Sustainable groundwater management: managed wetlands.

Plain English Breakdown

The bill summary and digest do not provide specific details on the exact conditions under which restrictions are lifted.

Sustainable Groundwater Management: Managed Wetlands

This law adds definitions for managed wetlands and small community water systems, restricts how groundwater sustainability agencies can regulate these entities, and requires plans to include impacts on them.

What This Bill Does

• Adds new terms like 'managed wetland' and 'small community water system' in the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act.
• Prohibits groundwater sustainability agencies from setting extraction limits for small community water systems serving disadvantaged communities or managed wetlands, except under certain conditions.
• Requires groundwater sustainability plans to include information about how these plans affect managed wetlands, their extractors, and small community water systems serving disadvantaged communities.
• Prevents groundwater sustainability agencies from charging fees on small community water systems serving disadvantaged communities or for managed wetland purposes if the usage does not exceed historical levels. Fees can be charged if usage increases beyond historical needs.

Who It Names or Affects

• Groundwater sustainability agencies
• Managed wetlands and their extractors
• Small community water systems serving disadvantaged communities

Terms To Know

managed wetland

A wetland that is actively managed to maintain or restore its ecological functions.

small community water system

A public water supply system serving a small population, often in rural areas.

Limits and Unknowns

• The bill's provisions will be repealed on January 1, 2029.
• It does not specify what happens after the repeal date or how these entities will be regulated then.

Official Summary Text

AB 929, as amended, Connolly.
Sustainable groundwater management: managed wetlands.
(1) Existing law, the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, requires all groundwater basins designated as high- or medium-priority basins by the Department of Water Resources to be managed under a groundwater sustainability plan or coordinated groundwater sustainability plans, except as specified. Existing law defines various terms for purposes of the act.
This bill would add various defined terms for purposes of the act, including the terms “managed wetland” and “small community water system.”
(2) Existing law authorizes any local agency or combination of local agencies overlying a groundwater basin to decide to become a groundwater sustainability agency for that basin and imposes specified duties upon that agency or combination of agencies, as provided.
Existing law grants a groundwater sustainability agency specified authority and authorizes a groundwater sustainability agency to regulate groundwater extraction using that authority.
This bill would prohibit a groundwater sustainability agency from using that authority regarding the establishment of groundwater extraction allocations for small community water systems serving disadvantaged communities from permitted public water supply wells and to managed wetland extractors, except as specified. The bill would repeal this provision on January 1, 2029.
(3) Existing law requires a groundwater sustainability plan, where appropriate and in collaboration with the appropriate local agencies, to contain certain information, including control of saline water intrusion, wellhead protection areas and recharge areas, a well abandonment and well destruction program, well construction policies, and impacts on
groundwater-dependent ecosystems.
This bill would additionally require the information regarding a groundwater sustainability plan to include, among other things, the plan’s water supply and economic impacts on managed wetlands, managed wetland extractors, and small community water systems serving disadvantaged communities. The bill would repeal this provision on January 1, 2029.
(4) Existing law authorizes a groundwater sustainability agency that adopts a groundwater sustainability plan to impose fees on the extraction of groundwater from the basin to fund costs of groundwater management, as specified.
This bill would prohibit a groundwater sustainability agency from imposing a fee upon a small community water system serving a disadvantaged community or imposing a fee for managed wetland purposes, provided the water use for each user does not increase above
what was historically required to support the small community water system or the managed wetland.
If a small community water system or a managed wetland extractor increases its extraction of groundwater above what was historically required to support the small community water system or annually flood the managed wetland, the bill would authorize a groundwater sustainability agency to impose a fee for the usage above the historical amount.
The bill would repeal this provision on January 1, 2029.

Current Bill Text

Download Bill PDF