45-571.01. Notification to persons filing late applications for certificates of grandfathered rights and to persons with new groundwater rights or uses; compliance; variance; review

A. The director, at the time a certificate of grandfathered right is issued pursuant to the late application procedures in section 45-476.01, shall establish and give written notice of any applicable irrigation water duty or conservation requirement.

B. The director may give written notice at any time of a conservation requirement to a person in the active management area with a right to withdraw, distribute or use groundwater in the active management area pursuant to this chapter, if the right or the use by the person was not in existence when the management plan was adopted. A person given written notice pursuant to this subsection shall comply with the conservation requirement not later than the compliance date specified in the notice.

C. A person given written notice pursuant to subsection A of this section shall comply with the applicable irrigation water duty or conservation requirement not later than January 1 of the calendar year following the first full year after the date of the notice.

D. Except as provided in subsection E of this section, a person who is given notice of an irrigation water duty or conservation requirement pursuant to subsection A or B of this section may request a variance or an administrative review pursuant to sections 45-574 and 45-575. A party aggrieved by the director's decision regarding a request for variance or administrative review may seek judicial review of the final decision of the director as provided in section 45-114, subsection B in the superior court in the county in which the irrigated land or non-irrigation use is located.

E. A person who acquires an interest in land on which groundwater is being used and who is given notice of an irrigation water duty or conservation requirement for the use pursuant to subsection B of this section does not have the right to request an administrative review of the irrigation water duty or conservation requirement pursuant to section 45-575, subsection A if any previous owner of an interest in the land had the right to request an administrative review of the irrigation water duty or conservation requirement. This subsection does not apply if both of the following exist:

1. The person who is given notice pursuant to subsection B of this section previously owned the land on which the groundwater is being used and title to the land has reverted involuntarily, or voluntarily in lieu of foreclosure, to that person.

2. The person who is given notice pursuant to subsection B of this section did not previously have the right to request an administrative review of the irrigation water duty or conservation requirement.