Groundwater management plans.

(1) 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. Existing law requires a local agency to prepare a groundwater management plan within 2 years of the date of the adoption of the resolution of intention. 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 authorize any person to request to be placed on a list established by the local agency for purposes of receiving notices regarding plan preparation, meeting announcements, and availability of draft plans, maps, and other relevant documents. The bill would require the local agency to provide each of those interested persons and the department with a specified notice prior to the 2nd hearing to determine whether to adopt the plan. The bill would require, if a groundwater management plan is not adopted within 2 years of the date of the adoption of a resolution of intention and the local agency is operating under a previously adopted groundwater management plan, that the previously adopted plan remain in effect. 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 and information regarding groundwater management plans provided by local agencies and specified groundwater monitoring entities. (2) 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, 2013, 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. The bill would require the local agency to provide the map of the recharge areas to local planning agencies and notify the department and other interested persons when a map is submitted to those local planning agencies.