A coalition of farm groups, water districts and business associations are asking the Legislature to streamline environmental permitting for water projects.
In a letter to the Assembly Select Committee on Permitting Reform last week, the coalition highlighted the need to invest in more water infrastructure to meet the governor’s goals for expanding the state’s supply. Yet getting project approval can be a significant challenge.
The California Environmental Quality Act is one of the biggest hurdles, but overlapping local, state and federal jurisdictions can cause further delays and confusion, along with staffing shortages. Those setbacks increase costs, which can trickle down to ratepayers and taxpayers. According to the coalition, “the regulatory gridlock can also lead to worse environmental outcomes and delay projects that will benefit the environment.”
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At the top of the request list is to take a watershed-scale approach to permitting — considering benefits to “people, species and ecosystems alike.” Currently agencies “work within a narrow lens,” failing to consider the larger impacts of their decisions, argued the coalition.
The select committee is hosting an informational hearing on Wednesday about reforms to support climate resiliency.
While none of the groups are on the agenda, the committee has recruited the Public Policy Institute of California to present their findings. Those researchers have made the case for ecosystem-based management. Sarah Woolf, president of the ag consulting firm Water Wise, will testify as well. Woolf spoke last week at the California Economic Summit, where she lamented the slow pace with permitting groundwater recharge projects.
