AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JUNE 22, 2026
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JUNE 17, 2026
AMENDED IN SENATE APRIL 28, 2026
AMENDED IN SENATE APRIL 6, 2026
AMENDED IN SENATE MARCH 25, 2026
SENATE BILL No. 1153
Introduced by Senator Caballero
(Coauthor: Senator Rubio)
(Coauthor: Assembly Member McKinnor)
February 18, 2026
An act to add Section 8607.3 to the Go vernment Code, relating to disaster preparedness.
legislative counsel’s digest
SB 1153, as amended, Caballero. Disaster preparedness: urban retail water suppliers and public water systems: wildfire.
Existing la w, the California Emer gency Services Act, requires all public w ater systems, as defined, with 10,000 or more service connections to re view and re vise their disaster preparedness plans in conjunction with related agencies, including, b ut not limited to, local fire departments and the Office of Emergency Services, to ensure that the plans are sufficient to address possible disaster scenarios. A person, as defined, who violates the pro visions of this act is guilty of a misdemeanor.
This bill, beginning January 1, 2028, w ould require all urban retail water suppliers, as defined, serving a high or v ery high fire hazard severity zone to include incident-specific response procedures for
94 wildfires as part of their disaster preparedness plans, including an y applicable emergency response plan as required by federal la w. The bill would require these plans to include, among other things, mitigation actions, including actions, procedures, and equipment, that can obviate or significantly lessen the impact of a wildfire on the water system and the supply of drinking w ater provided by the w ater supplier. Because violation of these requirements by certain urban retail w ater suppliers would constitute a misdemeanor, the bill would expand the scope of a crime, thereby imposing a state-mandated local program.
This bill would provide that the inability of a public water system to maintain water supply or water pressure during a wildfire shall not be considered a substantial cause of the damages resulting from a wildfire, and that the spread of wildfire shall not be considered an inherent risk presented by the deliberate design, construction, or maintenance of a public water system.
This bill would pr ohibit anything , including any other law , fr om imposing a duty on public water systems, including wholesale water systems, to design, construct, or maintain a water system for wildfir e defense or suppression. The bill would further pr ohibit the failure of an urban retail water supplier to implement or comply with any of the incident-specific response procedures developed pursuant to the above requirements or the inability of any public water system to maintain water supply or water pressure during a wildfire from being considered a substantial cause of the damages resulting from a wildfire.
The California Constitution requires the state to reimb urse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state.
Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.
This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest.
This bill would make legislative findings to that effect.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: yes.
94 — 2 — SB 1153
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
line 1 SECTION 1. The Le gislature finds and declares all of the line 2 following:
line 3 (a) Wildfires are increasing in frequenc y, se verity, and line 4 destructive impact in California.
line 5 (b) Public water systems are increasingly vulnerable to wildfire, line 6 either directly or indirectly, including physical damage to critical line 7 infrastructure; disruption of access and operations; interruption of line 8 power supplies; de gradation of w ater quality; e xcessive or line 9 uncontrolled w ater demands; and impairment of pumping, line 10 treatment, and distribution capabilities.
line 11 (c) Public water systems impacted by wildfires may experience line 12 disruptions in water supply or pressure during wildfire events. line 13 (d) Public w ater systems are deliberately designed and line 14 constructed to provide clean and safe drinking water in accordance line 15 with state and federal safe drinking w ater la ws and re gulatory line 16 requirements.
line 17 (e) Existing la w, Section 53750.5 of the Go vernment Code, line 18 finds that water service is a different and distinct service from fire line 19 service, and that w ater service is a property-related service that line 20 aids in the provision of fire service provided to properties. While line 21 public w ater systems are often relied upon to aid firefighting line 22 activities, including the use of fire h ydrants, the y are not line 23 intentionally designed or constructed for wildfire defense or line 24 suppression. Hydrants are generally designed and installed, line 25 consistent with applicable fire codes and industry standards, to aid line 26 in firefighting, b ut not to pro vide w ater service to aid in line 27 extinguishing fires that threaten property not serv ed by a w ater line 28 service provider or wildfires.
line 29 (f) Designing and constructing public water systems to function line 30 as wildfire defense or suppression systems w ould be ph ysically line 31 impracticable and financially infeasible, and may compromise the line 32 quality of water for human consumption and the af fordability of line 33 drinking water for ratepayers.
line 34 (g) To limit the risks presented by wildfires to w ater systems line 35 and water supply, it is imperative that urban retail water suppliers line 36 serving high-risk areas prepare for wildfire incidents and seek to line 37 mitigate the impacts of wildfires on the water systems. 94 SB 1153 — 3 —
line 1 SEC. 2. Section 8607.3 is added to the Government Code, to line 2 read:
line 3 8607.3. (a) (1) Beginning January 1, 2028, all urban retail line 4 water suppliers serving a high or v ery high fire hazard se verity line 5 zone shall include incident-specific response procedures for line 6 wildfires as part of their disaster preparedness plans, including in line 7 any applicable emer gency response plan as required by Section line 8 1433(b) of the federal Safe Drinking Water Act (42 U.S.C. Sec. line 9 300i-2).
line 10 (2) The plans required pursuant to paragraph (1) shall include, line 11 but not be limited to, all of the following:
line 12 (A) Mitigation actions, including actions, procedures, and line 13 equipment, that can obviate or significantly lessen the impact of line 14 a wildfire on the w ater system and the supply of drinking w ater line 15 provided by that water supplier. Identification of mitigation actions line 16 within the plan shall consider system conditions, risks, operations, line 17 and available resources, including financial and staffing constraints. line 18 (B) (i) Actions to prepare for a wildfire, such as identification line 19 of critical infrastructure and coordination with local emer gency line 20 responders, including, but not limited to, cities, counties, offices line 21 of emergency services, fire agencies, and law enforcement. line 22 (ii) An assessment of the resilience of critical infrastructure line 23 located in a high or v ery high fire hazard se verity zone. The line 24 assessment shall identify critical infrastructure, such as w ater line 25 pumps, water tanks, applicable pipelines, and backup electrical line 26 generation equipment, assess the risk wildfire poses to the line 27 identified critical infrastructure, and include an evaluation of fire line 28 hardening measures and alternative emergency power in the event line 29 of a loss of po wer, including, b ut not limited to, onsite backup line 30 generators, portable generators, or availability of alternative water line 31 sources.
line 32 (C) Actions to respond to a wildfire, such as identifying line 33 immediate response actions, including a plan to prepare w ater line 34 tanks during a red flag w arning, and a communications strate gy line 35 to communicate with customers.
line 36 (D) Actions to recover from a wildfire, such as completion of line 37 water system damage assessments and development of long-term line 38 adaptation measures.
line 39 (3) This subdivision does not change the confidentiality le vel line 40 for information provided pursuant to paragraph (2), including the 94 — 4 — SB 1153
line 1 right to withhold or redact records pursuant to applicable line 2 exceptions to disclosure within the California Public Records Act line 3 (Division 10 (commencing with Section 7920.000) of Title 1). line 4 (4) The incident-specific response procedures for wildfire line 5 required pursuant to paragraph (1) shall be provided by the urban line 6 retail water supplier to the county Office of Emergency Services, line 7 subject to the confidentiality provisions of paragraph (3). line 8 (5) An urban retail w ater supplier that meets the criteria of line 9 paragraph (1) of subdi vision (a) shall re view their disaster line 10 preparedness plans at least once every five years and shall update line 11 those plans as necessary.
line 12 (b) While public w ater systems, including wholesale w ater line 13 systems, and the water distributed through them, may be available line 14 to aid in firefighting activities, both of the following shall apply:
line 15 (1) The inability of a public w ater system to maintain w ater line 16 supply or water pressure during a wildfire shall not be considered line 17 a substantial cause of the damages resulting from a wildfire. line 18 (2) The spread of wildfire shall not be considered an inherent line 19 risk presented by the deliberate design, construction, or line 20 maintenance of a public water system.
line 21 (c) Nothing in this section
line 22 (b) Notwithstanding any other law, nothing shall be interpreted line 23 to impose a duty on public w ater systems, including wholesale line 24 water systems, to design, construct, or maintain a w ater system line 25 for wildfire defense or suppression. While an urban retail w ater line 26 supplier that meets the criteria identified in paragraph (1) of line 27 subdivision (a) shall be required to include incident-specific line 28 response procedures in their disaster preparedness plans pursuant line 29 to paragraph (1) of subdivision (a), the identified mitigation actions line 30 pursuant to paragraph (2) of subdi vision (a) shall inform line 31 preparedness and response planning, and shall not be construed to line 32 guarantee the ability of a public w ater system to maintain w ater line 33 supply or w ater pressure during a wildfire. Failure Neither the line 34 failure of an urban retail w ater supplier to implement or comply line 35 with any actions identified in subdi vision (a) nor the inability of line 36 any public water system to maintain water supply or water pressure line 37 during a wildfire shall not be considered a substantial cause of the line 38 damages resulting from a wildfire.
line 39 (d)
94 SB 1153 — 5 —
line 1 (c) Nothing in this section shall be construed to limit or af fect line 2 liability for injury or damage resulting from a ne gligent act or line 3 omission of an entity operating a public w ater system for its line 4 intended purpose and function, as described by subdivision (h) of line 5 Section 116275 of the Health and Safety Code and an y other line 6 applicable laws and regulations governing system operations. line 7 (e)
line 8 (d) For purposes of this section, the following definitions apply:
line 9 (1) “High or very high fire hazard severity zone” means those line 10 areas identified by the State Fire Marshal as high or very high fire line 11 hazard severity zones pursuant to Section 51178. line 12 (2) “Public water system” has the same meaning as defined in line 13 subdivision (h) of Section 116275 of the Health and Safety Code. line 14 (3) “Urban retail w ater supplier” has the same meaning as line 15 defined in subdivision (af) of Section 10608.12 of the Water Code. line 16 (4) “Wholesale water system” has the same meaning as defined line 17 in paragraph (6) of subdivision (c) of Section 116455 of the Health line 18 and Safety Code.
line 19 (5) “Wildfire” has the same meaning as defined in subdivision line 20 (j) of Section 51177.
line 21 SEC. 3. No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to line 22 Section 6 of Article XIIIB of the California Constitution because line 23 the only costs that may be incurred by a local agenc y or school line 24 district will be incurred because this act creates a ne w crime or line 25 infraction, eliminates a crime or infraction, or changes the penalty line 26 for a crime or infraction, within the meaning of Section 17556 of line 27 the Government Code, or changes the definition of a crime within line 28 the meaning of Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California line 29 Constitution.
line 30 SEC. 4. The Legislature finds and declares that Section 2 of line 31 this act, which adds Section 8607.3 to the Go vernment Code, line 32 imposes a limitation on the public’s right of access to the meetings line 33 of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies line 34 within the meaning of Section 3 of Article I of the California line 35 Constitution. Pursuant to that constitutional pro vision, the line 36 Legislature makes the following findings to demonstrate the interest line 37 protected by this limitation and the need for protecting that interest:
line 38 Disclosure of operational and critical infrastructure information line 39 could increase the risk of misuse by malicious actors. The need to 94 — 6 — SB 1153
line 1 protect public safety and security outweighs the interest in public line 2 disclosure of this information.
O
94 SB 1153 — 7 —