Senate Bill No. 173

Introduced by Senators Nielsen and Vidak

(Coauthors: Assembly Members Dahle and Gallagher)

February 5, 2015

An act to amend Section 10721 of the Water Code, relating to groundwater.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

SB 173, as introduced, Nielsen. Groundwater: de minimis extractors.

Existing law, the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, requires all groundwater basins designated as high- or medium-priority basins by the Department of Water Resources 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. Existing law authorizes a groundwater sustainability agency to require through its groundwater sustainability plan that the use of every groundwater extraction facility within the management area of the groundwater sustainablity agency be measured by a water-measuring device, but provides that these provisions do not apply to de minimis extractors. Existing law authorizes a groundwater sustainability agency to impose fees but prohibits a groundwater sustainability agency from imposing a fee to fund the costs of a groundwater sustainability program on a de minimis extractor unless the agency has regulated the users pursuant to the act. Existing law generally excepts a de minimis extractor from the requirement that a person who extracts groundwater from a probationary basin, as prescribed, or extracts groundwater on or after July 1, 2017, in an area within a basin that is not within the management area of a groundwater sustainability agency and where the county does not assume responsibility to be the groundwater sustainability agency has to file a report of groundwater extraction by December 15 of each year for extractions made in the preceding water year with the State Water Resources Control Board. Existing law defines a de minimis extractor for these purposes as a person who extracts, for domestic purposes, 2 acre-feet or less per year.

This bill would define a de minimis extractor for the purposes of these provisions as a person who extracts, for domestic purposes, 10 acre-feet or less per year.

Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: no.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.  

Section 10721 of the Water Code is amended to
read:

10721.  

Unless the context otherwise requires, the following
definitions govern the construction of this part:

(a) “Adjudication action” means an action filed in the superior
or federal district court to determine the rights to extract
groundwater from a basin or store water within a basin, including,
but not limited to, actions to quiet title respecting rights to extract
or store groundwater or an action brought to impose a physical
solution on a basin.

(b) “Basin” means a groundwater basin or subbasin identified
and defined in Bulletin 118 or as modified pursuant to Chapter 3
(commencing with Section 10722).

(c) “Bulletin 118” means the department’s report entitled
“California’s Groundwater: Bulletin 118” updated in 2003, as it
may be subsequently updated or revised in accordance with Section
12924.

(d) “Coordination agreement” means a legal agreement adopted
between two or more groundwater sustainability agencies that
provides the basis for coordinating multiple agencies or
groundwater sustainability plans within a basin pursuant to this
part.

(e) “De minimis extractor” means a person who extracts, for
domestic purposes, begin delete two end delete begin insert 10 end insert acre-feet or less per year.

(f) “Governing body” means the legislative body of a
groundwater sustainability agency.

(g) “Groundwater” means water beneath the surface of the earth
within the zone below the water table in which the soil is
completely saturated with water, but does not include water that
flows in known and definite channels.

(h) “Groundwater extraction facility” means a device or method
for extracting groundwater from within a basin.

(i) “Groundwater recharge” means the augmentation of
groundwater, by natural or artificial means.

(j) “Groundwater sustainability agency” means one or more
local agencies that implement the provisions of this part. For
purposes of imposing fees pursuant to Chapter 8 (commencing
with Section 10730) or taking action to enforce a groundwater
sustainability plan, “groundwater sustainability agency” also means
each local agency comprising the groundwater sustainability
agency if the plan authorizes separate agency action.

(k) “Groundwater sustainability plan” or “plan” means a plan
of a groundwater sustainability agency proposed or adopted
pursuant to this part.

(l) “Groundwater sustainability program” means a coordinated
and ongoing activity undertaken to benefit a basin, pursuant to a
groundwater sustainability plan.

(m) “Local agency” means a local public agency that has water
supply, water management, or land use responsibilities within a
groundwater basin.

(n) “Operator” means a person operating a groundwater
extraction facility. The owner of a groundwater extraction facility
shall be conclusively presumed to be the operator unless a
satisfactory showing is made to the governing body of the
groundwater sustainability agency that the groundwater extraction
facility actually is operated by some other person.

(o) “Owner” means a person owning a groundwater extraction
facility or an interest in a groundwater extraction facility other
than a lien to secure the payment of a debt or other obligation.

(p) “Personal information” has the same meaning as defined in
Section 1798.3 of the Civil Code.

(q) “Planning and implementation horizon” means a 50-year
time period over which a groundwater sustainability agency
determines that plans and measures will be implemented in a basin
to ensure that the basin is operated within its sustainable yield.

(r) “Public water system” has the same meaning as defined in
Section 116275 of the Health and Safety Code.

(s) “Recharge area” means the area that supplies water to an
aquifer in a groundwater basin.

(t) “Sustainability goal” means the existence and implementation
of one or more groundwater sustainability plans that achieve
sustainable groundwater management by identifying and causing
the implementation of measures targeted to ensure that the
applicable basin is operated within its sustainable yield.

(u) “Sustainable groundwater management” means the
management and use of groundwater in a manner that can be
maintained during the planning and implementation horizon
without causing undesirable results.

(v) “Sustainable yield” means the maximum quantity of water,
calculated over a base period representative of long-term conditions
in the basin and including any temporary surplus, that can be
withdrawn annually from a groundwater supply without causing
an undesirable result.

(w) “Undesirable result” means one or more of the following
effects caused by groundwater conditions occurring throughout
the basin:

(1) Chronic lowering of groundwater levels indicating a
significant and unreasonable depletion of supply if continued over
the planning and implementation horizon. Overdraft during a period
of drought is not sufficient to establish a chronic lowering of
groundwater levels if extractions and recharge are managed as
necessary to ensure that reductions in groundwater levels or storage
during a period of drought are offset by increases in groundwater
levels or storage during other periods.

(2) Significant and unreasonable reduction of groundwater
storage.

(3) Significant and unreasonable seawater intrusion.

(4) Significant and unreasonable degraded water quality,
including the migration of contaminant plumes that impair water
supplies.

(5) Significant and unreasonable land subsidence that
substantially interferes with surface land uses.

(6) Depletions of interconnected surface water that have
significant and unreasonable adverse impacts on beneficial uses
of the surface water.

(x) “Water budget” means an accounting of the total
groundwater and surface water entering and leaving a basin
including the changes in the amount of water stored.

(y) “Watermaster” means a watermaster appointed by a court
or pursuant to other law.

(z) “Water year” means the period from October 1 through the
following September 30, inclusive.

(aa) “Wellhead protection area” means the surface and
subsurface area surrounding a water well or well field that supplies
a public water system through which contaminants are reasonably
likely to migrate toward the water well or well field.