Assemblymember Bauer-Kahan’s Groundbreaking Bill to Protect Water Supply Passes Assembly

Sacramento, CA – Today, AB 460 authored by Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan (D-Orinda) passed off the Assembly floor. Bauer-Kahan is the Chair of the Assembly Water, Parks, and Wildlife Committee, and is championing AB 460 to address the drought emergency by strengthening the State Water Resources Control Board’s management of water use.

"We do not have the regulatory strength to handle the new normal of megadrought," said Assemblymember Bauer-Kahan. "Illegal water diversion can become the difference between access to water or dry taps in the future."

AB 460 empowers the State Water Board to act swiftly to prevent water use in emergencies.  In the coming years, experts foresee increasing demands for water without the resources to sustain them. When water is wasted – it is gone forever. In the drought California is facing, that water loss can be disastrous.

With ever-increasing severity of droughts in California, the Water Board needs more tools to manage and protect water supplies for all Californians and the environment in times of scarcity.

"Granting the Board interim relief authority is one of those tools, and we thank the Assemblymember for taking on this critical issue," Said Matthew Baker, Policy Director for the bill’s cosponsor, the Planning and Conservation League.

"We need our government to be able step in and protect access to water for all," said Assemblymember Bauer-Kahan. "This is the smart, bold policy to ensure a sustainable future for California."

###