AB 1030

Bill Subjects

Abstract

(1) The Professional Engineers Act and the Professional Land Surveyors' Act provide for the licensure and regulation of professional engineers and land surveyors by the Board for Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors, and Geologists. Under those acts, a land surveyor includes a person who engages in specified practices, and civil engineering is defined to include a person who locates, relocates, establishes, reestablishes, or retraces the alignment or elevation for any of the fixed works embraced within the practice of civil engineering, as defined, determines the configuration or contour of the earth's surface, or the position of fixed objects above, on, or below the surface of the earth by applying the principles of mathematics or photogrammetry, or engages in geodetic or cadastral surveying, as defined. This bill would include within the practices that subject a person to those acts, with regard to the practice of identifying the location, alignment, or elevation for any of the fixed works embraced within the practice of civil engineering, laying out the reference points or lines through the use of mathematical or physical measurements. The bill would expand the practice of land surveying and civil engineering to include determining the benthic surface below water bodies and the measuring for volumetric calculations of earthwork. The bill, with respect to the practice of making determinations regarding the position of objects, would expand that practice to include such a determination made by applying the principles of mathematics or the use of photogrammetric methods. The bill would further revise that practice so that the determination regarding the position of objects is made regarding either manmade or natural fixed objects, instead of fixed objects. The bill would modify the definition of geodetic surveying for purposes of the Professional Land Surveyors' Act to mean performing surveys by using techniques or methods of 3-dimensional geospatial data acquisitions, and make conforming changes to that effect. The bill would also, for purposes of that act, provide that a land surveyor includes a person who does or offers to do remote sensing, as defined. (2) The Professional Land Surveyors' Act provides that it does not prevent an individual or business engaged in any line of endeavor, other than the practice of land surveying, from employing or contracting with a licensed land surveyor or a licensed civil engineer to perform the respective land surveying services incidental to the conduct of business. The Professional Engineers Act provides that it does not prevent an individual or business engaged in any line of endeavor other than the practice of civil, electrical, or mechanical engineering from employing or contracting with a licensed civil, electrical, or mechanical engineer to perform the respective engineering services incidental to the conduct of business. This bill would delete those provisions and make conforming changes. (3) Existing law makes any violation of the Professional Engineers Act or the Professional Land Surveyors' Act a misdemeanor. By expanding the scope of practices subject to the Professional Engineers Act and the Professional Land Surveyors' Act, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.