Existing law, the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, requires all groundwater basins designated as high- or medium-priority basins by the Department of Water Resources to be managed under a groundwater sustainability plan or coordinated groundwater sustainability plans, except as specified. Existing law authorizes any local agency or combination of local agencies overlying a groundwater basin to decide to become a groundwater sustainability agency for that basin and imposes specified duties upon that agency or combination of agencies, as provided.
Existing law establishes various methods and procedures for a comprehensive adjudication of groundwater rights in civil court.
Generally, a party has the burden of proof as to each fact the existence or nonexistence of which is essential to the claim for relief or defense that the party is asserting, except as specified.
This bill would provide that in any action to adjudicate groundwater rights, as provided, if a party to the action is seeking judicial review of an action taken by a groundwater sustainability agency pursuant to a groundwater sustainability plan that has been approved by the department, that party has the burden of proof using substantial evidence standard of review. The bill would require the court to, in any adjudication in a basin where one or more groundwater sustainability agencies have adopted a groundwater sustainability plan that has been approved by the department, request that the groundwater sustainability agency provide a technical report that, at a minimum, quantifies and describes the groundwater use of parties that have not otherwise appeared before the court, as provided. The bill would provide for the payment or reimbursement of costs related to the technical report, as provided. The bill would provide that the technical report shall be prima facie evidence of the physical facts found in the report, as provided.