(a) The Department of Fish and Game shall impose and collect a filing fee of eight hundred fifty dollars ($850) to defray the costs of identifying streams and providing studies pursuant to Division 10 (commencing with Section 10000) of the Public Resources Code.
(b) The filing fee shall be proportional to the cost incurred by the Department of Fish and Game and shall be annually reviewed and adjustments recommended to the Legislature in an amount necessary to pay the costs of the Department of Fish and Game as specified in subdivision (a).
(c) Any user of water, including a person or entity holding riparian or appropriative rights, shall pay the filing fee to the Department of Fish and Game upon application to the State Water Resources Control Board for any permit, transfer, extension, or change of point of diversion, place of use, or purpose of use, if there is a diversion of water from any waterway where fish reside. No permit, or other entitlement identified in this section is effective until the filing fee is paid. The State Water Resources Control Board shall, every six months, forward all fees collected to the department and provide the location for each entitlement for which a filing fee has been collected.
(d) The fee imposed by this section shall not be imposed on the following applications filed with the State Water Resources Control Board:
(1) Small domestic use registrations and livestock stockpond certificates submitted pursuant to Article 2.7 (commencing with Section 1228) of Chapter 2 of Division 2 of the Water Code.
(2) The first application for an extension of time for an individual permit if no change in point of diversion, place of use, or purpose of use is included in the application.
(3) Water applications which, in the opinion of the Department of Fish and Game, are filed for administrative and technical clarification purposes only.
(4) Water applications or petitions, the primary purpose of which is to benefit fish and wildlife resources. The determination of the benefit to fish and wildlife shall be made, in writing, by the Department of Fish and Game in order to be exempt from the fee.
(e) If an applicant or petitioner files multiple applications or petitions for the same appropriation, transfer, extension, or change, and the State Water Resources Control Board reviews and considers the applications or petitions together, only one filing fee is required for those applications or petitions.
(Amended by Stats. 2001, Ch. 398, Sec. 7. Effective January 1, 2002.)