2024 Coast & Ocean Legislation

Clean Border Water Now - Pending Campaign

As of early August 2024, Surfrider is supporting three bills that have a chance at improving the public health emergency related to border pollution in San Diego County. SB 1208 (Padilla) would dramatically improve the process of permitting and public review for a proposed landfill in Otay Mesa, which really should not be exposed to a single new source of pollution given the state of the emergency that already exists in the Tijuana River Watershed. SB 1178 (Padilla) would make corporate polluters located in Mexico but doing business in California more accountable for their pollution to the Tijuana River, and AB 1597 (Alvarez) represents a bureaucratic fix that would make it easier for the State of California to direct money towards engineering solutions that would help stem the flow of sewage to the Tijuana River. Two resolutions, SJR 18 and AJR 12, will also represent legislative recognition of the public health emergency if passed this year.

Stand Up for the Coastal Act - Campaign Victory!

The Coastal Act is a bedrock environmental law that requires the State of California to balance private property considerations with coastal resource and access protections. Because the Coastal Act requires the state to consider the coastal zone's sensitive coastal resources in permitting development, development along the coast undergoes an extra layer of review — and there is significant pressure in the State Legislature to 'streamline,' or avoid this layer of review. The State's housing crisis in particular has accelerated this pressure. Surfrider supports taking a comprehensive policy approach to both housing and coastal development and does not support streamlining development 'at all costs' near the coast; particularly in the age of sea level rise where flooding and erosion present emerging hazards to safe development. Surfrider maintains that California should provide affordable housing along the coast without siting development in floodplains or weakening the Coastal Commission's ability to ensure coastal access in California. Our stance was relevant to four bills that were successfully amended this year in the State Legislature to appease our concerns. We appreciate all the work of Senator Min and others in the Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee on these bills.

Defend the Coastal Budget - Campaign Loss

Surfrider California engages in advocacy to defend funding for state agency work that protects our coastline. Due in part to the State's grim overall budget outlook for 2024-2025, the state's budget for coastal climate adaptation projects and sea level rise planning was cut in 2024 by more than 40%. While we are optimistic about the nearly $1 billion that would be allocated towards the state's coastal priorities if the November climate bond is passed, we are committed to urging State leaders to not continue the trend of defunding needed coastal resilience work in 2025. Read more about our 2024 budget work on our blog.

Other Bills to Watch - Advocacy Support

Every year, Surfrider co-hosts California Ocean Day, where the state's biggest coastal NGOs train volunteers to lobby on priority bills to their legislators. We do not currently have updates on all our partner bills (victories will start coming in around mid-September,) you can get a good idea of bills we generally support by reading the full lobby packet here.