Existing law establishes the California-Mexico Border Relations Council in state government, chaired by the Secretary for Environmental Protection, and prescribes the functions and duties of the council with respect to coordinating the activities of state agencies that are related to cross-border programs, initiatives, projects, and partnerships that exist within state government, and state and local efforts that are of concern between California and Mexico. Existing law requires the council to develop a strategic plan to guide a project to study, monitor, remediate, and enhance water quality in the New River in the County of Imperial. Existing law requires the council to establish the New River Water Quality, Public Health, and River Parkway Development Program to coordinate funding for, and the implementation of, recommendations from the strategic plan and related projects.

This bill would make $100,000,000 available from the General Fund, upon appropriation by the Legislature in the annual Budget Act or another statute, to the State Water Resources Control Board for grants and direct expenditures to address water quality problems arising in the California-Mexico cross-border rivers. The bill would require the funding to be available for purposes consistent with the New River Water Quality, Public Health, and River Parkway Development Program and water quality projects for the Tijuana River and would make 5% of the funding available for the administrative costs of the state board in implementing these provisions and 5% available for the costs of the Office of the Attorney General in enforcing these provisions. The bill would require the state board, in consultation with the California Environmental Protection Agency, the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board, and the Colorado River Basin Regional Water Quality Control Board, to administer the funding, as specified. The bill would require expenditures of the funding to be consistent with the work of the California Environmental Protection Agency Border Affairs Program and would require priority for the funding to be given to projects that have funding committed by the United States, the Republic of Mexico, the State of Baja California, or the City of Tijuana or Mexicali. The bill would authorize grant funding to be conditioned on enforceability and accountability mechanisms agreed upon by the state board and the recipient, as prescribed, and would authorize funding to be provided for activities or projects in the State of Baja California under certain circumstances. The bill would require the state board and the California Environmental Protection Agency to notify the leadership office in each house of the Legislature on cross-border collaboration and the expenditure of the funding.