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California Public Resources Code Section 612.5

Legal Research Home > California Lawyer > Public Resources Code > California Public Resources Code Section 612.5

(a) The Legislature hereby finds and declares all of the
following:
   (1) It is in the state's public interest to have an accurate
inventory of the state's soil resources.
   (2) In California, the United States Soil Conservation Service has
been responsible for undertaking soil surveys and soils information
for many of California's agricultural counties is outdated or
unavailable.
   (3) Information on soils is needed for agricultural management,
water and soil conservation activities, engineering and land use
planning, and state and local policy decisions.  Completion of the
California Farmland Mapping and Monitoring Program is contingent upon
availability of accurate, modern soil surveys.
   (4) State funding of soil surveys has been limited to soil
vegetation surveys on wildlands and no state contributions have been
made toward the completion of modern soil surveys in California on
cropland.  In recent years, every state with incomplete soil surveys
on farmland, except California, has cost-shared with the United
States Soil Conservation Service to complete those surveys.
   (5) Federal funding for the soil survey program of the United
States Soil Conservation Service has been declining in real dollars
in the past several years and is projected to be further reduced
under the requirements of the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Deficit Reduction
Act.
   (6) Therefore, it is in California's interest to authorize the
department to assist the United States Soil Conservation Service with
the completion of soil surveys.
   (b) The department shall provide financial assistance to the
United States Soil Conservation Service to undertake or complete soil
surveys in areas of this state where the surveys have not been
completed, including, but not limited to, portions of the Counties of
San Joaquin, Yuba, Colusa, Butte, Fresno, Kern, Tulare, Stanislaus,
and Lassen.  Financial assistance shall be applied to field work that
includes onsite soils mapping, report writing, manuscript
preparation, and final correlation of soils data.
   (c) In allocating funds for completion of soil surveys in the
United States Soil Conservation Service soil survey areas in
California, the department shall consider criteria that include, but
are not limited to, all of the following:
   (1) Voids in important farmland maps.
   (2) Rate and type of land use changes.
   (3) Extent of erosion, alkalinity, and other soil resource
problems.
   (4) Farm-gate value of agricultural production.
   (5) Specific soil-related problems.
   (6) Status of ongoing soil surveys.
   (7) Extent of cropland in each county.
   (8) Availability of local funding or other support.

Last modified: January 12, 2009