Water quality and storage.

(1) Existing law establishes the Department of Water Resources in the Natural Resources Agency, and, among other things, empowers the department to conduct investigations of all or any portion of any stream, stream system, lake, or other body of water. Existing law requires all moneys, except for fines and penalties, collected by the State Air Resources Board from the auction or sale of allowances as part of a market-based compliance mechanism relative to reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to be deposited in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. This bill would require the department to increase statewide water storage capacity by 25% by January 1, 2025, and 50% by January 1, 2050, as specified. The bill would require the department, on or before January 1, 2017, to identify the current statewide water storage capacity and prepare a strategy and implementation plan to achieve those expansions in statewide water storage capacity, and would require the department to update the strategy and implementation plan on January 1, 2018, and every 2 years thereafter, until January 1, 2050. The bill would require the Legislative Analyst's Office to report to the Legislature on January 1, 2020, and every 5 years thereafter, until January 1, 2050, on the department's progress on achieving those required increases in statewide water storage capacity, as specified. The bill would, beginning in the 2016–17 fiscal year, continuously appropriate 25% of the annual proceeds of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund to the department to comply with these requirements. (2) Existing law establishes the State Water Resources Control Board and the 9 California regional water quality control boards as the principal state agencies with authority over matters relating to water quality. Existing law requires the state board to formulate and adopt state policy for water quality control. Existing law requires each regional board to formulate and adopt water quality control plans for all areas within the region and prohibits a water quality control plan, or a revision of the plan, adopted by a regional board, from becoming effective unless it is approved by the state board. Existing law, the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, requires all groundwater basins designated as high- or medium-priority basins by the Department of Water Resources that are designated as basins subject to critical conditions of overdraft to be managed under a groundwater sustainability plan or coordinated groundwater sustainability plans by January 31, 2020, and requires all other groundwater basins designated as high- or medium-priority basins to be managed under a groundwater sustainability plan or coordinated groundwater sustainability plans by January 31, 2022, except as specified. This bill would require the state board, in formulating state policy for water quality control and adopting or approving a water quality control plan for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, to take into consideration, consistent with the requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act, any applicable groundwater sustainability plan or alternative and available information and data regarding the impacts of groundwater use and management on beneficial uses of surface waters.