Source watersheds: financing.

Existing law establishes various state water policies, including the policy that the Legislature consider other works as may be necessary to develop water to satisfy the requirements of the watershed in which water originates whenever the Legislature authorizes the construction or acquisition of a project that will develop water for use outside that watershed, as specified. This bill would declare it to be state policy that source watersheds are recognized and defined as integral components of California's water infrastructure. The bill would state the particular importance to maintaining the reliability, quantity, timing, and quality of California's environmental, drinking, and agricultural water supply as climate change advances of source watersheds that supply the majority of the state's drinking and irrigated agricultural water. The bill would state that the maintenance and repair of source watersheds is eligible for the same forms of financing as other water collection and treatment infrastructure and would specify that the maintenance and repair activities that are eligible are limited to specified forest ecosystem restoration and conservation activities.