Disaster preparedness: urban retail water suppliers and public water systems: wildfire.

The no-duty provision now begins with 'Notwithstanding any other law,' meaning it explicitly overrides any other state or local law that might require water systems to be designed, constructed, or maintained for wildfire defense or suppression. This is a significant strengthening from the prior version which only said 'Nothing in this section shall be interpreted to impose a duty.'

Assembly Member McKinnor was added as a coauthor, indicating additional legislative support for the bill.

The immunity clause was expanded. Previously it only protected against liability when a supplier failed to implement plan actions. Now it also explicitly states that the inability of any public water system (not just urban retail suppliers) to maintain water supply or pressure during a wildfire is not a substantial cause of wildfire damages. This broadens protection to wholesale water systems as well.

The summary/description section was reorganized and expanded to reflect the new 'notwithstanding any other law' language and the broadened immunity provision. The text now explicitly states the bill 'would prohibit anything, including any other law, from imposing a duty on public water systems.'

There appears to be a drafting error in the new immunity provision: it uses 'Neither...nor...shall not be considered a substantial cause,' which is a double negative that would technically mean both ARE substantial causes. The intended meaning is clearly that neither should be considered a substantial cause.

The bill moved from 'Amended Assembly' status to 'Enrolled' status, reflecting final passage in both chambers. No operative language was changed.

The digest title changed from 'SB 1153, as amended, Caballero' to 'SB 1153, Caballero', dropping the 'as amended' designation now that the bill is enrolled.

Web page navigation elements and legislative status metadata (passage dates, version history) were added as part of the online presentation format.

New requirement in paragraph (a)(2)(B)(ii) for urban retail water suppliers to assess the resilience of critical infrastructure in high or very high fire hazard severity zones, including identification of water pumps, water tanks, and backup electrical generation equipment, plus evaluation of fire hardening measures and alternative emergency power sources such as onsite generators, portable generators, or alternative water sources.

New paragraph (a)(4) requires urban retail water suppliers to provide their wildfire incident response procedures to the county Office of Emergency Services, subject to confidentiality provisions.

Paragraph (a)(2)(C) now specifically includes a plan to prepare water tanks during a red flag warning as part of wildfire response actions.

New paragraph (a)(3) establishes that the plan requirements do not change the confidentiality level for information provided, preserving the right to withhold or redact records under California Public Records Act exceptions.

Section 2(c) was reworded to clarify that an urban retail water supplier meeting the criteria in paragraph (1) is required to include incident-specific response procedures, and that failure to implement or comply with any actions in subdivision (a) shall not be considered a substantial cause of wildfire damages.

New Section 4 adds legislative findings that the bill limits the public's right of access to meetings and writings of public bodies under Article I, Section 3 of the California Constitution, justifying the limitation by stating that disclosure of operational and critical infrastructure information could increase risk of misuse by malicious actors.

Section 2(d) now references the definition of public water system function as described by subdivision (h) of Section 116275 of the Health and Safety Code and any other applicable laws governing system operations, narrowing the negligence liability carve-out.

Senator Rubio added as coauthor of the bill.

Added a new requirement that urban retail water suppliers meeting the criteria must review their disaster preparedness plans at least once every five years and update them as necessary.

Added a requirement that the resilience assessment must 'assess the risk wildfire poses to the identified critical infrastructure,' which was not in the prior version.

Removed the explicit statement that 'compliance with subdivision (a) shall be required' from the liability protection section, softening the mandatory language while retaining the requirement to include incident-specific response plans.

Expanded the list of critical infrastructure in the resilience assessment to include 'applicable pipelines' alongside water pumps, water tanks, and backup electrical generation equipment.

Narrowed what urban retail water suppliers must provide to the county Office of Emergency Services from all incident response procedures described in paragraph (2) to only the incident-specific response procedures required pursuant to paragraph (2)(1).

Added 'offices of emergency services' to the list of local emergency responders for coordination purposes in the preparation actions.

New subsection (a)(2) requires disaster preparedness plans to include, but not be limited to: (A) mitigation actions that consider system conditions, risks, operations, and available resources including financial and staffing constraints; (B) preparation actions such as identifying critical infrastructure and coordinating with local emergency responders including cities, counties, fire agencies, and law enforcement; (C) response actions including immediate response steps and a communications strategy for customers; and (D) recovery actions including water system damage assessments and long-term adaptation measures.

Subsection (c) was rewritten to clarify that while compliance with the plan requirements is mandatory, the identified mitigation actions are 'intended to inform preparedness and response planning, not to guarantee the ability of a public water system to maintain water supply or water pressure during a wildfire.' This narrows the scope of liability protection compared to the prior version, which simply stated noncompliance would not be a substantial cause of damages.

The digest was updated to reflect the new plan content requirements (adding 'among other things') and the revised liability language. Several apparent typos were introduced in the digest text including duplicated words ('Services Services', 'incident-specific incident-specific', 'include include').

A duplicate empty subsection labeled (d) that appeared in the March 25 version was removed, resolving a drafting error where two subsections shared the same letter.

New subdivision (d) added to Section 8607.3 stating that nothing in the section shall be construed to limit or affect liability for injury or damage resulting from a negligent act or omission of an entity operating a public water system for its intended purpose and function. This carves out an exception to the broad wildfire liability immunity, ensuring water systems can still be held liable for ordinary negligence.

The definitions subdivision was renumbered from (d) to (e) to accommodate the newly inserted subdivision (d).