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Business Taxes Law Guide—Revision 2024
Water Rights Fee Law
Division 2 Water
Part 2 Appropriation of Water
Chapter 8. Water Rights Fee
Article 1. Fee Schedules
Section 1525
1525. Fee schedule. (a) Each person or entity who holds a permit or license to appropriate water, and each lessor of water leased under Chapter 1.5 (commencing with Section 1020) of Part 1, shall pay an annual fee according to a fee schedule established by the board.
(b) Each person or entity who files any of the following shall pay a fee according to a fee schedule established by the board:
(1) An application for a permit to appropriate water.
(2) A registration of appropriation for a small domestic use, small irrigation use, or livestock stockpond use.
(3) A petition for an extension of time within which to begin construction, to complete construction, or to apply the water to full beneficial use under a permit.
(4) A petition to change the point of diversion, place of use, or purpose of use, under a permit, license, or registration.
(5) A petition to change the conditions of a permit or license, requested by the permittee or licensee, that is not otherwise subject to paragraph (3) or (4).
(6) A petition to change the point of discharge, place of use, or purpose of use, of treated wastewater, requested pursuant to Section 1211.
(7) An application for approval of a water lease agreement.
(8) A request for release from priority pursuant to Section 10504.
(9) An application for an assignment of a state-filed application pursuant to Section 10504.
(10) A statement of water diversion and use pursuant to Part 5.1 (commencing with Section 5100) that reports that water was used for cannabis cultivation.
(c) (1) The board shall set the fee schedule authorized by this section so that the total amount of fees collected pursuant to this section equals that amount necessary to recover costs incurred in connection with the issuance, administration, review, monitoring, and enforcement of permits, licenses, certificates, and registrations to appropriate water, water leases, statements of water diversion and use for cannabis cultivation, and orders approving changes in point of discharge, place of use, or purpose of use of treated wastewater. The board may include, as recoverable costs, but is not limited to including, the costs incurred in reviewing applications, registrations, statements of water diversion and use for cannabis cultivation, petitions and requests, prescribing terms of permits, licenses, registrations, and change orders, enforcing and evaluating compliance with permits, licenses, certificates, registrations, change orders, and water leases, inspection, monitoring, planning, modeling, reviewing documents prepared for the purpose of regulating the diversion and use of water, applying and enforcing the prohibition set forth in Section 1052 against the unauthorized diversion or use of water subject to this division and the water diversion related provisions of Chapter 6 (commencing with Section 26060) of Division 10 of the Business and Professions Code, and the administrative costs incurred in connection with carrying out these actions.
(2) In setting the fee schedule for fees subject to subdivision (b) of Section 1433.2 and subdivision (b) of Section 1443.2, the board shall also include an amount estimated by the board, in consultation with the Department of Fish and Wildlife, necessary to recover costs incurred by the Department of Fish and Wildlife under Article 2 (commencing with Section 1433) of Chapter 6.5 and Article 2 (commencing with Section 1443) of Chapter 6.6.
(d) (1) The board shall adopt the schedule of fees authorized under this section as emergency regulations in accordance with Section 1530.
(2) For filings subject to subdivision (b), the schedule may provide for a single filing fee or for an initial filing fee followed by an annual fee, as appropriate to the type of filing involved, and may include supplemental fees for filings that have already been made but have not yet been acted upon by the board at the time the schedule of fees takes effect.
(3) The board shall set the amount of total revenue collected each year through the fees authorized by this section at an amount equal to the amounts appropriated by the Legislature for expenditure for support of water rights program activities from the Water Rights Fund established under Section 1550, taking into account the reserves in the Water Rights Fund. The board shall review and revise the fees each fiscal year as necessary to conform to the amounts appropriated. If the board determines that the revenue collected during the preceding year was greater than, or less than, the amounts appropriated, the board may further adjust the annual fees to compensate for the over or under collection of revenue.
(e) Annual fees imposed pursuant to this section for the 2003–04 fiscal year shall be assessed for the entire 2003–04 fiscal year.