Bill Text: CA AB828 | 2023-2024 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: Sustainable groundwater management: managed wetlands.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Enrolled) 2024-08-28 - Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 53. Noes 17.). [AB828 Detail]
Download: California-2023-AB828-Amended.html
Amended
IN
Senate
July 01, 2024 |
Amended
IN
Assembly
January 11, 2024 |
Amended
IN
Assembly
January 03, 2024 |
Amended
IN
Assembly
April 17, 2023 |
Amended
IN
Assembly
March 02, 2023 |
Introduced by Assembly Member Connolly |
February 13, 2023 |
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
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(4)The bill would repeal its provisions on January 1, 2028.
Digest Key
Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: NOBill Text
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1.
The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:SEC. 2.
Section 10721 of the Water Code is amended to read:10721.
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(b)This section shall remain in effect only until January 1, 2028, and as of that date is repealed.
(a)Unless the context otherwise requires, the following definitions govern the construction of this part:
(1)“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.
(2)“Basin” means a groundwater basin or subbasin identified and defined in Bulletin 118 or as modified pursuant to Chapter 3 (commencing with Section 10722).
(3)“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.
(4)“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.
(5)“De minimis extractor” means a person who extracts, for domestic purposes, two acre-feet or less per year.
(6)“Governing body” means the legislative body of a groundwater sustainability agency.
(7)“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 unless included pursuant to Section 10722.5.
(8)“Groundwater extraction facility” means a device or method for extracting groundwater from within a basin.
(9)“Groundwater recharge” or “recharge” means the augmentation of groundwater, by natural or artificial means.
(10)“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.
(11)“Groundwater sustainability plan” or “plan” means a plan of a groundwater sustainability agency proposed or adopted pursuant to this part.
(12)“Groundwater sustainability program” means a coordinated and ongoing activity undertaken to benefit a basin, pursuant to a groundwater sustainability plan.
(13)“In-lieu use” means the use of surface water by persons that could otherwise extract groundwater in order to leave groundwater in the basin.
(14)“Local agency” means a local public agency that has water supply, water management, or land use responsibilities within a groundwater basin.
(15)“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.
(16)“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.
(17)“Personal information” has the same meaning as defined in Section 1798.3 of the Civil Code.
(18)“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.
(19)“Public water system” has the same meaning as defined in Section 116275 of the Health and Safety Code.
(20)“Recharge area” means the area that supplies water to an aquifer in a groundwater basin.
(21)“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.
(22)“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.
(23)“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.
(24)“Undesirable result” means one or more of the following effects caused by groundwater conditions occurring throughout the basin:
(A)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 groundwater 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.
(B)Significant and unreasonable reduction of groundwater storage.
(C)Significant and unreasonable seawater intrusion.
(D)Significant and unreasonable degraded water quality, including the migration of contaminant plumes that impair water supplies.
(E)Significant and unreasonable land subsidence that substantially interferes with surface land uses.
(F)Depletions of interconnected surface water that have significant and unreasonable adverse impacts on beneficial uses of the surface water.
(25)“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.
(26)“Watermaster” means a watermaster appointed by a court or pursuant to other law.
(27)“Water year” means the period from October 1 through the following September 30, inclusive.
(28)“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.
(b)This section shall become operative on January 1, 2028.
SEC. 4.SEC. 3.
Section 10726.4 of the Water Code is amended to read:10726.4.
(a) A groundwater sustainability agency shall have the following additional authority and may regulate groundwater extraction using that authority:(f)This section shall remain in effect only until January 1, 2028, and as of that date is repealed.
(a)A groundwater sustainability agency shall have the following additional authority and may regulate groundwater extraction using that authority:
(1)To impose spacing requirements on new groundwater well construction to minimize well interference and impose reasonable operating regulations on existing groundwater wells to minimize well interference, including requiring extractors to operate on a rotation basis.
(2)To control groundwater extractions by regulating, limiting, or suspending extractions from individual groundwater wells or extractions from groundwater wells in the aggregate, construction of new groundwater wells, enlargement of existing groundwater wells, or reactivation of abandoned groundwater wells, or otherwise establishing groundwater extraction allocations. Those actions shall be consistent with the applicable elements of the city or county general plan, unless there is insufficient sustainable yield in the basin to serve a land use designated in the city or county general plan. A limitation on extractions by a groundwater sustainability agency shall not be construed to be a final determination of rights to extract groundwater from the basin or any portion of the basin.
(3)To authorize temporary and permanent transfers of groundwater extraction allocations within the agency’s boundaries, if the total quantity of groundwater extracted in any water year is consistent with the provisions of the groundwater sustainability plan. The transfer is subject to applicable city and county ordinances.
(4)To establish accounting rules to allow unused groundwater extraction allocations issued by the agency to be carried over from one year to another and voluntarily transferred, if the total quantity of groundwater extracted in any five-year period is consistent with the provisions of the groundwater sustainability plan.
(b)This section does not authorize a groundwater sustainability agency to issue permits for the construction, modification, or abandonment of groundwater wells, except as authorized by a county with authority to issue those permits. A groundwater sustainability agency may request of the county, and the county shall consider, that the county forward permit requests for the construction of new groundwater wells, the enlarging of existing groundwater wells, and the reactivation of abandoned groundwater wells to the groundwater sustainability agency before permit approval.
(c)This section shall become
operative on January 1, 2028.
SEC. 4.
Section 10727.4 of the Water Code is amended to read:10727.4.
In addition to the requirements of Section 10727.2, a groundwater sustainability plan shall include, where appropriate and in collaboration with the appropriate local agencies, all of the following:SEC. 6.SEC. 5.
Section 10730.2 of the Water Code is amended to read:10730.2.
(a) A groundwater sustainability agency that adopts a groundwater sustainability plan pursuant to this part may impose fees on the extraction of groundwater from the basin to fund costs of groundwater management, including, but not limited to, the costs of the following:(g)This section shall remain in effect only until January 1, 2028, and as of that date is repealed.
(a)A groundwater sustainability agency that adopts a groundwater sustainability plan pursuant to this part may impose fees on the extraction of groundwater from the basin to fund costs of groundwater management, including, but not limited to, the costs of the following:
(1)Administration, operation, and maintenance, including a prudent reserve.
(2)Acquisition of lands or other property, facilities, and services.
(3)Supply, production, treatment, or distribution of water.
(4)Other activities necessary or convenient to implement the plan.
(b)Until a groundwater sustainability plan is adopted pursuant to this part, a local agency may impose fees in accordance with the procedures provided in this section for the purposes of Part 2.75 (commencing with Section 10750) as long as a groundwater management plan adopted before January 1, 2015, is in effect.
(c)Fees imposed pursuant to this section shall be adopted in accordance with subdivisions (a) and (b) of Section 6 of Article XIII D of the California Constitution.
(d)Fees imposed pursuant to this section may include fixed fees and fees charged on a volumetric basis, including, but not limited to, fees that increase based on the quantity of groundwater produced annually, the year in which the production of groundwater commenced from a groundwater extraction facility, and impacts to
the basin.
(e)The power granted by this section is in addition to any powers a groundwater sustainability agency has under any other law.
(f)This section shall become operative on January 1, 2028.