AB 1427: Water: underground storage.

Under existing law, the right to water or to the use of water is limited to that amount of water that may be reasonably required for the beneficial use to be served. Existing law provides for the reversion of water rights to which a person is entitled when the person fails to beneficially use the water for a period of 5 years. Existing law declares that the storing of water underground, and related diversions for that purpose, constitute a beneficial use of water if the stored water is thereafter applied to the beneficial purposes for which the appropriation for storage was made.

This bill would revise the above declaration to additionally provide that certain uses of stored water while underground constitute beneficial use. The bill would provide that the forfeiture periods of a water right do not apply to water being beneficially used, as provided, or being held in storage for later beneficial use.