. Existing law requires the department to adopt, by regulation, a schedule of fees to cover the department's costs in carrying out the supervision of dam safety. Existing law excludes certain obstructions from being considered a dam, including a barrier that is not across a stream channel, watercourse, or natural drainage area and that has the principal purpose of impounding water for agricultural use. This bill would additionally exclude from being considered a dam a regulating basin, as defined, owned or operated by a public entity that is not across a stream channel, watercourse, or natural drainage if certain criteria are met, including, among other criteria, that the owner or operator of the regulating basin, before the construction of the regulating basin, submit to the department an inundation map, stamped by a licensed civil engineer, identifying the flow and depth of water from the regulating basin in the event of a failure of a barrier constructed to form the regulating basin, and that the owner or operator, immediately upon the identification of a failure or the risk of failure of a barrier or works critical to the safe operation of the regulating basin, notify the county sheriff and local emergency managers of all properties likely to be impacted by a failure. The bill would define "natural drainage" for purposes of these provisions. The bill would also make nonsubstantive changes.