AB 779: Groundwater: adjudication.

(1)Existing law establishes various methods and procedures for a comprehensive adjudication of groundwater rights in civil court.

This bill would require the court, in an adjudication action for a basin required to have a groundwater sustainability plan, to appoint one party to forward all case management orders, judgments, and interlocutory orders to the groundwater sustainability agency within 10 business days of issuance. The bill would require the court to allocate payment of the costs incurred by the party appointed to forward all case management orders, judgments, and interlocutory orders to the groundwater sustainability agency among the parties in an amount and a manner that the court deems equitable. The bill would require the groundwater sustainability agency to post the documents on its internet website in the interest of transparency and accessibility within 20 business days of receipt from a party, as specified. The bill would authorize the court to refer the matter to the State Water Resources Control Board for investigation and report in order to assist the court in making findings pursuant to these provisions, and would authorize a party to request that the court refer the matter to the board for these purposes, as specified. The bill would require the court to consider the water use of and accessibility of water for small farmers and disadvantaged communities, as those terms are defined, before entering a judgment.

(2)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 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 requires, among other duties, a groundwater sustainability agency to evaluate its groundwater sustainability plan periodically. Existing law requires a groundwater sustainability agency, on the April 1 following the adoption of a groundwater sustainability plan and annually thereafter, to report specified information about the groundwater basin to the department.

This bill would require a groundwater sustainability agency to submit copies of those reports to the court during the duration of an adjudication proceeding. The bill would require all monitoring and reporting required under a groundwater sustainability plan or an interim plan for a basin subject to an adjudication to continue throughout the duration of the adjudication proceeding.

The bill would require a groundwater sustainability agency, upon receiving notice that an adjudication has commenced in its basin, to host a public meeting to explain the adjudication process and the status of the adjudication to water users within the basin and the public. The bill would require a recording or summary of the meeting to be posted to a public internet website hosted by either the groundwater sustainability agency or the watermaster of the basin. The bill would authorize a groundwater sustainability agency to invite the state board or the department to send a representative to the meeting in order to help explain the adjudication process. The bill would apply these provisions only to basins in which a comprehensive adjudication has not been commenced by January 1, 2024.