Integrated regional water management plans.

The Integrated Regional Water Management Planning Act authorizes a regional water management group to prepare an integrated regional water management plan, in accordance with certain procedures, for the implementation or operation of specified qualified projects or programs pertaining to water supply, water quality, or related matters. The act defines "regional projects or programs" as projects or programs identified in an integrated regional water management plan that accomplish specified water-related goals, including an increase in water supplies through the use of certain means. This bill would specifically include projects or programs that reduce energy used to acquire, transport, treat, or distribute water, or that develop and maintain computer models and other analytic tools to model regional water management strategies to account for climate change, energy use, and other factors relevant to regional demand and supply projections, as a regional project or program. The bill would require a regional water management group to include all water suppliers that are within the watershed area, the area over a groundwater basin or subbasin, or the area within a county's boundaries.