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.

(Added by Stats. 1986, Ch. 6, Sec. 1. Approved in Proposition 44 at the June 3, 1986, election.)