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.
(4) The water use of small farmers and disadvantaged communities have been considered.
(b) The court may enter judgment in an adjudication action for a basin required to have a groundwater sustainability plan under the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (Part 2.74 (commencing with Section 10720) of Division 6 of the Water Code), if in addition to the criteria enumerated in subdivision (a), the court also finds that the judgment will not substantially impair the ability of a groundwater sustainability agency, the State Water Resources Control Board, or the department to comply with the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act and to achieve sustainable groundwater management.
(c) In order to assist the court in
considering the criteria under subdivision (a), the court is encouraged to invite a representative from the department or the State Water Resources Control Board to a hearing where the representative may provide technical assistance or expert testimony regarding equitable and sustainable pumping allocations for the basin, sustainable groundwater management best practices and recommendations, and the water use of small farmers and disadvantaged communities and potential impacts on their needs.
(d) 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 their objections are being resolved.
(e) For purposes of this section the following definitions
apply:
(1) “Disadvantaged communities” mean communities
identified by the California Environmental Protection Agency as disadvantaged communities pursuant to Section 39711 of the Health and Safety Code.
(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.
(f) The amendments made to this section by the act adding this subdivision shall apply only to basins in which a comprehensive adjudication has not been commenced by January 1, 2024.