SECTIONS 14900-14902 - California Statutes

WATER CODE

SECTION 14900-14902

14900. This chapter shall be known and may be cited as the San
Joaquin Valley Drainage Relief Act.

14901. The Legislature finds and declares as follows:
(a) A report on the San Joaquin Valley Drainage Program entitled,
"A Management Plan for Agricultural Subsurface Drainage and Related
Problems on the Westside San Joaquin Valley," has identified 75,000
acres of irrigated agricultural lands that should be retired by the
year 2040 primarily due to characteristics of low productivity, poor
drainability, and high levels of selenium in shallow groundwater.
(b) Federal, state, and local water organizations and officials
should consider the management plan and adopt those parts appropriate
for their long-term strategy of contributing to the management or
solution of the drainage problems of the west side of the San Joaquin
Valley.
(c) The United States Department of the Interior and the State of
California should jointly develop a technical assistance program to
ameliorate the drainage problems.
(d) The people of the state are concerned with the continued
leaching of harmful elements from these lands.
(e) Continued irrigation of these lands could create significant
drainage and environmental problems.
(f) Implementing solutions to the drainage and environmental
problems associated with these lands will be very costly.
(g) The department is responsible for water planning and
development activities throughout the state, has participated in the
development of the plan for the management of subsurface drainage
problems, and shall take an active leadership role in implementing
the plan, including the land retirement element of the plan.
(h) Local agencies have decisionmaking authority, and are subject
to court judgments, and statutory and contractual obligations,
relating to water use and distribution. The department shall
coordinate its activities under this chapter with those local
agencies.
(i) The federal government has ongoing statutory and contractual
obligations to provide drainage service to the lands within the San
Luis Unit of the Central Valley Project. The department shall
recognize those obligations and shall coordinate land retirement
activities with appropriate federal agencies.
(j) The Department of Fish and Game is responsible for the
stewardship of the state's fish and wildlife resources and the
habitat on which they depend, and can offer its considerable
expertise to the department on matters relating to the management of
lands in accordance with this chapter and shall be consulted
concerning the management of the lands acquired pursuant to this
chapter and managed as fish and wildlife habitat.
(k) The Department of Conservation is responsible for
administering programs to conserve the state's agricultural lands and
has information on the state's soil and farmlands and shall be
consulted for the purpose of identifying agricultural lands that may
be acquired pursuant to this chapter.

14901.5. (a) It is the intent of the Legislature that the initial
funding for the administrative costs of the San Joaquin Valley
Drainage Relief Program be appropriated by the Legislature for the
1993-94 fiscal year from the water quality program component of the
Environmental Water Fund.
(b) It is the further intent of the Legislature that, upon full
implementation of the program, the program shall become
self-supporting.

14902. Unless the context otherwise requires, the terms used in
this chapter have the following meanings:
(a) "Fund" means the San Joaquin Valley Drainage Relief Fund.
(b) "Management plan" or "plan" means the management plan for
agricultural subsurface drainage and related problems as described in
the final report of the San Joaquin Valley Drainage Program, dated
September 1990, described in subdivision (a) of Section 14901.
(c) "Program" means the San Joaquin Valley Drainage Relief
Program.
(d) "Retirement land" means the lands recommended for retirement
in the management plan, other irrigated agricultural lands
characterized by low productivity, poor drainability, and high levels
of dissolved selenium in shallow groundwater, or lands that
contribute to agricultural subsurface drainage problems.