§ 33-1. Purposes.

The people of the county hereby find and declare:

(a)

The groundwater underlying Butte County provides the people and lands of Butte County with water for agricultural, domestic, municipal, and other purposes.

(b)

The groundwater underlying Butte County is a significant water resource which must be reasonably and beneficially used and conserved for the benefit of the overlying land by avoiding extractions which harm the Butte Basin aquifer, causing exceedance of the safe yield or a condition of overdraft.

(c)

It is essential for the protection of the health, welfare, and safety of the residents of the county, and the public benefit of the state, that the groundwater resources of Butte County be protected from harm resulting from both the extraction of groundwater for use on lands outside the county and the substitution of groundwater for surface water transferred outside the county.

(d)

The county seeks to foster prudent water management practices to avoid significant environmental, social, and economic impacts. It is therefore essential for the protection of the county's important groundwater resources that the county require a permit to extract groundwater for use outside the county and for the substitution of groundwater for surface water that has been used in the county and is now voluntarily transferred outside the county, to protect against groundwater overdraft and to insure that the safe yield of the groundwater aquifers and subbasins are not exceeded. This chapter is not intended to regulate groundwater in any other way.

(e)

In adopting this chapter, the county in no way intends to limit public entities' management of groundwater in accordance with the Groundwater Management Act and any other applicable laws.

(f)

Butte County is the county and watershed of origin for much of the groundwater and surface water within the county. The availability of groundwater underlying the county for consumptive uses within the county is inextricably linked to the use of surface water. Increased groundwater pumping within the county which directly results from a transfer of surface water from the county causes a net loss of water resources for consumptive purposes within the county and can have significant adverse impacts on the health, welfare, and safety of the residents of the county. The county does not intend that this chapter invade the province of the Legislature by regulating surface water transfers. The county intends to exercise its police power to require a transferor who will pump amounts of groundwater or cause amounts of groundwater to be pumped to mitigate the potential adverse impacts from any additional groundwater pumping related to the surface water transfer.

(Ord. No. 3303-A, § 1.01, 12-10-96; Ord. No. 3542, § 1, 8-10-99)