BILL NUMBER: AB 938	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Salas

                        FEBRUARY 26, 2015

   An act to amend Section 10722.4 of the Water Code, relating to
groundwater.



	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 938, as introduced, Salas. Groundwater: basin reprioritization:
establishment of groundwater sustainability agency.
   Existing law requires the Department of Water Resources to
identify the extent of monitoring of groundwater elevations that is
being undertaken within each groundwater basin or subbasin and to
prioritize basins or subbasins as high, medium, low, or very low
priority and requires the initial priority for each basin to be
established no later than January 31, 2015. Existing law, the
Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, requires all groundwater
basins designated as high- or medium-priority basins by the
department that are designated as basins subject to critical
conditions of overdraft to be managed under a groundwater
sustainability plan or coordinated groundwater sustainability plans
by January 31, 2020, and requires all other groundwater basins
designated as high- or medium-priority basins to be managed under a
groundwater sustainability plan or coordinated groundwater
sustainability plans by January 31, 2022, except as specified. The
act requires a local agency, any time the department changes these
basin priorities and elevates a basin to a medium- or high-priority
basin after January 31, 2015, to either establish a groundwater
sustainability agency within 2 years of reprioritization and adopt a
groundwater sustainability plan within 5 years of reprioritization,
or to submit an alternative to the department that the local agency
believes satisfies the objectives of these provisions within 2 years
of reprioritization.
   This bill would impose the requirement to establish a groundwater
sustainability agency or submit an alternative after reprioritization
on a local agency or combination of local agencies overlying a
groundwater basin.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  Section 10722.4 of the Water Code is amended to read:
   10722.4.  (a) Pursuant to Section 10933, for the purposes of this
part the department shall categorize each basin as one of the
following priorities:
   (1) High priority.
   (2) Medium priority.
   (3) Low priority.
   (4) Very low priority.
   (b) The initial priority for each basin shall be established by
the department pursuant to Section 10933 no later than January 31,
2015.
   (c) Any time the department updates Bulletin 118 boundaries
pursuant to subdivision (b) of Section 12924, the department shall
reassess the prioritization pursuant to Section 10933.
   (d) Any time the department changes the basin priorities pursuant
to Section 10933, if a basin is elevated to a medium- or
high-priority basin after January 31, 2015, a local agency  or
combination of local agencies overlying a groundwater basin 
shall have two years from the date of reprioritization to either
establish a groundwater sustainability agency pursuant to Chapter 4
(commencing with Section 10723) and five years from the date of
reprioritization to adopt a groundwater sustainability plan pursuant
to Chapter 6 (commencing with Section 10727) or two years to satisfy
the requirements of Section 10733.6.