Existing law, the Municipal Water District Law of 1911, provides for the formation of municipal water districts and grants to those districts specified powers. Existing law permits a district to acquire, control, distribute, store, spread, sink, treat, purify, recycle, recapture, and salvage any water for the beneficial use of the district, its inhabitants, or the owners of rights to water in the district. Existing law, upon the request of certain Indian tribes and the satisfaction of certain conditions, requires a district to provide service of water at substantially the same terms applicable to the customers of the district to the Indian tribe’s lands that are not within a district, as prescribed. Existing law also authorizes a district, until January 1, 2027, under specified circumstances, to apply to the applicable local agency formation commission to provide this service of water to Indian lands, as defined, that are not within the district and requires the local agency formation commission to approve that application.

This bill would extend the above provisions regarding the application to the applicable local agency formation commission to January 1, 2032. By imposing new duties on local officials, the bill would create a state-mandated local program.