SB 394: Water theft: fire hydrants.

This bill aims to strengthen laws against water theft by expanding the list of prohibited acts. It adds tampering with fire hydrants, fire hydrant meters, and fire detector checks to the list of acts that utilities can bring a civil action against. The bill also expands the rebuttable presumption for a violation of these provisions to include tampering with or using a fire hydrant without authorization to obtain water and without paying the full lawful charge. The bill revises fines for water theft offenses, making the third or additional violation subject to the same fine regardless of the time frame between the first and subsequent violations. Additionally, the bill allows local agencies to adopt ordinances prohibiting unauthorized connections to fire hydrants, subject to administrative fines, and sets forth a schedule of fines for these offenses. The bill also prohibits local agencie…