Lake and streambed alteration agreements: endangered species.

(1) Existing law prohibits a person, a state or local governmental agency, or a public utility from substantially diverting or obstructing the natural flow of, or substantially changing or using any material from the bed, channel, or bank of, any river, stream, or lake, or depositing or disposing of debris, waste, or other material containing crumbled, flaked, or ground pavement where it may pass into any river, stream, or lake, unless prescribed requirements are met, including written notification to the Department of Fish and Game regarding the activity. Existing law requires the department to determine whether the activity may substantially adversely affect an existing fish and wildlife resource and, if so, to provide a draft lake or streambed alteration agreement to the person, agency, or utility. Existing law prescribes various requirements for lake and streambed alteration agreements. Existing law also establishes various exemptions, including exemptions for specified emergency work and certain agreements relating to water supply, drainage, flood control, or waste treatment and disposal facilities attained prior to January 1, 1977, after the initial notification and agreement. This bill would modify that prohibition to prohibit the installation of a new diversion or means of diversion, or the substantial alteration of an existing means of diversion, that will substantially affect a river, stream, or lake as described above, unless prescribed requirements are met. The bill would delete that exemption for pre-1977 agreements, and, instead exempt from the notice and agreement requirements, after the initial notification and agreement, an activity that involves the routine maintenance and operation of water supply, drainage, flood control, or waste treatment and disposal facilities constructed and in existence before 2000, unless the work has substantially changed or conditions affecting fish and wildlife resources have substantially changed, and those resources may be adversely affected by the activity conducted under the agreement. The bill would require the department to contact the entity performing the activity and suggest alternative means of maintaining and operating the facilities consistent with maintaining the full use and function of the facilities and the full use of any water diverted or used by or through those facilities. The bill would establish enforcement procedures if no agreement is reached. The bill would also exempt immediate emergency work necessary to maintain the use of facilities employed and regularly used for the diversion or discharge of water. (2) The California Endangered Species Act, until January 1, 2014, exempts from its provisions the accidental take of candidate, threatened, or endangered species resulting from acts that occur on a farm or a ranch in the course of otherwise lawful routine and ongoing agricultural activities. This bill would expand the exemption to include all acts in the course of otherwise lawful routine and ongoing agricultural activities, without regard to location. The bill would specify that those acts include the diversion of water and use of water for agricultural purposes.