(a) The department, in consultation with the California Water Quality Monitoring Council, the state board, and the Department of Fish and Wildlife, shall create, operate, and maintain a statewide integrated water data platform in accordance with Section 12415 and the following schedule:

(1) By January 1, 2018, the department shall do both of the following:

(A) Make public the protocols developed pursuant to Section 12406.

(B) Publish a strategic plan for data management to guide the implementation of this part.

(2) By April 1, 2018, the department shall release any request for proposals necessary for the development of a statewide integrated water data platform.

(3) (A) By September 1, 2019, the department shall make available existing water and ecological data held by state agencies on the platform.

(B) The department shall quarterly add the information described in subparagraph (A) not available as of September 1, 2019, that becomes available at a later date.

(4) (A) By August 1, 2020, the department shall make available on the platform available water and ecological data related to California water supply and management that is held by the following agencies:

(i) The United States Bureau of Reclamation.

(ii) The United States Fish and Wildlife Service.

(iii) The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

(iv) The United States Geological Survey.

(v) The United States Forest Service.

(B) The department shall quarterly add the information described in subparagraph (A) not available as of August 1, 2020, that becomes available at a later date.

(5) By August 1, 2020, the department shall make available on the platform any other existing information listed in Section 12415.

(b) The department may partner with an existing nonprofit organization, with a new nonprofit organization that the department creates, organized under paragraph (3) of subsection (c) of Section 501 of Title 26 of the United States Code, or with another state agency to create, operate, or maintain, or any combination thereof, the platform.

(c) Notwithstanding subdivision (a), the department may enter into an agreement with an existing nonprofit organization, with a new nonprofit organization that the department creates, organized under paragraph (3) of subsection (c) of Section 501 of Title 26 of the United States Code, or with another state agency for that nonprofit organization or state agency to create, operate, or maintain, or any combination thereof, the platform.

(d) The Department of Technology is deemed to have delegated to the department any authority over the implementation of this part granted to it pursuant to Section 11546 of the Government Code.

(e) Nothing in subdivision (a) shall prevent a state agency from disseminating, managing, or publishing data separately from the platform.

(Added by Stats. 2016, Ch. 506, Sec. 1. (AB 1755) Effective January 1, 2017.)