CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2023–2024 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill
No. 779

Introduced by Assembly Member Wilson

February 13, 2023

An act to amend Section 850 of, and to add Sections 831.5 and 843.5 to, the Code of Civil Procedure, and to add Sections 10737.3 and 10737.9 to the Water Code, relating to groundwater.


LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


AB 779, as introduced, Wilson. 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 plaintiff and defendant involved in an adjudication to forward all relevant pleading and briefing materials to the Department of Water Resources after a decision has been rendered by the court. The bill would require the department to post the documents on its internet website in the interest of transparency and accessibility, as specified. The bill would require the court to invite a representative from the department or the State Water Resources Control Board to provide technical assistance or expert testimony on the amount of water in the basin subject to adjudication, equitable and sustainable pumping allocations for the basin, and sustainable groundwater management best practices and recommendations. The bill would require the court to take into account the needs of small farmers and disadvantaged communities, as those terms are defined, when 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 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. 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.
This bill would require a groundwater sustainability agency with jurisdiction over a basin subject to an adjudication proceeding to submit a comprehensive monitoring plan to the court, and to report monitoring data to the court and the department. The bill would prescribe pumping restrictions on groundwater users during an adjudication proceeding. The bill would require a groundwater sustainability agency to hold a public meeting to explain the adjudication process to water users within its basin and the public upon receiving notice that an adjudication has commenced in its 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.
Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: YES   Local Program: NO  

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:


SECTION 1.

 Section 831.5 is added to the Code of Civil Procedure, to read:

831.5.
 The plaintiff and defendant involved in an adjudication shall forward all relevant pleading and briefing materials to the department after a decision has been rendered by the court. The department shall post the documents on its internet website in the interest of transparency and accessibility. This section does not apply to any documents that have been sealed by the court.

SEC. 2.

 Section 843.5 is added to the Code of Civil Procedure, to read:

843.5.
 The court shall invite a representative from the department or the State Water Resources Control Board to provide technical assistance or expert testimony on the amount of water in the basin subject to adjudication, equitable and sustainable pumping allocations for the basin, and sustainable groundwater management best practices and recommendations.

SEC. 3.

 Section 850 of the Code of Civil Procedure is amended to read:

850.
 (a) The court may enter a judgment in a comprehensive adjudication if the court finds that the judgment meets all of the following criteria:
(1) It is consistent with Section 2 of Article X of the California Constitution.
(2) It is consistent with the water right priorities of all non-stipulating parties and any persons who have claims that are exempted pursuant to Section 833 in the basin.
(3) It treats all objecting parties and any persons who have claims that are exempted pursuant to Section 833 equitably as compared to the stipulating parties.
(b) The court shall to take into account the needs of small farmers and disadvantaged communities when entering a judgment.

(b)

(c) If a party or group of parties submits a proposed stipulated judgment that is supported by more than 50 percent of all parties who are groundwater extractors in the basin or use the basin for groundwater storage and is supported by groundwater extractors responsible for at least 75 percent of the groundwater extracted in the basin during the five calendar years before the filing of the complaint, the court may adopt the proposed stipulated judgment, as applied to the stipulating parties, if the proposed stipulated judgment meets the criteria described in subdivision (a). A party objecting to a proposed stipulated judgment shall demonstrate, by a preponderance of evidence, that the proposed stipulated judgment does not satisfy one or more criteria described in subdivision (a) or that it substantially violates the water rights of the objecting party. If the objecting party is unable to make this showing, the court may impose the proposed stipulated judgment on the objecting party. An objecting party may be subject to a preliminary injunction issued pursuant to Section 847 while his or her their objections are being resolved.
(d) For purposes of this section the following definitions apply:
(1) “Disadvantaged communities” mean communities with an average income less than 80 percent of state median income.
(2) “Small farmers” means farmers with between ten thousand dollars ($10,000) and four hundred thousand dollars ($400,000) in gross farm sales, as referenced in the Department of Food and Agriculture’s California Underserved and Small Producers Program.

SEC. 4.

 Section 10737.3 is added to the Water Code, to read:

10737.3.
 (a) (1) A groundwater sustainability agency with jurisdiction over a basin subject to adjudication proceeding shall submit a comprehensive monitoring plan to the court to be followed during the adjudication proceeding.
(2) A groundwater sustainability agency with jurisdiction over a basin subject to an adjudication shall report monitoring data regarding the subject basin to the court and the department during the duration of the proceeding.
(b) Groundwater users involved in the adjudication shall not increase any pumping beyond the level permitted in their basin’s groundwater sustainability plan throughout the duration of the proceeding and shall not increase any pumping without permission from the court, or use new or increased pumping to establish a claim of prescription during the proceeding.

SEC. 5.

 Section 10737.9 is added to the Water Code, to read:

10737.9.
 (a) Upon receiving notice that an adjudication has commenced in its basin, a groundwater sustainability agency shall hold a public meeting to explain the adjudication process to water users within its basin and the public.
(b) A groundwater sustainability agency may invite the state board or the department to send a representative to the meeting in order to help explain the adjudication process.