Article 4. Waste From Artesian Wells of California Water Code >> Division 1. >> Chapter 2.5. >> Article 4.

For the purposes of this article, an artesian well is any artifical hole made in the ground through which water naturally flows from subterranean sources to the surface of the ground for any length of time.

For the purposes of this article, waste is the causing, suffering, or permitting any water flowing from an artesian well, to run either:
  (a) Into any natural watercourse or channel, or into any bay or pond, unless the water is used thereafter for irrigation or domestic use.
  (b) Into any street, road, or highway.
  (c) Upon the land of any person or upon the public land of the United States or of the State, unless it is used thereon for irrigation, domestic use, or the propagation of fish.

The use of any water flowing from an artesian well for the irrigation of land, whenever over 5 per cent of the water received on the land for irrigation purposes is permitted to escape from the land, is waste within the meaning of this article.

Nothing in this article prevents the running of artesian water into an artificial pond or storage-reservoir, if the water is used thereafter for a beneficial use.

A beneficial use under the next preceding section shall not exceed one tenth of one miner's inch of water per acre, perpetual flow, but the person using the water may cumulate that amount within any period of each year.

Any artesian well which is not capped or equipped with a mechanical appliance which will readily and effectively arrest and prevent the flow of any water from the well is a public nuisance.

The owner, tenant, or occupant of the land upon which a well which is a public nuisance under the next preceding section is situated, who causes, permits, or suffers such public nuisance to exist or continue is guilty of a misdemeanor.

Any person owning, possessing, or occupying any land upon which is situated an artesian well, who causes, suffers, or permits water unnecessarily to flow from the well or to go to waste is guilty of a misdemeanor.

Each day's continuance of waste constitutes a new offense.

Any person who violates any of the provisions of this article is punishable for each offense by a fine of not less than fifty dollars ($50) and not more than one thousand dollars ($1,000) or by imprisonment in the county jail for not more than six months, or by both.

All prosecutions for the violation of any of the provisions of this article shall be instituted in the superior court of the county where the well is situated.

Any fine imposed under the provisions of this article may be collected as in other criminal cases, and the justice may also issue an execution upon the judgment therein rendered, which may be enforced and collected as in civil cases.