Paso Robles Basin Water District.

Existing law, the California Water District Law, provides for the formation of California water districts and grants these districts authority relating to, among other things, the production, storage, transmission, and distribution of water. That district law generally requires the members of the board of a California water district, and the voters of that district, to be landowners, but provides for the modification of these requirements by the board of that district. This bill would, until January 1, 2019, provide for the formation of the Paso Robles Basin Water District, and would set forth the composition of, and method of election by landowners and registered voters for, the board of directors for the Paso Robles Basin Water District, the boundaries of which would be established and may be modified by the San Luis Obispo County Local Agency Formation Commission. The bill would require the district to be formed in accordance with the Cortese-Knox-Hertzberg Local Government Reorganization Act of 2000, except as specified. The bill would prescribe various powers of the district relating to the use and extraction of groundwater that the district, by ordinance, would be authorized to exercise, including, among others, collecting data, conducting investigations, and requiring conservation practices and measures under specified circumstances. The bill would authorize the district to develop, adopt, and implement a groundwater management plan to control extractions from the Paso Robles Groundwater Basin aquifers, as specified. The bill would also authorize the district to impose groundwater extraction charges, to establish extraction allocations, and to impose extraction surcharges to, among other things, discourage the use of groundwater beyond the extraction allocation. The bill would provide that the moneys collected by the district shall be available for expenditure by the district to carry out its groundwater management functions. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the County of San Luis Obispo. Because an intentional violation of the act's provisions would be a crime, and because the bill would expand the crime of perjury, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.