Existing law authorizes a groundwater sustainability agency to impose fees, including, but not limited to, permit fees and fees on groundwater extraction or other regulated activity, to fund the costs of a groundwater sustainability program, and investigations, inspections, compliance assistance, enforcement, and program administration, as provided. Existing law prohibits a groundwater sustainability agency from imposing those fees on a de minimis extractor, as defined, unless the agency has regulated the user, as provided.
This bill would authorize a local government, including, but not limited to, a groundwater sustainability agency, that imposes a fee, levy, charge, or exaction for groundwater monitoring or management, upon making specified findings, to exempt de minimis extractors, including the above-described regulated users, from the payment of the fee, levy, charge, or exaction, as provided.