For purposes of this article, the following terms have the following meanings:

(a) “Agricultural drainage water” means surface drainage water or percolated irrigation water that is collected by subsurface drainage tiles placed beneath an agricultural field.

(b) “On-farm” means land within the boundaries of a property or geographically contiguous properties, owned or under the control of a single owner or operator or a publicly organized land-based agency, that is used for the commercial production of agricultural commodities and that contains an integrated on-farm drainage management system and a solar evaporator.

(c) “Integrated on-farm drainage management system” means a facility for the on-farm management of agricultural drainage water that does all of the following:

(1) Reduces levels of salt and selenium in soil by the application of irrigation water to agricultural fields.

(2) Collects agricultural drainage water from irrigated fields and sequentially reuses that water to irrigate successive crops until the volume of residual agricultural drainage water is substantially decreased and its salt content significantly increased.

(3) Discharges the residual agricultural drainage water to an on-farm solar evaporator for evaporation and appropriate salt management.

(4) Eliminates discharge of agricultural drainage water to evaporation ponds and outside the boundaries of the property or properties that produces the agricultural drainage water and that is served by the integrated on-farm drainage management system and the solar evaporator.

(d) “Publicly organized land-based agency” means a resource conservation district, as described in Division 9 (commencing with Section 9001) of the Public Resources Code, an irrigation district, as described in Division 11 (commencing with Section 20500) of the Water Code, any other district established pursuant to the Water Code whose operations may include managing agricultural irrigation or drainage, or a joint powers authority formed for the purpose of managing agricultural drainage or salt.

(e) “Regional board” means a California regional water quality control board.

(f) “Solar evaporator” means an on-farm area of land and its associated equipment that meets all of the following conditions:

(1) It is designed and operated to manage agricultural drainage water discharged from the integrated on-farm drainage management system.

(2) The area of the land that makes up the solar evaporator is equal to, or less than, 2 percent of the area of the land that is managed by the integrated on-farm drainage management system.

(3) Agricultural drainage water from the integrated on-farm drainage management system is discharged to the solar evaporator by timed sprinklers or other equipment that allows the discharge rate to be set and adjusted as necessary to avoid standing water within the solar evaporator or, if a water catchment basin is part of the solar evaporator, within that portion of the solar evaporator that is outside the basin.

(4) The combination of the rate of discharge of agricultural drainage water to the solar evaporator and subsurface tile drainage under the solar evaporator provides adequate assurance that constituents in the agricultural drainage water will not migrate from the solar evaporator into the vadose zone or waters of the state in concentrations that pollute or threaten to pollute the waters of the state.

(g) “State board” means the State Water Resources Control Board.

(h) “Water catchment basin” means an area within the boundaries of a solar evaporator that is designated to receive and hold any water that might otherwise be standing water within the solar evaporator. The entire area of a water catchment basin shall be permanently and continuously covered with netting, or otherwise designed, constructed, and operated to prevent access by avian wildlife to standing water within the basin.

(Amended by Stats. 2006, Ch. 309, Sec. 1. Effective January 1, 2007.)