§ 1005.2 Filing for Paso Basin

The Situation

San Luis Obispo County's voluntary fallow lands registry is scheduled to go live in April 2026 under the MILR program. The program provides a pathway to reduce groundwater pumping through voluntary repurposing of irrigated land to less water-intensive uses, offering enrolled growers satellite ET data access, exemption from Agricultural Offset Ordinance replanting restrictions, and exemption from Williamson Act irrigation requirements. The registry tracks your reduction but creates no state record that the reduction was voluntary conservation. Your water rights are not affected by enrolling in the registry.

The Filing Mechanism

California Water Code §§ 1005.1–1005.2 provides the First Statement of Cessation or Reduction in Groundwater Extractions — a filing with the SWRCB for pumpers who reduce extraction. This is the mechanism the legislature built for growers in overdrafted basins who reduce pumping. § 1005.2 names San Luis Obispo County explicitly. The statute requires annual filing by December 31 of each calendar year; a pumper cannot claim the benefit of this section for any water year for which such statement is not so filed. Growers who wish to take advantage of this filing must be enrolled in the fallow lands registry, as the MILR program constitutes the “water conservation plan” referenced in § 1005.1's definition of nontributary source — it is the basis upon which the filing rests.

“Many groundwater pumpers in overdrawn and depleted basins were reluctant to reduce their water use or reduce pumping and substitute other water for fear of losing their appropriative right or rights to the groundwater.”

— SWRCB, CalWATRS Groundwater Cessation Form

Why This Filing Matters

The legislature incorporated § 1005.2 directly into the adjudication process.

“The quantity of any beneficial use of any alternative water use that the party claims as its use of groundwater under any applicable law, including, but not limited to, Section 1005.1, 1005.2, or 1005.4 of the Water Code.”

— Code of Civil Procedure § 842(a)(8) (AB 1390, 2015; amended AB 1466, signed Oct. 11, 2025)

Without a § 1005.2 filing, you have no state record of voluntary reduction and nothing to disclose under this subsection. California courts are already treating pumping history as the basis for allocation in overdrafted basins — landowners who haven't been pumping are receiving reduced or zero allocations.