AB 514: Water: emergency water supplies. - California

04/03/25 - Amended Assembly → 05/01/25 - Amended Assembly · 4 edits · May 1, 2025

MODERATE

The May 1 amendment to AB 514 primarily cleans up redundant and duplicated language from the April 3 version in both the legislative findings and the operative definition section. The most substantive change clarifies that 'emergency water supplies' must have been developed by a local or regional water supplier, not merely identified in a plan, and restructures the definitions into a numbered list format.

DEFINITION

The definition of 'emergency water supplies' in Section 106.6(b) was restructured from a single paragraph into a numbered list ('both of the following definitions apply'). The definition now explicitly requires that the supplier has 'developed and identified' the supplies in a contingency plan, rather than just 'identified' them. This narrows the scope by requiring active development of the supply, not just its listing in a plan.

In the findings section (Section 1(e)), the phrase 'and unplanned water service or supply disruptions' was added to the end of the sentence about mitigating impacts of more frequent droughts, broadening the stated policy purpose to explicitly cover unplanned disruptions alongside drought.

TECHNICAL

Multiple instances of duplicated or redundant text from a prior amendment were cleaned up throughout Section 1 findings (e.g., 'adapt adaptation' became 'adaptation', 'mitigate mitigation' became 'mitigation', 'ensure support' became 'support'). These are editorial corrections with no policy effect.

Section 106.6(c) had minor wording fixes: removed a stray 'or' before 'does not authorize' and removed a duplicated word ('right right' became 'right'). No substantive change to the legal effect of the provision.

02/10/25 - Introduced → 04/03/25 - Amended Assembly · 5 edits · Apr 3, 2025

MODERATE

The amended version of AB 514 expands the scope of emergency water supply policy from local water suppliers only to both local and regional water suppliers, adds a new definition of 'water supplier' that includes agricultural purposes (not just municipal), requires an established legal right for supplies to qualify as emergency water supplies, and strengthens protections by clarifying the section does not authorize interference with water rights or require modification of existing contingency plans.

SCOPE

The policy declaration now covers 'both local and regional water suppliers' instead of only 'local water suppliers,' broadening who the state policy encourages to develop emergency water supplies.

The findings section is updated to reference both locally and regionally developed emergency water supplies, and acknowledges that while suppliers have invested in water reliability and resilience generally, the number of dedicated emergency water supplies developed has been limited.

DEFINITION

A new definition of 'water supplier' is added, meaning a public or privately owned supplier that provides water for municipal or agricultural purposes. This expands applicability beyond just municipal water providers to include agricultural suppliers.

The definition of 'emergency water supplies' now requires that the water supplier has an 'established legal right' to the supplies, adding a legal certainty requirement not present in the introduced version.

REQUIREMENT

Section (c) is revised to clarify that the section does not authorize a water supplier to interfere with any water right, contractual right, or statutory obligation related to water exchange, conveyance, or storage. It also adds language stating the section does not require a water supplier to modify a water shortage contingency or drought plan.

05/01/25 - Amended Assembly → AB514 · 1 edit

MINOR

No substantive policy changes were made between these two versions. The differences are entirely formatting and presentation: the old version used a printed legislative format with line numbers and page headers, while the new version is a web page rendering of the identical bill text. All findings, definitions, policy declarations, and statutory language remain unchanged.

TECHNICAL

The bill text was reformatted from a printed legislative document layout (with line numbers, page breaks, and column formatting) to a web page presentation with navigation elements, version dropdowns, and metadata. No policy content was altered.

Water: emergency water supplies.

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