Groundwater management.

(1) The California Constitution requires the reasonable and beneficial use of water. Existing law establishes various state water policies, including the policy that the people of the state have a paramount interest in the use of all the water of the state and that the state is required to determine what water of the state, surface and underground, can be converted to public use or be controlled for public protection. This bill would state the policy of the state that groundwater resources be managed sustainably for long-term reliability and multiple economic, social, and environmental benefits for current and future beneficial uses. This bill would state that sustainable groundwater management is best achieved locally through the development, implementation, and updating of plans and programs based on the best available science. (2) Existing law requires the Department of Water Resources, in conjunction with other public agencies, to conduct an investigation of the state's groundwater basins and to report its findings to the Legislature not later than January 1, 2012, and thereafter in years ending in 5 and 0. Existing law requires the department to identify the extent of monitoring of groundwater elevations that is being undertaken within each basin or subbasin and to prioritize groundwater basins and subbasins based on specified considerations, including any information determined to be relevant by the department. This bill would specify that this relevant information may include adverse impacts on local habitat and local streamflows. This bill would require the department to categorize each basin as high-, medium-, low-, or very low priority and would require the initial priority for each basin to be established no later than January 31, 2015. This bill would authorize a local agency to request that the department revise the boundaries of a basin and would require the department, by January 1, 2016, to adopt regulations on the methodology and criteria to be used to evaluate the proposed revision. This bill would require the department to provide a copy of its draft revision of a basin's boundaries to the California Water Commission and would require the commission to hear and comment on the draft revision. (3) Existing law authorizes local agencies to adopt and implement a groundwater management plan. Existing law requires a groundwater management plan to contain specified components and requires a local agency seeking state funds administered by the Department of Water Resources for groundwater projects or groundwater quality projects to do certain things, including, but not limited to, preparing and implementing a groundwater management plan that includes basin management objectives for the groundwater basin. This bill, with certain exceptions, would prohibit, beginning January 1, 2015, a new groundwater management plan from being adopted or an existing groundwater management plan from being renewed. This bill would require all groundwater basins designated as high- or medium-priority basins by the Department of Water Resources that are designated as basins subject to critical conditions of overdraft to be managed under a groundwater sustainability plan or coordinated groundwater sustainability plans by January 31, 2020, and would require all other groundwater basins designated as high- or medium-priority basins to be managed under a groundwater sustainability plan or coordinated groundwater sustainability plans by January 31, 2022, except as specified. This bill would require a groundwater sustainability plan to be developed and implemented to meet the sustainability goal, established as prescribed, and would require the plan to include prescribed components. This bill would encourage and authorize basins designated as low- or very low priority basins to be managed under groundwater sustainability plans. This bill would authorize any local agency, as defined, or combination of local agencies to elect to be a groundwater sustainability agency and would require, within 30 days of electing to be or forming a groundwater sustainability agency, the groundwater sustainability agency to inform the department of its election or formation and its intent to undertake sustainable groundwater management. This bill would provide that a county within which an area unmanaged by a groundwater sustainability agency lies is presumed to be the groundwater sustainability agency for that area and would require the county to provide a prescribed notification to the department. This bill would provide specific authority to a groundwater sustainability agency, including, but not limited to, the ability to require registration of a groundwater extraction facility, to require that a groundwater extraction facility be measured with a water-measuring device, and to regulate groundwater extraction. This bill would authorize a groundwater sustainability agency to conduct inspections and would authorize a groundwater sustainability agency to obtain an inspection warrant. Because the willful refusal of an inspection lawfully authorized by an inspection warrant is a misdemeanor, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program by expanding the application of a crime. (4) 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. (5) This bill would make its operation contingent on the enactment of both AB 1739 and SB 1319 of the 2013–14 Regular Session.