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Bill would raise penalties for commercial theft of public water, allow recovery of damages

5019084 · June 18, 2025
AI-Generated Content: All content on this page was generated by AI to highlight key points from the meeting. For complete details and context, we recommend watching the full video. so we can fix them.

Summary

Senate Bill 394 would authorize higher local fines and civil recovery for commercial-scale water theft from hydrants and other public sources; supporters described large annual volume losses and potential public-health and firefighting risks. The committee reported the bill out after broad water-agency support.

Senate Bill 394 would authorize local governments to increase penalties for unauthorized commercial withdrawals of public water, such as hookups to fire hydrants, and would remove a one-year reset on repeat penalties while allowing local agencies to pursue civil damages for losses, the bill's author said on June 19.

"We're basically looking to increase the…

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