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State Water Board to pursue temporary fee suspension for stalled FERC pre‑licensing projects
Summary
Staff will move forward with a proposal to temporarily suspend fees for certain Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) projects in long pre-licensing if a notice of intent is filed but an application is not submitted within five to six years; two other proposed changes were deferred.
State Water Resources Control Board staff on July 30 said they will proceed with a proposal to temporarily suspend fees for certain FERC-related water-rights fees in specific pre-licensing circumstances, and that two other conceptual proposals are not being pursued now.
Parker Thaler, program manager overseeing the water supply certification program, told stakeholders the board circulated three conceptual proposals in June: higher fees for FERC license amendments, a new fee for projects where the board is the lead agency under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), and a temporary suspension of fees during a prolonged pre-licensing phase. After stakeholder feedback, staff said they received "positive feedback on the proposal to temporarily suspend fees" and plan to move that proposal forward. The suspension would apply where a notice of intent is filed but a draft or final license application has not been submitted within five to six years of that notice, Thaler said.
David Ciccarelli clarified that the board is not proposing the other two changes at this time and that staff may revisit them in the future. No board vote or formal adoption occurred during the stakeholder meeting; staff said any formal proposal would be posted in advance of a public board meeting and brought to the board for consideration when ready.
Stakeholders who want to suggest alternative approaches were invited to contact staff by the published fee-team email address.
