SECTIONS 21504-21507 - California Statutes

PUBLIC UTILITIES CODE

SECTION 21504-21507

21504. The Legislature finds and declares as follows:
(a) Representatives from the aviation community, electric utility
industry, and government agencies voluntarily convened a working
group in July 1992 to develop a comprehensive program to improve
low-level flight safety throughout California.
(b) The working group found that the prevention of aircraft wire
strikes and losses through (1) pilot education and awareness and (2)
selective marking of those wires and supporting structures that
present a hazard to low-level flight safety are equally important to
improving low-level flight safety throughout the state.
(c) The working group developed criteria for marking selected
wires and supporting structures based upon visibility and likelihood
of aircraft activity, which now must be evaluated in the field.
(d) It is, therefore, the intent of the Legislature in enacting
this chapter to implement recommendations of the working group to
undertake a pilot education and awareness program and to evaluate the
criteria for marking selected wires and supporting structures in the
field.

21505. (a) The Division of Aeronautics, in cooperation with the
aviation industry and the electric utility industry and in
consultation with the Federal Aviation Administration, shall
coordinate and disseminate information provided by the working group
to pilots to increase awareness of wire hazards and to communicate
techniques for identifying and avoiding wires.
(b) For purposes of coordinating and disseminating the information
provided to the division by the working group pursuant to
subdivision (a), every electrical corporation and publicly owned
electrical utility in this state which serves 250,000 or more
customers shall pay a one-time fee in a sufficient amount so that the
total of all fees collected does not exceed one hundred thousand
dollars ($100,000). The fee shall be in the proportion that each
utility's total miles of transmission line greater than 110 kilovolts
bears to the total miles of transmission line greater than 110
kilovolts statewide.
(c) All fees collected pursuant to subdivision (b) shall be
deposited in the Aeronautics Account in the State Transportation Fund
to be continuously appropriated to the Department of Transportation
for the purposes set forth in subdivision (a).

21507. All costs incurred by an electrical corporation pursuant to
this chapter shall be deemed reasonable by the commission and shall
be fully recoverable through rates.