State Water Resources Control Board: Administrative Hearings Office.

Existing law declares that the diversion or use of water other than as authorized by specified provisions of law is a trespass. Existing law authorizes the executive director of the State Water Resources Control Board to issue a complaint to a person who violates certain use and diversion of water provisions and subjects the violator to administrative civil liability. Existing law also authorizes the board to issue an order to a person to cease and desist from violating, or threatening to violate, certain requirements relating to water use, including diverting or using water, other than as authorized. This bill, operative July 1, 2019, would create within the board an Administrative Hearings Office composed of attorneys qualified to act as hearing officers in adjudicative proceedings involving water rights matters. The bill would require the office to preside over hearings on the following matters: a complaint subjecting a violator of certain water use and diversion provisions to administrative civil liability, a proposed cease and desist order for violating, or threatening to violate, certain requirements relating to water use, and a revocation of a permit or license to appropriate water. The bill would exclude from the office's purview a hearing that includes, in addition to any of those enumerated matters, consideration of a matter not enumerated. The bill would authorize the board to assign additional work to the office, as specified. The bill would prescribe procedures for hearings presided over by the office, including the adoption of a final order by the office for certain matters imposing administrative civil liability, and the preparation of a proposed order to be submitted for final review by the board for all other matters presided over by the office.