13452
. As used in this chapter, and for purposes of this chapter,
as used in the State General Obligation Bond Law (Chapter 4
(commencing with Section 16720) of Part 3 of Division 4 of Title 2 of
the Government Code), the following words have the following
meanings:
(a) "Board" means the State Water Resources Control Board.
(b) "Committee" means the Water Conservation and Water Quality
Finance Committee created by Section 13454.
(c) "Department" means the Department of Water Resources.
(d) "Drainage water management units" mean land and facilities for
the treatment, storage, or disposal of agricultural drainage water
which, if discharged untreated, would pollute or threaten to pollute
the waters of the state.
(1) Drainage water management units may include any of the
following:
(A) A surface impoundment which is a natural topographic
depression, artificial excavation, or diked area formed primarily of
earthen materials, which is designed to hold an accumulation of
drainage water, including, but not limited to, holding, storage,
settling, and aeration pits, evaporation ponds, percolation ponds,
other ponds, and lagoons. Surface impoundment does not include a
landfill, a land farm, a pile, an emergency containment dike, tank,
or injection well.
(B) Conveyance facilities to the treatment or storage site,
including devices for flow regulation.
(C) Facilities or works to treat agricultural drainage water to
remove or substantially reduce the level of constituents which
pollute or threaten to pollute the waters of the state, including,
but not limited to, processes utilizing ion exchange, desalting
technologies like reverse osmosis, and biological treatment.
(D) An injection well.
(2) Any or all of the drain water management units, including the
land under the unit, may consist of separable features, or an
appropriate share of multipurpose features, of a larger system, or
both.
(e) "Fund" means the 1986 Water Conservation and Water Quality
Bond Fund.
(f) "Groundwater recharge facilities" mean land and facilities for
artificial groundwater recharge through methods which include, but
are not limited to, (1) percolation using basins, pits, ditches and
furrows, modified streambed, flooding, and well injection or (2)
in-lieu recharge. "Groundwater recharge facilities" also mean capital
outlay expenditures to expand, renovate, or restructure land and
facilities already in use for the purpose of groundwater recharge.
Groundwater recharge facilities may include any of the following:
(1) Instream facilities for regulation of water levels, but not
regulation of streamflow by storage to accomplish diversion from the
waterway.
(2) Agency-owned facilities for extraction.
(3) Conveyance facilities to the recharge site, including devices
for flow regulation and measurement of recharge waters.
Any part or all of the project facilities, including the land
under the facilities, may consist of the separable features, or an
appropriate share of multipurpose features, of a larger system, or
both.
(g) "In-lieu recharge" means accomplishing increased storage of
groundwater by providing interruptible surface water to a user who
relies on groundwater as a primary supply, to accomplish groundwater
storage through the direct use of that surface water in lieu of
pumping groundwater. In-lieu recharge would be used rather than
continuing pumping while artificially recharging with the
interruptible surface waters. However, bond proceeds shall not be
used to purchase surface water for use in lieu of pumping
groundwater.
(h) "Local agency" or "agency" means any city, county, district,
joint powers authority, or other political subdivision of the state
involved with water management.
(i) "Project" means all of the following:
(1) Groundwater recharge facilities.
(2) Voluntary, cost-effective capital outlay water conservation
programs.
(3) Drainage water management units.
(j) "Voluntary, cost-effective capital outlay water conservation
programs" mean those feasible capital outlay measures to improve the
efficiency of water use through benefits which exceed their costs.
The programs include, but are not limited to, lining or piping of
ditches; improvements in water distribution system controls such as
automated canal control, construction of small reservoirs within
distribution systems which conserve water that has already been
captured for use, and related physical improvements; tailwater
pumpback recovery systems; major improvements or replacements of
distribution systems to reduce leakage; and capital changes in
on-farm irrigation systems which improve irrigation efficiency such
as sprinkler or subsurface drip. In each case, the department shall
determine that there is a net savings of water as a result of each
proposed project and that the project is cost effective.