Sec. 18.
The district shall have the power to do all of the following:(a) To acquire, hold, and utilize water and water rights, including, but not limited to, water available from the state under the State Water Resources Development System, and to provide, sell, manage, and deliver surface water, groundwater, and recycled water for municipal, industrial, domestic, and other purposes at retail and wholesale throughout the territory of the district.
(b) To construct, operate, and maintain works to develop energy, including, but not limited to, hydroelectric, solar, wind, and other renewable sources,
inside or outside the district for use by the district in the operation of its works or as a means of assisting in financing the construction, operation, and maintenance of its projects for the control, conservation, diversion, and transmission of water and to enter into contracts for the sale of the energy. The energy may be marketed only at wholesale to any public agency or private entity, or both.
(c) To enter into contracts with any public agency or private entity engaged in the generation or distribution of electric energy for the right to use falling water, facilities, or real property of the district, either inside or outside the district, for energy generation or distribution purposes.
(d) To develop, treat, distribute, manage, and reclaim water, and to store and recover
water from groundwater basins located wholly or partially inside or outside the boundaries of the district and, in exercising that power, to make and enter into contracts allowing that storage and recovery.
(e) To join with one or more public agencies, private corporations, or other persons for the purpose of carrying out any of the powers of the district, and for that purpose to contract with other public agencies or private corporations or persons for the purpose of financing those acquisitions, constructions, and operations. The contracts may provide for contributions to be made by each party to the contract and for the division and apportionment of the expenses of the acquisitions and operations, and the division and apportionment of the benefits, the services and products from the contract, and may provide for any agency to effect
the acquisitions and to carry on the operations, and shall provide in the powers and methods of procedure for the agency the method by which the agency may contract. The contracts with other public
agencies or private corporations or persons may contain other and further covenants and agreements as may be necessary or convenient to accomplish the purposes of the contract. In addition to and without limiting all of the other powers of the district, the district may contract with the State of California for delivery of water under the State Water Resources Development System. Contracts under this subdivision include those made with the federal government under the Federal Reclamation Act of June 17, 1902, as amended, or any other act of the United States Congress enacted permitting cooperation.
(f) To require reporting to the district of all production, distribution, and reclamation of water within the district in excess of 10 acre-feet per annum.
(g) To join with
one or more local agencies to form a groundwater sustainability agency pursuant to Section 10723.6 of the Water Code and to participate with a groundwater sustainability agency to develop and implement a groundwater sustainability plan within the district in accordance with Chapter 6 (commencing with Section 10727) of Part 2.74 of Division 6 of the Water Code.
(h) To contract with the purveyor or successor in interest to the purveyor.
(i) (1) To construct works along and across any stream of water, watercourse, channel, flood control channel, storm channel, canal, ditch or flume, street, avenue, highway, or across any railway that the route of the works may intersect or cross, if the works are constructed in a manner as to afford security for life and
property and the district restores the crossings and intersections to their former state as near as may be or in a manner not to have impaired unnecessarily their usefulness. This paragraph grants the district a statutory franchise right and therefore the district may not be charged any use fees or be made subject to any conditions that unreasonably interfere with the franchise rights.
(2) The statutory franchise right and right-of-way granted in paragraph (1) is hereby given, dedicated, and set apart to locate, construct, and maintain the works along and across any street or public highway and over and through any of the lands that are now or may be the property of this state, and to have the same rights and privileges as have been or may be granted to cities within the state. Any use under this section of a public highway shall be
subject to the provisions of Chapter 3 (commencing with Section 660) of Division 1 of the Streets and Highways Code.