Department of Conservation: Multibenefit Land Conversion Incentive Program: administration.

Existing law, the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) , requires numerous groundwater basins throughout the state designated by the Department of Water Resources as medium- or high-priority basins to each be managed under a separate groundwater sustainability plan or coordinated groundwater sustainability plans by specified dates. SGMA requires, with some exceptions, that local agencies designated as groundwater sustainability agencies prepare, administer, and enforce the groundwater sustainability plans with the goal of sustainably managing these groundwater basins to avoid undesirable results such as overdrafting groundwater, subsidence, and sea water intrusion, among others. To achieve the sustainability goal, SGMA authorizes a groundwater sustainability agency to, among other measures, control groundwater extractions by regulating, limiting, or suspending extractions from groundwater wells, establish a program of voluntary fallowing of agricultural lands, or validate an existing fallowing program. This bill would require the Department of Conservation to establish and administer a program named the Multibenefit Land Conversion Incentive Program for purposes of providing grants to groundwater sustainability agencies or counties, or other specified entities designated by groundwater sustainability agencies or counties, for the development or implementation of local programs supporting or facilitating multibenefit land conversion at the basin scale. The bill would establish procedures for the department's administration of the program and would require the department to develop guidelines to implement the program and to exercise its expertise and discretion in awarding program funds to eligible applicants. The bill would specify numerous criteria regarding program eligibility, including compliance with several specified requirements of SGMA. The bill would prescribe certain actions regarding program accountability and oversight, including preparation of an annual report with specified information evaluating the implementation of local programs and use of program funds. The bill would repeal its provisions on January 1, 2031.