SB1 Facts & Questions
Water is life in California. Earlier this year, Sacramento politicians introduced Senate Bill 1 (SB1) which seeks to inject politics into California’s environmental regulations. SB! will restrict water deliveries to the Central Valley and make California even more unaffordable. SB1 puts our communities in danger.
Below you will find a list of questions that many of you have asked. This list will change as you send us additional questions.
Voluntary Settlement Agreements are a comprehensive plan to improve water quality and habitat conditions.
SB1 will cause the collapse of the voluntary agreements. It will threaten water supply reliability for millions of Californians, jeopardize the environmental health of the Sacramento and San Joaquin watersheds, and even prevent the Newsom Administration from using the best available science to improve conditions for at-risk fish species.
The following are parties involved in the agreements:
- CNRA
- CDFW
- DWR
- Bureau of Reclamation
- City and County of San Francisco
- San Francisco Public Utility Commission
- Modesto Irrigation District
- Turlock Irrigation District
- Friant Water Users Authority
- Sacramento River Settlement Contractors
- Tehama Colusa Canal Authority
- Yuba Water Agency
- American Rivers Agency
- Feather River Agencies
SB1 will restrict water deliveries to the Central Valley and make California even more unaffordable. These conditions will impact rural migrant communities the most as agricultural jobs are lost – jobs that drive the majority of small rural communities.
In addition to our most vulnerable communities being negatively impacted, California's environment will suffer due to the inability to use the latest and best science.
Title 24 is now known as the California Environmental, Public Health, and Workers Defense Act of 2019.
The following will be affected by SB1:
- Federal Clean Air Act
- Federal Water Pollution Control ActFederal Safe Drinking Water Act
- Federal Endangered Species Act of 1973Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938
- Federal Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970
- Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969
These federal laws establish standards that serve as the baseline level of public health, safety, and environmental protection.
SB1 sees the new biological opinions, facilitated by the federal government, as a threat to California, its natural resources, and its citizens. The passing and implementation of SB1 is a direct jab at the current administration.
Having SB1 automatically self-repeal a year after the current administration is out of office, makes it hard to believe that the proposed legislation is for the good of California. Instead it puts politics before science.
Under Article 3, SB1 refers to backsliding. Backsliding in this regard assumes that new federal baselines for the classification and management of endangered and threatened species will be less stringent, hence backsliding, than what is currently within the Endangered Species Act of 1973.
The issue here is that the bill makes a blanket statement regarding new science, and assumes that the current federal administration will introduce changes that will harm currently listed animals.
SB1 does not promote the use of the best available science, it is actually a legislative attempt to block any new, revised, or improved federal standards introduced by the current administration.
Utilizing and/or blocking new scientific findings does the exact opposite of what SB1 is supposedly intended to do. It will set a new precedent that allows for politics to dictate science for political gain.