SACRAMENTO, California — A Democratic state lawmaker is weakening her proposal to penalize federal officials for releasing water from dams under false pretenses in a deal with water agencies, farmers and business groups who had previously opposed the bill.
What happened: David Burruto, a spokesperson for Assemblymember Diane Papan, confirmed Thursday that she has agreed to significantly amend her AB 1146, which was a response to the Trump administration dumping water from two Central Valley dams in January and falsely claiming it would help fight the Los Angeles fires.
Papan has agreed to remove most of the enforcement measures from her bill, according to a Thursday email sent by industry and agricultural groups to assemblymembers and confirmed by Burruto. Those include provisions that would have given state water regulators interim relief power against dam releases deemed fraudulent and required federal officials or water agencies that get water delivered from the federal government to pay fines of up to $10,000 a day.
As a result, the California Chamber of Commerce, the California Farm Bureau, the Association of California Water Agencies and other farming and water groups previously in opposition will no longer fight the bill, according to the email.
