2023 California Code › Water Code - WAT › DIVISION 24 - SAFE, CLEAN, RELIABLE WATER SUPPLY ACT › CHAPTER 6 - Water Supply Reliability › ARTICLE 3 - Water Conservation and Groundwater Recharge › Section 78670.

78670. Unless the context otherwise requires, the following definitions govern the construction of this article:
(a) (1) “Groundwater recharge facilities” means land and facilities for artificial groundwater recharge through methods which include, but are not limited to, percolation using basins, pits, ditches and furrows, modified streambed, flooding, and well injection and in-lieu recharge. “Groundwater recharge facilities” also means capital outlay expenditures to expand, renovate, or restructure land and facilities already in use for the purpose of groundwater recharge and to acquire additional land for retention and detention basins.
(2) Groundwater recharge facilities may include any of the following:
(A) Instream facilities for regulation of water levels, but not regulation of streamflow to accomplish diversion from the waterway.
(B) Agency-owned facilities for extraction.
(C) Conveyance facilities to the recharge site, including devices for flow regulation and measurement of recharge waters.
(3) 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.
(b) “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 is used instead of continuing pumping while artificially recharging with the interruptible surface waters. However, bond proceeds may not be used to purchase surface water for use in lieu of pumping groundwater.
(c) “Local agency” or “agency” means any city, county, district, joint powers authority, or other political subdivision of the state involved with water management.
(d) “Project” means both of the following:
(1) Groundwater recharge facilities.
(2) Voluntary, cost-effective capital outlay water conservation programs.
(e) “Subaccount” means the Water Conservation and Groundwater Recharge Subaccount created by Section 78671.
(f) (1) “Voluntary, cost-effective capital outlay water conservation programs” mean those feasible capital outlay measures to improve the efficiency of water use through programs, the benefits of which exceed their costs.
(2) (A) The programs include, but are not limited to, all of the following:
(i) The lining or piping of ditches.
(ii) Improvements in water distribution system controls such as automated canal control, construction of small reservoirs within distribution systems that conserve water that has already been captured for use, and related physical improvements.
(iii) Tailwater pumpback recovery systems.
(iv) Major improvements or replacements of distribution systems to reduce leakage.
(v) Capital changes in on-farm irrigation systems which improve irrigation efficiency such as sprinkler or subsurface drip.
(vi) Capital outlay features of urban water conservation programs identified in the “Memorandum of Understanding Regarding Urban Water Conservation in California,” as amended on March 9, 1994.
(vii) Conveyance facilities in a county of the third class, including appurtenances, necessary to implement a long-term conservation program to transfer conserved water from areas not directly receiving water from the bay-delta to areas that receive water from the bay-delta and whose demands on the bay-delta would be reduced as a result of the transfer.
(B) In each case, the department shall determine if there is a net savings of water as a result of each proposed project and the project is cost-effective.
(Added by Stats. 1996, Ch. 135, Sec. 1. Approved in Proposition 204 at the November 5, 1996, election.)