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Cal. PRC § 3161

This is the official text of Cal. PRC § 3161, part of California’s Public Resources Code — covers environmental protection, state parks, and natural resource management.

Not legal advice. This page reproduces the official text of a government statute for reference only. Laws change, and how a statute applies depends on your specific facts. For advice about your situation, consult a licensed attorney in your state.

Official statutory text

(a) The division shall finalize the regulations governing this article on or before January 1, 2015. Notwithstanding any other laws, the regulations shall become effective on July 1, 2015.

(b) The division shall allow, until regulations specified in subdivision (b) of Section 3160 are finalized and implemented, and upon written notification by an operator, all of the activities defined in Section 3157, provided all of the following conditions are met:

(1) The owner or operator certifies compliance with paragraph (2) of subdivision (b) of, paragraphs (1), (6), and (7) of subdivision (d) of, and paragraph (1) of subdivision (g) of, Section 3160.

(2) The owner or operator shall provide a complete well history, incorporating the information required by Section 3160, to the division on or before March 1, 2015.

(3) (A) The division commences the preparation of an environmental impact report (EIR) pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act (Division 13 (commencing with Section 21000)), to provide the public with detailed information regarding any potential environmental impacts of well stimulation in the state.

(B) Any environmental review conducted by the division shall fully comply with both of the following requirements:

(i) The EIR shall be certified by the division as the lead agency, no later than July 1, 2015.

(ii) The EIR shall address the issue of activities that may be conducted as defined in Section 3157 and that may occur at oil wells in the state existing prior to, and after, January 1, 2014.

(C) This paragraph does not prohibit a local lead agency from conducting its own EIR.

(4) The division ensures that all activities pursuant to this section fully conform with this article and other applicable provisions of law on or before December 31, 2015, through a permitting process.

(c) The division has the emergency regulatory authority to implement the purposes of this section. Notwithstanding Section 11349.6 of the Government Code or other laws, an emergency regulation adopted pursuant to this subdivision implementing subdivision (b) shall be filed with, but shall not be disapproved by, the Office of Administrative Law, and shall remain in effect until revised by the director or July 1, 2015, whichever is earlier.

(d) This section does not limit the authority of the division to take appropriate action pursuant to subdivision (a) of Section 3106.

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

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About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.