Practice Areas > Water Supply/Land Use Planning and Litigation
While there has always been an inextricable link between water supply and land use in California, the emphasis on water supply security for new development is a recent event. As the frontline agencies responsible for meeting the water supply needs of most of the state’s population, local water suppliers are required to assess, through water supply assessments and water verifications, the availability of adequate and reliable water supplies for new development. Local water suppliers also are required to plan for and develop new supplies for projected demand. McCormick, Kidman & Behrens LLP assists local water agencies in preparing water supply assessments (WSA) and water verifications (WV), and in planning for and developing new sources of water supplies.
Urban Water Management Plans
Since 1984, the Urban Water Management Planning Act (UWMPA) has required “urban water suppliers,” which includes retail water agencies, to prepare urban water management plans (UWMPs) every five years for submission to the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) and for use by local planning agencies. The importance that every retail water agency should place upon preparing UWMPs that comply with the requirements of the UWMPA cannot be overemphasized. Valid UWMPs serve as the base document for all local water supply projects, they can be relied upon in preparing some WSAs, and they render a retail water agency eligible for a host of state financial assistance programs. MKB assists retail water agencies in preparing UWMPs that fully comply with the UWMPA and that will sustain a legal challenge. MKB is one of only a few law firms that has ever defended a challenge to a UWMP.
Water Supply Assessments and Written Verification
In 2002, SB 610 and SB 221, two bills designed to bring water supply and land use planning activities closer together, were enacted. With their enactment, retail water agencies were placed in the center of the land use planning process. SB 610 requires retail water agencies to issue WSAs as part of the CEQA process for certain qualifying projects. SB 221 requires retail water agencies to issue water verifications (WVs) as a condition of approval of tentative or parcel maps for certain residential subdivisions. MKB attorneys have substantial experience working with SB 610 and SB 221. This includes founding partner Arthur Kidman co-authoring the leading treatise on the subject: the Association of California Water Agencies’ “Water Supply and Development: A User’s Guide to California Statutes Including SB 221 & SB 610.” It is this expertise in SB 221 and SB 610 that MKB attorneys apply when assisting water agencies in preparing WSAs and WVs.
Water Import Agencies and Systems
Almost all retail water agencies in California rely on imported water to supplement their local groundwater supplies. Southern California water agencies rely upon water from the Colorado River and Northern California to supplement their local water supplies. Water from each of these sources must travel through a series of delivery systems, owned and operated at various points by different state, regional and local wholesale water agencies. Yet, it is the local retail water agencies with the responsibility for evaluating the adequacy and reliability of these imported supplemental water supplies when preparing UWMPs, WSAs and WVs. MKB works with many wholesale water agencies and has been directly involved in a number of regional and statewide supplemental water projects. Its attorneys are familiar with the various state and regional delivery systems and the laws and regulations governing those systems, and are able to advise water agencies accordingly.
Water Transfers
As a result of recent cutbacks in the importing of supplemental water from the State Water Project and from the Colorado River, local water agencies are developing more sophisticated “portfolios” of supplemental water sources to meet increasing demands and to ensure reliability. More and more, water agency supplemental water “portfolios” include water transfers. MKB assists water agencies in all aspects of securing water transfers. Generally, water transfers involve complex negotiations between the parties and the drafting of detailed water transfer contracts. If the transfer also involves the use of regional or state delivery facilities, additional negotiations with other regional or state agencies are required and the drafting of other contracts unique to the regional or state agency and facilities involved. MKB attorneys have assisted a number of water agencies in securing water transfers, and they fully understand the level of complexity that can be involved in such a transaction.