West Coast Basin Amended Judgment: II Definitions

II. DEFINITIONS  

1. "Administrative Body" is defined in Section XI.2.A. The Administrative Body is one of the three bodies that comprises the Watermaster.  
    
2. "Administrative Year" means the 12 (twelve) month period beginning July 1 and ending June 30.
    
3. "Adjudicated Right" means the right of a Party to produce groundwater in a quantity greater than 0 (zero) pursuant to the rights authorized under Section III of this Amended Judgment.  
    
4. "Adjudicated Storage Capacity" means 70,900 acre-feet of the Available Dewatered Space, unless otherwise modified in accordance with Section V.1.A herein, which has been apportioned for use herein for Individual Storage Allocation, Community Storage Pool, and Regional Storage Allocation.  
    
5. "Amended Judgment" means the Judgment, as amended to date.  
    
6. "Available Dewatered Space" means up to 120,000 acre feet of dewatered space available to hold, groundwater within the West Coast Basin that is allocated between Adjudicated Storage Capacity and Basin Operating Reserve.  
    
7. "Basin," "West Basin," and "West Coast Basin" as these terms are interchangeably used herein, each means the ground water basin underlying the area described in Section I hereof. 
    
8. "Basin Operating Reserve" means a total of 49,100 acre-feet of Available Dewatered Space, unless otherwise modified in accordance with Section V.1.A herein, available for Basin operations as provided in Section V.2. The Basin Operating Reserve added to the Adjudicated Storage Capacity equals the amount of Available Dewatered Space.  
    
9. "Carryover" is defined in Section V.4.  
    
10. "Carryover Conversion" means the process of converting water properly held as Carryover into Stored Water.  
     
11. "CEQA" refers to the California Environmental Quality Act, Public Resources Code § 21000 et seq. and its implementing regulations set forth at California Code of Regulations, Title 14, Chapter 3, which regulations shall be referred to herein as the "CEQA Guidelines."  
     
12. "CEQA Review Document" means the final Environmental Impact Report, Negative Declaration or Mitigated Negative Declaration, prepared by or on behalf of the lead agency under CEQA.  
     
13. Community Storage Pool Allocation" is defined in Section V.6.A.  
     
14. "Contributed Water" means a specified amount of Stored Water that the person or entity who stores water agrees to not recapture and to allow to remain in the Basin.  
     
15.  "Developed Water" includes Imported Water and other non-native water supplies.  
     
16. "Existing Facilities" means those facilities described in Exhibit C to this Amended Judgment as well as completed New Storage Facilities approved in accordance with this Amended Judgment.  
     
17. "Extraction," "extractions," "extracting," "extracted," and other variations of the same noun and verb in either initial capital or all lower case, mean pumping, taking, diverting or withdrawing groundwater by any manner or means whatsoever from the West Coast Basin.  
     
18. "Individual Storage Allocation" is defined in Section V.5.  
     
19. "Imported Water" means water brought into the West Coast Basin area from a non-tributary source by a Party, and any predecessors in interest.  
     
20. "Majority Protest" means a written protest filed with the Administrative Body of the Watermaster by Parties holding a majority of all Adjudicated Rights.  
     
21. "Material Physical Harm" means material physical injury or an appreciable diminution in the quality or quantity of groundwater available within the Basin to support extractions pursuant to Adjudicated Rights or the right to extract Stored Water that is demonstrated to be attributable to the placement, recharge, injection, storage, transfer or recapture of Stored Water, including, but not limited to, degradation of water quality, liquefaction, land subsidence and other material physical injury caused by elevated or lowered groundwater levels.  Material Physical Harm does not include "economic injury" that results from other than direct physical causes, including any adverse effect on water rates, lease rates, or demand for water.
    
    Once fully mitigated, physical injury shall no longer be considered to be material.  
     
22. "MWD" means the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. 
     
23. "New Storage Facility" means a physical facility that can be used to introduce Stored Water or water from a Water Augmentation Project into the Basin, including but not limited to aquifer storage and recovery wells, injection wells, percolation ponds and spreading basins, that are not listed on Exhibit C to this Amended Judgment. Once completed and approved in accordance with this Amended Judgment, a New Storage Facility shall be deemed an Existing Facility for purposes of this Amended Judgment.  
     
24. "Outgoing Watermaster" means the State of California, Department of Water Resources.  
     
25. "Party" or "Parties" means a Party or Parties to this action.  
     
26. "Person" or "persons" include individuals, partnerships, associations, governmental agencies and corporations, and any and all types of entities.  
     
27. "Regional Benefit" means a contribution to or an advantage obtained by the Basin, the public, or the environment, including but not limited to (i) Contributed Water; (ii) additional infrastructure such as production wells or transmission pipelines that can be used by other Parties or WRD to enhance reliability of water supplies; or (iii) monetary payments. If the Regional Benefit is Contributed Water, the Contributed Water must be physical, "wet" water left in the Basin, which may be used by WRD as a source of Replenishment Water and thereby reduce the otherwise applicable Replenishment Assessment. The value of the Contributed Water will be determined by multiplying the amount of Contributed Water by the appropriate rate for Imported Water purchased or acquired by WRD in the Basin.  
     
28. "Regional Storage Project(s)" are defined in Section V.7.  
     
29. "Regional Storage Allocation" is defined in Section V.7.  
     
30. "Replenishment Assessment" means the replenishment assessment imposed by WRD upon each acre-foot of groundwater extracted from the West Coast Basin pursuant to the  WRD Act and in compliance with all other laws of the State of California and any other applicable laws This Amended Judgment shall not determine nor affect the determination of  whether a Replenishment Assessment is valid or invalid in the event that any Replenishment Assessment is challenged in a legal action. 
     
31. "Replenishment Water" means water that, in accordance with the WRD Act, WRD affirmatively captures or procures to replenish the Basin by percolating or injecting water into the Basin or in-lieu by substituting. surface water in-lieu of production and use of groundwater in accordance with the WRD Act. To the extent WRD hereafter creates new means of capturing naturally occurring water and causing such newly-captured water to replenish the West Coast Basin, such newly-captured replenishment water shall also be considered "Replenishment Water." 
     
32. "Space-Available Storage" is defined at Section V.10.  
     
33. "Storage Panel" means a bicameral body that consists of the: (i) West Coast Basin Water Rights Panel, and (ii) Board of Directors of WRD. The Storage Panel is one of three bodies that comprise the Watermaster
     
34. "Storage Project" means a Technically Feasible activity pertaining to the placement, recharge, injection, storage, transfer or recapture of Stored Water in the Basin. Storage Project(s) includes Regional Storage Projects.
     
35. "Stored Water" or "Store Water" means water held within any portion of the Available Dewatered Space in the West Coast Basin as a result of spreading, injection, Carryover Conversion or water from a Water Augmentation Project, where there is an intention to subsequently withdraw the water for reasonable and beneficial use pursuant to the Amended Judgment.  
     
36. "Technically Feasible" means capable of being accomplished in a successful manner within a reasonable period of time, taking into account environmental and technological factors.  
     
37. "Total Adjudicated Production Rights" means the sum of a Party's Adjudicated Rights and any, contractual right through lease or other agreement to extract and use the Adjudicated Right of another Party.  
     
38. "Water Augmentation Project" means pre-approved Technically Feasible physical actions and management activities that are initiated after entry of this Amended Judgment that provide demonstrated appreciable increases in long-term annual groundwater yield of the Basin.  
     
39. "Watermaster" is comprised of the: (i) Administrative Body, (ii) Water Rights Panel, and (iii) Storage Panel. The Watermaster is not a "public agency" or a "trustee agency" within the meaning of CEQA and CEQA Guidelines 15379 and 15386. 
     
40. "Water Purveyor" means a Party which sells water to the public, whether a regulated public utility, mutual water company, or public entity, which has a connection or connections for, the taking of Imported Water through the MWD, through a MWD-member agency, or access to such Imported Water through such connection, and which normally supplies at least a part of its customers' water needs with such Imported Water.  
     
41. "Water Rights Panel" means one of the three bodies that comprise the Watermaster consisting of five (5) members from among representatives of the Parties holding Adjudicated Rights. Three (3) of the members shall be the elected officers of president, vice president and treasurer of the West Basin Water Association and the remaining two (2) members shall be selected by the Board of Directors of the West Basin Water Association in accordance with Section XI.2.B of the Amended Judgment.  
     
42. "Watermaster Rules" mean the Rules that the Watermaster shall adopt, subject to Court approval, pursuant to Section XI.1.E of the Amended Judgment.  
     
43. "WRD" means the Water Replenishment District of Southern California, a public corporation of the State of California (Division 18, commencing with Section 60000 of the Water Code).   
     
44.  "WRD Act" means the Water Replenishment District Act, California Water Code Sections 60000 et seq.