IID takes position on four bills in legislature

During its Board of Directors meeting Tuesday, the Imperial Irrigation District took an official stance on four different bills that have been introduced in the state legislature. The board voted unanimously to support Assembly Bill 18, Senate Bill 5, Senate Bill 615 and Senate Bill 701.

“Some of these have a direct impact on regional priorities. Priorities that have been established by this board,” said IID Governmental Affairs Officer Antonio Ortega.

AB 18, authored by Assemblyman Eduardo Garcia, is a $3.1 billion park bond proposal that if approved by the voters would allocate $20 million for Salton Sea projects and an additional $10 million for New River projects. In the other chamber of the legislature, SB 5 authored by Sen. Kevin De Leon, introduced a similar bill in the senate in the amount of $3.5 billion which would appropriate $40 million for Salton Sea projects and also $10 million for the New River. Included in the package of bills that IID voted to support Tuesday include SB 615, authored by Sen. Ben Hueso, which instructs the Natural Resources Agency to develop a 10-year plan with the Department of the Interior pertaining to the Salton Sea. Since the CNRA published a plan last month, Ortega said the bill is expected to shift to a broader focus on Salton Sea governance. The IID is willing to support the bill provided that a provision is added to recognize the continued jurisdiction the State Water Resources Control Board on Salton Sea restoration efforts at the state level.

General Manager Kevin Kelly pointed out that the same provision was also recommended by Imperial County and San Diego County Water Authority.

Board Vice President Norma Sierra Galindo mentioned during the discussion that the state’s plan falls well below what the IID is looking for.

“It lacks a tremendous amount of substance, it’s open-ended in many categories, and convoluted,” Galindo said. “It does have some matters and issues we wanted to be included but it’s by far nowhere near what we’re looking for.”

The board also voted in favor of supporting SB 701 which would enact the State Resources Obligations Act of 2018. The objective of the legislation is to authorize the issuance of bonds to comply with specific state obligations relating to natural resources. One of those obligations being the Quantification Settlement Agreement.

Additionally, Ortega presented a priority watch list for five different bills for which is still too early to take a formal position in.

The list of bills includes AB 920 which would require 20 percent of RPS requirements to come from baseload renewable sources such as biomass and geothermal. The reason IID is not taking a position on the bill is because in its language it would only benefit existing geothermal sources. Ortega said staff will reach out to the bill author to discuss whether it’s possible to amend it to include a broader base that can allow development of new local geothermal resources.

SB 584, which calls for 100 RPS by 2045 is in the watch list as of now since it’s only a spot bill for the time being and has no details pertaining to rooftop solar and large hydro which currently don’t count toward the RPS. The other bills include SB 759 which would eliminate drilling fees for geothermal, SB 57 which prohibits injecting natural gas into the Aliso Canyon storage facility until a root-cause analysis of the leak from the facility is complete and AB 1405 which could require utilities increase the percentage of clean peak resources it delivers during the hours of higher demand.