Two bills recently signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom may help the city of San Diego and others better prepare for catastrophic storms such as the one that hit the region in January. Assembly bills 2501 and 3227, authored by District 80 Assemblymember David Alvarez, address expediting storm channel maintenance and remove project delays imposed by state environmental regulations. Alvarez wrote the bills in response to the historic San Diego storms on Jan. 22 that led to widespread flooding, impacting more than 2,000 households and displacing hundreds of residents, nearly all in underserved communities. “If you do stay on top of the maintenance, it will cost you less, and hopefully you can continue to do this maintenance on a regular basis to avoid what happened this year,” Alvarez said. Following the January storms, the city was criticized for its channel maintenance, including in two lawsuits, one of which alleged that the city failed to properly clear its channels, allowing them to fill with vegetation, debris and sediment over time, despite years of warnings. AB 2501 makes it so public agencies can provide funding to state and regional water boards for technical assistance and development of stormwater projects. Alvarez says funding will go toward hiring staff who can help ensure a city’s projects don’t get stuck in a long queue of those awaiting review. AB 3227 lets public agencies skip environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA, on maintenance projects for specific channels — those that are fully concrete and have less than a 100-year storm capacity. A 100-year storm is a rainfall event that has a 1% chance of occurring every year. Many local environmentalists support the effort to clear concrete channels but caution against misuse of the bill, such as using the new legality to perform more than routine maintenance. They also raise concerns about work conducted in channels where wildlife habitats have emerged after years of deferred maintenance. “We support keeping concrete flood channels clear to protect local communities, but it must be done carefully and with more transparency than the law requires,” said Phillip Musegaas, executive director at Coastkeeper. The new law will apply to most of San Diego’s 69 miles of channels, city officials said. Alvarez says addressing the maintenance of these channels is “low-hanging fruit” so that the city can dedicate more time and effort to clearing more complicated waterways. Both bills have support from local leaders, including Mayor Todd Gloria and Councilmember Vivian Moreno, whose District 8, which includes the neighborhoods of Southcrest and Logan Heights, was one of the hardest hit during the January storms. “It is clear that quicker project reviews and cutting red tape to improve storm channels will help protect our communities from future disasters,” Moreno said in a statement. The city has admitted to the failings of its stormwater infrastructure in several reports, including one from early January. “Age, combined with deferred maintenance due to historic underfunding of the storm drain system, poses a risk of flooding and catastrophic failure,” the five-year capital-improvement plan said. The city currently has an infrastructure deficit of more than $5 billion. After the January storms, the city cleared 18 miles of channels, 12 of which were in the Chollas Creek watershed — a task the city said it was only able to do with an emergency declaration. Gloria said in a statement that state regulations have “historically hampered” the city’s ability to quickly clear storm channels. It can take one to two years to process all the aspects of a channel maintenance project needed to secure approval. Cutting down the CEQA review process could help the city bring that timeframe to “a matter of months,” city officials said. The Stormwater Department’s Municipal Waterways Maintenance Plan has helped the city streamline the process for obtaining permits, since it addresses CEQA requirements and establishes permits for infrastructure projects with various state agencies. But the city says it still needs channel-specific assessments to ensure that maintenance complies with CEQA and that it mitigates impacts on wetland vegetation. Clayton Tschudy, executive director and CEO of San Diego Canyonlands, a nonprofit that aims to help restore native habitats in the county’s creeks and canyons, said the city has stepped up in a big way since the January storms. Canyonlands and San Diego Groundwork, another environmental nonprofit, have been working with the city on an infrastructure plan that aims to keep canyons green instead of channelizing them, increase community park space and mitigate flood risk. “The flooding earlier this year has created an impetus that the city really find all solutions possible,” Tschudy said. He sees AB 3227 as a valuable tool for the city to stay on top of storm channel maintenance. In a statement on behalf of Canyonlands and Groundwork, Tschudy said that they have “received assurances” from the city that the bill will be carried out responsibly and for routine maintenance only. But he adds that maintenance is only one aspect in preparing for extreme storms and flooding. These storm events will only become more frequent with the effects of climate change, he says, and will require more proactive efforts. “To prevent that level of flooding in the future has nothing to do with maintenance,” Tschudy said. “It’s about major stormwater infrastructure upgrades and protections for local communities that are immediately adjacent to these drainage areas.”