Once-through cooling policy: extension.

Under existing law, the State Water Resources Control Board and the 9 California regional water quality control boards regulate water quality in accordance with the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act and the federal Clean Water Act. Under the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act, the state board is required to adopt specified state policies with respect to water quality as it relates to the coastal marine environment, including a policy requiring new or expanded coastal powerplants and other industrial installations using seawater for cooling, heating, or industrial processing to use the best available site, design, technology, and mitigation measures feasible to minimize the intake and mortality of all forms of marine life. Pursuant to that policy, the state board has adopted a policy to phase out once-through cooling for powerplants. This bill would prohibit the state board from granting an operator of a powerplant additional time for complying with the once-through cooling policy adopted by the state board if the powerplant is situated on a site containing coastal wetlands, as specified, and a local agency, nonprofit organization, or nongovernmental land conservation organization has been awarded a grant on or before January 1, 2020, for the purposes of acquiring all or a portion of the site of the powerplant to develop parklands and restore wetlands. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.