Sustainable Groundwater Management Act: adjudicated basins.

Existing law specifies the jurisdiction of the courts. Under existing law, courts may adjudicate rights to produce groundwater and exercise other powers relating to the supervision of a groundwater basin. Existing law, the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, requires all groundwater basins designated as high- or medium-priority basins by the Department of Water Resources that are designated as basins subject to critical overdraft to be managed under a groundwater sustainability plan or coordinated groundwater sustainability plans by January 31, 2020, and requires all other 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. Under existing law, the provisions of the act do not apply to an adjudicated groundwater basin, as specified, or to a local agency that conforms to the requirements of an adjudication of water rights for an adjudicated groundwater basin. This bill would authorize the watermaster or local agency administering an adjudicated basin to elect that the adjudicated basin be subject to the provisions of the act. The bill would authorize the court with jurisdiction over the adjudicated basin to issue an order setting a hearing to determine whether the adjudicated basin shall be subject to the act, as prescribed. The bill would require the watermaster or local agency to provide written notice to the department that the adjudicated basin is subject to the act, and would require the department to post that notice to its Internet Web site within 15 days. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.