Tainted water still counts for land developers; Amendment to count only clean water struck down in Sacramento
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 4, 2008 at 6:33 amFrom the Santa Clarita Signal:
Local water activists are saddened today now that a proposed law promising to slow development through tougher conditions set on groundwater assessment has been struck down in Sacramento.
Assembly Bill AB2046 requires water suppliers such as the Castaic Lake Water Agency to submit to the state the quantity and quality of groundwater being assessed in relation to supplying that water ultimately to an identified group, such as a 500-unit housing development. If a water supply is contaminated, the suppliers are required to detail for their local governments how they would treat the contamination. Once those conditions are met, the supplier can count the water in its plans. Proposed amendments to the bill would have precluded water suppliers from relying on groundwater in calculating their water supplies.
Specifically, the amended AB2046 would have precluded the supplier from relying on groundwater as a supply earmarked for any proposed development project (such as a 500-unit housing development) if the groundwater did not meet applicable state standards - such as the standard set for safe drinking water - on the date the water supply assessment is prepared.
On Thursday, members of the Assembly’s Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee voted five to two in favor of amending two sections of the state Water Code, thereby removing the proposal to stop counting untreated groundwater.
Read the rest of this story from the Santa Clarita Signal by clicking here.
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