Sen. Dodd Plan to Improve Water Management Clears Senate

SACRAMENTO – Legislation from Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa, that would help the state manage its water, protecting the precious resource for people and the environment, cleared the full Senate Monday afternoon.

“You can’t manage what you don’t measure,” Sen. Dodd said. “Stream gages provide important information in this era of droughts and flooding, driven in part by climate change. This bill is an important step toward managing our water for the long run.”

California has one of the nation’s most complex water systems, moving millions of gallons across the state from north to south and east to west. The state’s 39 million residents and $47 billion farming industry – along with diverse wildlife from the Sierra to the sea – rely on that water. Yet there is little data about how much water is coursing through streams at any given time. Only 54 percent of the state’s 3,600 stream gages have been active in recent times. And even fewer provide rich, real-time reporting needed to manage this precious resource.

Senate Bill 19 would help address those shortcomings, ensuring California has the information it needs to effectively oversee the water supply. The bill heads next to the Assembly.

“Stream gages are the backbone of how we understand stream flow conditions in critical rivers and streams across California,” said Jay Ziegler, Policy Director at The Nature Conservancy. “We have seen a troubling trend in recent years where the U.S. Geological Survey is taking gages out of operation – and thereby reducing our understanding of river conditions in key places across the State.

“Senate Bill 19 is critically important in creating a state responsibility to improve gaging of rivers -- and restoring gage capacity based on scientific considerations,” Ziegler said. “Sen. Dodd’s leadership on this issue is vitally important and a part of his continued leadership in delivering more open and transparent data so we have more science-based decision-making in managing water in California.”

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Senator Bill Dodd represents California’s 3rd Senate District, which includes all or portions of Solano, Napa, Sonoma, Yolo, Sacramento, and Contra Costa counties. You can learn more about Senator Dodd at www.sen.ca.gov/dodd.