As used in connection with the groundwater charge authorized by this article, the following words shall have the following meanings:
(a) “District” means the Malaga County Water District.
(b) “Person,” “owner,” or “operator” means federal, state, or local agencies, private corporations, firms, or partnerships, and individuals or groups of individuals, whether legally organized or not. “Owner” or “operator” also means the person to whom a water-producing facility is assessed by the county assessor, or, if not separately assessed, the person who owns the land upon which a water-producing facility is located.
(c) “Groundwater” means nonsaline water beneath the natural surface of the ground, whether or not flowing through known and definite channels. “Nonsaline water” means water which has less than 1,000 parts of chlorides to 1,000,000 parts of water, both quantities measured by weight.
(d) “Production” or “producing” means the extraction or extracting of groundwater, by pumping or any other method, from shafts, tunnels, wells (including, but not limited to, abandoned oil wells), excavations or other sources of groundwater, for domestic, municipal, irrigation, industrial, or other beneficial use, but does not mean or include the extraction of groundwater produced in the construction or reconstruction of a well, or water incidentally produced in a bona fide mining or excavation operation or water incidentally produced in the bona fide construction of a tunnel, unless the groundwater so extracted shall be used or sold by the producer for domestic, municipal, irrigation, industrial, or other beneficial use.
(e) “Water-producing facility” means any device or method, mechanical or otherwise, for the production of water from the groundwater supplies within the district or a zone thereof.
(f) “Water production statement” means the certified statement filed by the owner or operator of a water-producing facility with the district of the production of groundwater from the facility in a specified period.
(g) “Water year” means July 1 of one calendar year to June 30 of the following calendar year.
(h) “Agricultural water” means water primarily used in the commercial production of agricultural crops or livestock.
(Added by Stats. 1989, Ch. 580, Sec. 1.)