Groundwater management plans: components.

Existing law authorizes specified local agencies that provide water service to adopt and implement a groundwater management plan. Existing law requires a local agency that elects to develop a groundwater management plan to hold a hearing prior to adopting a resolution of intention to draft a plan and, after the plan is prepared, to hold a 2nd hearing to determine whether to adopt the plan. Existing law requires the local agency to publish a specified notice before each of these hearings. This bill would require the local agency to provide a copy of a resolution of intention to the Department of Water Resources within 30 days of the date of adoption. The bill would require the local agency, upon written request, to provide a copy of the proposed groundwater management plan to an interested person. The bill would require the local agency to provide each of those interested persons with a specified notice at least 30 days prior to the commencement of the 2nd hearing to determine whether to adopt the plan. The bill would require the department to post on its Internet Web site the information the department possesses regarding the local agencies that have jurisdiction to develop groundwater management plans. Existing law requires a local agency seeking specified state funds for certain groundwater projects to include in a groundwater management plan various components, including components relating to the monitoring and management of groundwater levels within the groundwater basin. This bill would specify that the groundwater projects to which these requirements apply include projects that are part of an integrated regional water management program or plan. The bill, commencing January 1, 2012, would additionally require a map identifying the recharge areas, as defined, for the groundwater basin to be included in a groundwater management plan for purposes of the state funding requirements.