BILL NUMBER: SB 1014INTRODUCED BILL TEXT INTRODUCED BY Senator Denham FEBRUARY 10, 2010 An act to amend Section 79171 of the Water Code, relating to groundwater. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST SB 1014, as introduced, Denham. Safe Drinking Water, Clean Water, Watershed Protection, and Flood Protection Bond Act: groundwater storage projects. The Safe Drinking Water, Clean Water, Watershed Protection, and Flood Protection Bond Act (bond act), approved by the voters as Proposition 13 at the March 7, 2000, statewide primary election, authorizes the issuance and sale of a total of $1,970,000,000 in general obligation bonds. The bond act requires that $630,000,000 of the proceeds from the sale of those bonds be allocated for purposes of water supply reliability projects. Existing law authorizes the Department of Water Resources, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to use $200,000,000 from the moneys allocated for water supply reliability projects for purposes of providing grants for groundwater storage projects that produce water supply benefits for local agencies and water users. The bond act defines various terms for these purposes. This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to those definitions. Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no. State-mandated local program: no. THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS: SECTION 1. Section 79171 of the Water Code is amended to read: 79171. Unless the context otherwise requires, the following definitions govern the construction of this article: (a) "Conjunctive use" means the temporary storage of water in a groundwater aquifer through intentional recharge and subsequent extraction for later use. Storage is accomplished by either of the following methods: (1) "Direct recharge" of an aquifer by conducting surface water into the ground by various means, including, without limitation, spreading ponds and injection wells for the purpose of making the water stored in the aquifer available for extraction and later use in drier years. (2) "In-lieu recharge" means increasing the amount of groundwater available in an aquifer by substituting surface water supplies to a user who would otherwise pump groundwater. (b) "Conjunctive use facilities" include land and appurtenant facilities for any phase of a conjunctive use operation. Appurtenant facilities may include subsurface storage, treatment, conveyance, recharge ponds, injection wells, spreading grounds, monitoring, measurements, subsidence detection, flow regulation, detention basins to facilitate recharge, diversion facilities, and extraction facilities. (c) "Conjunctive use project" means a project that is intended to produce water supply benefits for the local agency or a project that is intended to produce water supply benefits for water users, including the environment, in addition to the local agency. (d) "Local agency" meansanya city, county, city and county, district, joint powers authority, mutual water company, or other political subdivision of the state. (e) "Project participants" meansanya public agency participating in, and benefiting from, a conjunctive use project under this article. (f) "Subaccount" means the Conjunctive Use Subaccount created by Section 79172.