YOUR DUES DOLLARS AT WORK REAPING THE REWARDS CCA STAFF GETS TO SEE CCA-SPONSORED BILL IN ACTION by CCA Vice President of Government Affairs Kirk Wilbur As of November 6, I am a “qualified individual” for purposes of installing and maintaining water measurement devices required by the State Water Resources Control Board for measuring and reporting water diverted under a water right. Never mind that I don’t have a water right and won’t be able to exercise my new qualification. I took the course at the invitation of Larry Forero, a Shasta County Livestock and Natural Resources Advisor who has co-taught the measurement and reporting courses since they were authorized by CCA-sponsored AB 589 (Bigelow) in 2017. Forero’s been inviting me to these courses for the past five years, and with the most recent class being offered in Davis – just a short drive from the CCA headquarters – I decided to finally take him up on the offer. I was joined at the course by Noah Lopez, Woodland, of Western Resource Strategies, LLC (as well as a few dozen farmers and ranchers). Along with Jack Rice, Fortuna, Noah provides technical assistance to ranchers through the California Cattlemen’s Foundation’s Rancher Technical Assistance Program (RTAP). Noah had previously completed the AB 589 training and was already certified but had decided to retake the course to sharpen his understanding of measurement methods in an effort to best serve ranchers who call into RTAP for assistance in complying with water measurement and reporting regulation. Forero started the class with a brief history lesson. In 2015 the Legislature passed Senate Bill 88, which required all water rightsholders to annually report their diversion and use of water. Those who divert 10 acre-feet or more of water in a year must install a measurement device to track their rate of diversion. The following year, the State Water Resources Control Board issued regulations implementing SB 88 and required that measurement devices be installed by a “qualified individual,” usually a professional engineer or a contractor. Concerned about the high costs of hiring an engineer to travel to often-remote water diversions to install measuring devices, the Shasta County Cattlemen’s Association in 2016 brought a resolution to the CCA Convention urging CCA
12 California Cattleman December 2023
to lobby the Legislature and SWRCB to develop an alternative option that allows diverters to selfcertify as a “qualified individual” upon completion of a water measurement educational training. The policy was adopted by CCA’s membership, and in 2017 CCA worked with Assemblymember Frank Bigelow, O’Neals, to pass AB 589, which allows water rightsholders to take an instructional course regarding water measurement methods and devices from the University of California Cooperative Extension. Upon successful completion of a brief proficiency test, course participants are certified as “qualified individual” for purposes of installing and maintaining their own measurement devices. AB 589 was initially slated to ‘sunset’ on January 1, 2023. Last year, CCA sponsored SB 880 (Laird), which permanently reauthorized the UCCE courses and the “qualified individual” certifications for those who successfully complete them. Attending the AB 589 course in Davis was a unique opportunity for me to see your dues dollars at work. While I work in Sacramento to influence legislation and regulation, I rarely get the opportunity to see how those efforts translate into practice for California’s cattlemen. I’ll never need to bypass a roadblock during a wildfire to evacuate cattle, as authorized by CCA’s Livestock Pass bill, AB 1103 (Dahle, 2021). My 2011 Toyota Yaris isn’t subject to the Basic Inspection of Terminals Program, nor is it an “agricultural vehicle” exempted from the BIT program by CCAsponsored AB 2415 (Lackey, 2022). But on November 6 I had the opportunity to take the same three-hour training that many of you have taken to become “qualified individuals” capable of installing and maintaining the measurement devices you need to comply with SB 88 and SWRCB regulations. And I’m pleased to report that I was incredibly impressed by the training provided by Forero and his colleagues in the UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Khaled Bali and Daniele Zaccaria. Some of the course units were something of a refresher course for me. I was well acquainted with the information in the “reporting” unit thanks to my time lobbying the SWRCB as