Water use: water management plans.

(1) Existing law requires the Department of Water Resources to convene an independent technical panel to provide information to the department and the Legislature on new demand management measures, technologies, and approaches. "Demand management measures" means those water conservation measures, programs, and incentives that prevent the waste of water and promote the reasonable and efficient use and reuse of available supplies. Existing law requires urban water suppliers to prepare and adopt urban water management plans with specified components. This bill would require a retail urban water supplier, as defined, to develop and implement an urban water conservation plan, including prescribed components, or achieve high-efficiency water use, as defined. The bill would impose various requirements for the contents of these plans, and would require a retail urban water supplier to update its water conservation plan on a specified schedule. The retail urban water supplier or other specified entities acting on behalf of the retail urban water supplier, would be required to submit reports for purposes of determining progress towards achieving a prescribed water conservation goal. The bill would require specified competitive grant and loan programs to provide financial incentives to retail urban water suppliers to support water use efficiency and local water resources management measures. The bill also would require the board and the department, not later than April 1, 2010, to convene a task force to develop best management practices for commercial, industrial, and institutional water uses for the purpose of achieving a specified reduction in water use by 2020. (2) The Agricultural Water Management Planning Act, until January 1, 1993, and thereafter only as specified, requires certain agricultural water suppliers to prepare and adopt water management plans. This bill would substantially revise the act to require an agricultural water supplier, as defined, to prepare and adopt an agricultural water management plan with specified components on or before December 31, 2012, and update that plan every 5 years, as specified. An entity, as defined, that becomes an agricultural water supplier after December 31, 2012, would be required to prepare and adopt an agricultural water management plan within 2 years after becoming an agricultural water supplier. The bill would require an agricultural water supplier to submit copies of the plan, or provide a specified written notice, to the department and other specified entities. The bill would provide that an agricultural water supplier is ineligible to receive specified state funds if the supplier does not prepare, adopt, and submit the plan in accordance with the requirements established by the bill.