BILL ANALYSIS SENATE NATURAL RESOURCES AND WILDLIFE BILL NO: AB 297 Senator Tom Hayden, Chair AUTHOR: Thomson VERSION: Original: February 8, 1999 Amended: April 27, 1999 FISCAL: Yes URGENCY: No CONSULTANT: K.M. Neiswender HEARING DATE: April 22, 1999 {u SUBJECT: u} Surface Mining and Reclamation - Cache Creek Management Plan {u ISSUE: u} Should the legislature allow the Cache Creek Management Plan to serve as a functional equivalent for the Reclamation Plan process under the Surface Mining and Reclamation Act ("SMARA")? {u SUMMARY: u} This bill would amend SMARA, to allow the Cache Creek Resource Management Plan to serve as a reclamation plan under SMARA until December 31, 2003. The bill also creates a task force to report on the success of area-wide restoration plans, used in lieu of a reclamation plan, with a report due by January 1, 2001. {u BACKGROUND & EXISTING LAW: u} Cache Creek has been used as a mining resource for more than a hundred years. Mining has deepened the channel, shrunk the flood plan, and damaged oak woodlands along the banks. However, the vast majority of the woodlands are gone, cut down decades ago. Most of the land adjacent to Cache Creek is now agricultural. Diversion of Creek water for irrigation occurred in the 1850s and 1860s, perhaps the earliest diversion for agricultural purposes in the state. The Creek has always been, and continues to be, an excellent source of aggregate. As part of the overall plan for management of Cache Creek, Yolo County created the Cache Creek Management Plan, banning commercial mining in the creek bed, imposing a 20-cent fee per ton on aggregate removal in off-channel areas, and planning restoration of certain riparian areas along the Creek. To that end, the County recently purchased 130 acres on the creek, and is in the process of creating wetland habitat and an educational area. While the Cache Creek Plan bans commercial mining in the creek bed, some removal of aggregate may be required to maintain the flow depth of the main channel (which continues to collect aggregate, washing down from the head of the river), to protect against wash-outs of agricultural land, and to protect bridges along the river. In the event some removal of aggregate from the channel is required, the Cache Creek Technical Advisory Committee, a sub-agency of the County, would utilize a commercial mining operation to remove the aggregate, but the County would be the "operator" of the "mine" (as those terms are defined under SMARA), and would provide the financial assurances for the operation. In order to remove aggregate for this purpose, SMARA normally requires a Reclamation Plan and financial assurances. The problem with the SMARA requirements is the speed of the process; the Cache Creek Plan anticipates small projects to shore-up a bank or re-align the river, which would be conceived, planned and carried out within the summer months, from April or May through October or November. The SMARA process would not allow for approval within that short a time frame. This legislation is needed because SMARA does not allow for a plan, such as the Cache Creek Management Plan, to serve as a Reclamation Plan. {u PROPOSED LAW: u} This bill would allow the Cache Creek Resources Management Plan to serve as the functional equivalent of a Reclamation Plan under SMARA. The Cache Creek Plan appears to include all the safeguards of SMARA, and has additional benefits built in, through plans for riparian habitat restoration. The law would sunset on December 31, 2003, unless the task force recommended changes. An interagency task force, comprised of Fish & Game, the Army Corps of Engineers, State Water Resources and others, would report to the Legislature by January 1, 2001 on the success of using area-wide restoration plans (such as the Cache Creek Plan) as equivalents to Reclamation Plans. {u COMMENTS: u} 1) This bill was amended in the Assembly to add the inter-agency task force and to create a sunset date for the Management Plan itself. From a review of the information, it may be appropriate to consider extending those dates: the task force would have only one year to evaluate the success of this type of program (which is only active five months a year), and the Management Plan itself would have only four years before sunset. Considering Yolo County is attempting to utilize the Management Plan to restore a 14-mile stretch of Cache Creek, that timeline appears too restrictive to properly evaluate the progress of the Management Plan. {u Staff recommends u} extending the sunset dates, giving the task force two or three years to evaluate the program, and additional time for the Management Plan itself. However, these dates were negotiated with the Assembly, and may result in the bill being brought back to committee in the Assembly. 2) While the bill serves as the functional equivalent of a Reclamation Plan, the language in the bill states the Management Plan {u is u} a Reclamation Plan. Amendment is suggested to add the words "functional equivalent" in the appropriate places to reinforce the actual use of the Plan. Similarly, on page 7, at lines 30-35, the bill notes that all lead agency functions (including penalty provisions) under SMARA continue, despite the fact the County is using the Management Plan instead of a formal Reclamation Plan. Amendment would be appropriate to note the same for the state board; i.e. that the state board continues to have all authority granted under SMARA regarding Cache Creek, despite the use of the Management Plan in lieu of a Reclamation Plan. The opposition is concerned that any mining in the channel will cause mercury (apparently left from the old mining operations) to come to the surface, and flow down Cache Creek, into the Delta, and onto San Francisco Bay. Friends of Cache Creek also opposed the Cache Creek Resource Management Plan at the local level, and placed an opposing ballot proposition on the local ballot. However, the plan before this committee, the CCRMP, won more than 60% of the local vote. {u SUPPORT: u} Cache Creek Conservancy County of Yolo {u OPPOSED: u} {u u} Friends of Cache Creek