If the board determines after a noticed public hearing, and consideration of any relevant investigations, studies, and evidence, that groundwater management activities are necessary in order to improve or protect the quantity or quality of groundwater supplies within a groundwater basin or aquifer, the board may, by ordinance, exercise any of the following powers:
(a) Require conservation practices and measures within the affected portion of its territory.
(b) Control groundwater extractions by regulating, limiting, or suspending extractions from extraction facilities, the construction of new extraction facilities, the enlarging of existing extraction facilities, and the reactivation of abandoned extraction facilities.
(c) Commence and prosecute legal actions to enjoin unreasonable uses or methods of use of water within the district or outside the territory of the district to the extent those uses or methods of use adversely affect the groundwater supply within the district.
(d) Impose spacing requirements on new extraction facility construction to minimize well interference.
(e) Impose reasonable operating regulations on extraction facilities to minimize well interference, including requiring pumpers to operate on a rotation basis.
(f) Require extraction facilities to be registered with the district within 30 days of notice being given to the operator of the extraction facility.
(g) Require that the operator of a registered extraction facility provide the district annually with the following information regarding the extraction facility:
(1) The name and address of the operator of the extraction facility.
(2) The name and address of the owner of the land upon which the extraction facility is located.
(3) A description of the equipment associated with the extraction facility.
(4) The location of the water extraction facility.
(h) Require extraction facilities to be equipped with waterflow measuring devices installed and calibrated by the district or, at the district’s option, by the extraction facility operator.
(Added by Stats. 2014, Ch. 350, Sec. 1. (AB 2453) Effective January 1, 2015.)
Last modified: October 25, 2018