Bill Text: CA SB173 | 2015-2016 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Groundwater: de minimis extractors.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 4-0)
Status: (Failed) 2016-02-01 - Returned to Secretary of Senate pursuant to Joint Rule 56. [SB173 Detail]
Download: California-2015-SB173-Introduced.html
BILL NUMBER: SB 173 INTRODUCED
BILL TEXT
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, two 10 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.
