The California Water Plan: long-term supply targets.

Senator Caballero, joined by principal coauthor Senator Rubio and colleagues from both houses, advances SB 72 to recast The California Water Plan as a codified, long‑range framework that anchors climate resilience, multiple water uses, and broader stakeholder input at the center of state water planning. The core change is the repeal of the current Section 10004 and the enactment of a new, more expansive structure that defines the plan, tightens its update cadence, and sets explicit targets and mechanisms for public participation and interagency coordination.

Under the new regime, The California Water Plan becomes a formally updated instrument with a first update required by 2028 and subsequent updates every five years. The bill creates an advisory committee with broadened representation, including tribes, labor from building trades and public water infrastructure, environmental justice interests, environmental organizations, local governments, agricultural and urban water suppliers, and other stakeholders; the department may add members with expertise in climate science, water storage and conveyance, and environmental protection. Public notice and open meetings are mandated, and the department must solicit and consider advisory input, with opportunities to release preliminary drafts upon request for comment.

The act expands planning content and transparency. Updates must discuss a wide range of strategies to meet future water needs—storage facilities, conservation, groundwater recharge, recycling, desalination, conjunctive use, conveyance, stormwater capture, water transfers, and demand management—along with potential alternative water pricing policies and the permitting landscape. Each update must cover regional environmental, urban, and agricultural needs, financing sources, and quantified costs, benefits, and impacts of recommended projects, including consideration of studies on the effects of inadequate supply. Public workshops are required with attention to geographic distribution and accessibility for disadvantaged communities, and the plan must identify regional/local projects and how they may reduce inter‑regional imports.

A key governance and planning feature is the revamped target setting. The department must study future water needs and, by the 2033 update, revise the long‑term planning target for 2050 to reflect identified needs, climate change, and public‑trust resources, while noting that water‑quality plan updates are not compelled by this target. The plan will adopt a 50‑year planning horizon at the watershed scale, with preliminary assumptions released by December 31, 2027 and again one year before each update to invite public review and comment. An interim 2040 target of 9,000,000 acre‑feet of additional water, storage, or conservation is established, with multiple pathways to achievement including expanded storage, conservation programs (including the state’s conservation regulation), stormwater capture, graywater, and recycled water.

In broader terms, SB 72 repeals and replaces core Water Code provisions, increases procedural transparency, and aligns planning with climate realities and environmental equity considerations, while preserving a governance structure that relies on coordination among the Department of Water Resources, the California Water Commission, other state and federal agencies, and a broadened set of stakeholders. The bill is designed to guide long‑range investments and policy discussions through a formalized planning cycle, with reporting to the Legislature as the principal accountability mechanism, and without creating explicit new appropriation authority within the text.