California Water Code 1810 – Notwithstanding any other provision of law, neither the state, nor …
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, neither the state, nor any regional or local public agency may deny a bona fide transferor of water the use of a water conveyance facility which has unused capacity, for the period of time for which that capacity is available, if fair compensation is paid for that use, subject to the following:
(a) Any person or public agency that has a long-term water service contract with or the right to receive water from the owner of the conveyance facility shall have the right to use any unused capacity prior to any bona fide transferor.
Terms Used In California Water Code 1810
- Bona fide transferor: means a person or public agency as defined in §. See California Water Code 1811
- Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
- County: includes city and county. See California Water Code 14
- Emergency: means a sudden occurrence such as a storm, flood, fire, or an unexpected equipment outage impairing the ability of a person or public agency to make water deliveries. See California Water Code 1811
- Fair compensation: means the reasonable charges incurred by the owner of the conveyance system, including capital, operation, maintenance, and replacement costs, increased costs from any necessitated purchase of supplemental power, and including reasonable credit for any offsetting benefits for the use of the conveyance system. See California Water Code 1811
- Person: means any person, firm, association, organization, partnership, business trust, corporation, limited liability company, or company. See California Water Code 19
- State: means the State of California, unless applied to the different parts of the United States. See California Water Code 18
- Unused capacity: means space that is available within the operational limits of the conveyance system and that the owner is not using during the period for which the transfer is proposed and which space is sufficient to convey the quantity of water proposed to be transferred. See California Water Code 1811
- water: includes the term "use of water. See California Water Code 1000
(b) The commingling of transferred water does not result in a diminution of the beneficial uses or quality of the water in the facility, except that the transferor may, at the transferor’s own expense, provide for treatment to prevent the diminution, and the transferred water is of substantially the same quality as the water in the facility.
(c) Any person or public agency that has a water service contract with or the right to receive water from the owner of the conveyance facility who has an emergency need may utilize the unused capacity that was made available pursuant to this section for the duration of the emergency.
(d) This use of a water conveyance facility is to be made without injuring any legal user of water and without unreasonably affecting fish, wildlife, or other instream beneficial uses and without unreasonably affecting the overall economy or the environment of the county from which the water is being transferred.
(Added by Stats. 1986, Ch. 918, Sec. 2.)