Unless the context otherwise requires, the following definitions govern the construction of this part:
(a) “Groundwater” means all water beneath the surface of the earth within the zone below the water table in which the soil is completely saturated with water, but does not include water that flows in known and definite channels.
(b) “Groundwater basin” means any basin or subbasin identified in the department’s Bulletin No. 118, dated September 1975, and any amendments to that bulletin, but does not include a basin in which the average well yield, excluding domestic wells that supply water to a single-unit dwelling, is less than 100 gallons per minute.
(c) “Groundwater extraction facility” means a device or method for the extraction of groundwater within a groundwater basin.
(d) “Groundwater management plan” or “plan” means a document that describes the activities intended to be included in a groundwater management program.
(e) “Groundwater management program” or “program” means a coordinated and ongoing activity undertaken for the benefit of a groundwater basin, or a portion of a groundwater basin, pursuant to a groundwater management plan adopted pursuant to this part.
(f) “Groundwater recharge” means the augmentation of groundwater, by natural or artificial means, with surface water or recycled water.
(g) “Local agency” means a local public agency that provides water service to all or a portion of its service area, and includes a joint powers authority formed by local public agencies that provide water service.
(h) “Person” has the same meaning as defined in Section 19.
(i) “Recharge area” means the area that supplies water to an aquifer in a groundwater basin and includes multiple wellhead protection areas.
(j) “Watermaster” means a watermaster appointed by a court or pursuant to other provisions of law.
(k) “Wellhead protection area” means the surface and subsurface area surrounding a water well or well field that supplies a public water system through which contaminants are reasonably likely to migrate toward the water well or well field.
(Amended by Stats. 2011, Ch. 572, Sec. 1. (AB 359) Effective January 1, 2012.)