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Bulletin 160-98 Public Review Draft 003J84 Appendix 2A. Institutional Framework for Allocating and Managing Water Resources in California used is adjacent to a stream or within its watershed, provided that the water is used for reasonable and beneficial uses and is surplus to water from the same stream used by earlier appropriators. The rule of priority between appropriators is "first in time is first in right." Water Rights Permits and Licenses The Water Commission Act, which took effect in 19 I 4 following a referendum, recognized the overriding interest of the people in the waters of the state, but provided that private rights to use the water may be acquired in the manner provided by law. The act established a system of state-issued permits and licenses to appropriate water. Amended over the years, it now appears in Division 2 (commencing with Section 1000) of the Water Code, These provisions place responsibility for administering appropriative water rights with the State Water Resources Control Board; however, the permit and license provisions do not apply to pre-I9I4 appropriative rights (those initiated before the act took effect in 1914). The act also provides procedures for adjudication of water rights, including court references to the State Water Resources Control Board and statutory adjudications of all rights to a stream system. Groundwater Management Generally, groundwater is available to any person who owns land overlying the groundwater basin. Groundwater management in California is accomplished either by a judicial adjudication of the respective rights of overlying users and exporters, or by local management of rights to extract and use groundwater as authorized by statute or agreement. Statutory management may be granted to a public agency that also manages surface water, or to a groundwater management agency created expressly for that purpose by a special district act. In 1991, the Water Code was amended by AB 255 to allow local water agencies overlying critically overdrafted groundwater basins to develop groundwater management plans. Only a few local agencies adopted plans pursuant to that authorization. In 1992, the Legislature adopted new sections authorizing another form of groundwater management, also available to any local agency that provides water service, if the groundwater was not subject to management under other provisions of law or a court decree. Plans adopted pursuant to the 1992 statute (commonly called AB 3030 plans) may include control of salt water intrusion; identification and protection of well head and recharge areas; regulation of the migration of contaminated water; provisions for abandonment and destruction of wells; mitigation of overdraft; replenishment; 2A-2