Amended
IN
Senate
March 18, 2024 |
Introduced by Senator Alvarado-Gil |
February 16, 2024 |
Under existing law, the State Water Resources Control Board administers a water rights program pursuant to which the board grants permits and licenses to appropriate water. Existing law prohibits certain statutory provisions from being construed as depriving any city, city and county, municipal water district, irrigation district, or lighting district of the benefit of any law passed for their benefit in regard to the appropriation or acquisition of water.
This bill would make nonsubstantive changes to the latter provision.
Nothing in this division shall be construed as depriving any city, city and county, municipal water district, irrigation district, or lighting district of the benefit of any law heretofore or hereafter passed for their benefit in regard to the appropriation or acquisition of water. Any right to the water of any stream that flows along a boundary of the state and
that is the subject of an interstate compact to which the
state is a party, to the extent the right relates to quantities of water that the United States has, under the authority of an act of Congress, contracted to deliver to any municipal corporation, political subdivision, or public district in the state, from storage constructed by the United States on
the stream, shall not be subject to any requirement or limitation provided by law relating to the time within which the construction of works for the use of
the water shall be commenced, carried on, or completed, or within which the water shall be put to use, or relating to the continuity of use of the water; and water contracted to be delivered from such a stream shall be reserved to the contractor therefor without diminution by reason of the contractor’s failure to apply
the water to use during any period, and shall not be subject to appropriation by any other than the contractor.