AB 1944: Sustainable groundwater management: San Luis Rey Valley 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 conditions of overdraft to be managed under a groundwater sustainability plan or coordinated groundwater sustainability plans by January 31, 2020, and requires 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. The act requires the boundaries of a basin to be as identified in a specified report of the department, unless other basin boundaries are established, as prescribed.

This bill would divide the San Luis Rey Valley Groundwater Basin into an upper and lower subbasin, as prescribed, and would designate the subbasins as medium priority until the department reassesses basin prioritization. The bill would require water beneath the surface of the ground within the Upper San Luis Rey Valley Groundwater Subbasin to be included within the definition of groundwater for the purposes of the act by any groundwater sustainability agency developing or implementing a groundwater sustainability plan and would except from this requirement certain water beneath the surface of the ground extracted and used as authorized under an existing appropriative water right.