(Authors: Assembly members Louis Papan, John Dutra and Joe Simitian; Co-authors: Assembly members Elaine Alquist, Rebecca Cohn, Ellen Corbett, Manny Diaz and Lynne Leach; Senators Liz Figueroa and Byron Sher)
Question:
What is the Bay Area Water Supply and Conservation Agency (BAWSCA)?
Answer:
BAWSCA is a regional water district. It was designed by the State Legislature to help protect the health, safety and economic well being of 1.7 million residents, businesses and community organizations in Alameda, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties who depend on the San Francisco Bay Area regional water system.
Question:
What will BAWSCA do?
Answer:
BAWSCA will represent and negotiate more effectively with San Francisco about the water interests of the 26 cities and water districts and two private utilities that are part of BAWSCA in its three-county service area.
BAWSCA also can:
Raise money to help repair and improve the earthquake-vulnerable regional water system;
Coordinate and implement water conservation, supply and recycling activities in the three-county service area;
Perform regional water reliability planning and implement solutions necessary to meet identified water supply needs;
Be a catalyst for developing a crisis management plan to deal with the community impact of a long-term water outage;
Ensure that AB 1823, which requires San Francisco to upgrade the water system, is fully and promptly implemented; and
Perform other activities within its authority and as directed by its Board of Directors.
The Act does not change the ownership or management of the San Francisco Regional Water System.
This is an overview of the legislation. View entire document here.
