Article 4. Water Supplier Contracts of California Water Code >> Division 2. >> Part 2. >> Chapter 10.5. >> Article 4.

As used in this article, the following terms have the following meanings:
  (a) "Person" includes a public agency.
  (b) "Water supplier" means a local public agency or private company supplying or storing water, or a mutual water company.

A water supplier may, for a consideration to be specified in the contract, contract with persons entitled to service within the supplier's service area to reduce or eliminate for a specified period of time their use of water supplied by the water supplier.

Services performed under a contract entered into pursuant to this chapter or Chapter 3.6 (commencing with Section 380) of Division 1 which is offered generally to all persons entitled to water service from the water supplier are public services generally provided by the public agency for purposes of paragraph (3) of subdivision (a) of Section 1091.5 of the Government Code.

A water supplier may contract with a state drought water bank or with any other state or local water supplier or user inside or outside the service area of the water supplier to transfer, or store as part of a transfer, water if the water supplier has allocated to the water users within its service area the water available for the water year, and no other user will receive less than the amount provided by that allocation or be otherwise unreasonably adversely affected without that user's consent.

(a) Water stored by the water supplier and water made available from either of the following sources may be transferred by the water supplier pursuant to Section 1745.04:
  (1) Conservation or alternate water supply measures taken by individual water users or by the water supplier.
  (2) Water developed pursuant to a contract by a water user to reduce water use below the user's allocation or to eliminate the use of water during the water year, including a contract to grow crops without the use of water from the water supplier, to fallow land, or to undertake other action to reduce or eliminate water use.
  (b) The amount of water made available by land fallowing may not exceed 20 percent of the water that would have been applied or stored by the water supplier in the absence of any contract entered into pursuant to this article in any given hydrological year, unless the agency approves, following reasonable notice and a public hearing, a larger percentage.

A water supplier may transfer water pursuant to Section 1745.04 whether or not the water proposed to be transferred is surplus to the needs within the service area of the water supplier.

No transfer of water pursuant to this article or any other provision of law shall cause a forfeiture, diminution, or impairment of any water rights. A transfer that is approved pursuant to this article or any other provision of law is deemed to be a beneficial use by the transferor under this code.

This article is in addition to, and not a limitation on, the authority of any public agency under any other provision of law, including, but not limited to, Article 1 (commencing with Section 1725).

Nothing in this article does any of the following:
  (a) Creates in any person a right to require any water supplier to enter into a contract providing for the reduction or elimination of water use or for the transfer of water.
  (b) Creates in any person reducing water use any interest in the water rights of the water supplier.
  (c) Limits or otherwise affects the jurisdiction of any regulatory public agency over water transfers.
  (d) Makes any change in existing water rights.

A water user that transfers surface water pursuant to this article may not replace that water with groundwater unless the groundwater use is either of the following:
  (a) Consistent with a groundwater management plan adopted pursuant to state law for the affected area.
  (b) Approved by the water supplier from whose service area the water is to be transferred and that water supplier, if a groundwater management plan has not been adopted, determines that the transfer will not create, or contribute to, conditions of long-term overdraft in the affected groundwater basin.

Nothing in this article prohibits the transfer of previously recharged groundwater from an overdrafted groundwater basin or the replacement of transferred surface water with groundwater previously recharged into an overdrafted groundwater basin, if the recharge was part of a groundwater banking operation carried out by direct recharge, by delivery of surface water in lieu of groundwater pumping, or by other means, for storage and extraction.