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been responsible for undertaking soil surveys and soils information for many of California's agricultural counties is outdated or unavailable.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.

(Amended by Stats. 2004, Ch. 193, Sec. 159. Effective January 1, 2005.)