As part of its agricultural water management plan, each agricultural water supplier shall develop a drought plan for periods of limited water supply describing the actions of the agricultural water supplier for drought preparedness and management of water supplies and allocations during drought conditions. The drought plan shall contain both of the following:

(a) Resilience planning, including all of the following:

(1) Data, indicators, and information needed to determine the water supply availability and levels of drought severity.

(2) Analyses and identification of potential vulnerability to drought.

(3) A description of the opportunities and constraints for improving drought resilience planning, including all of the following:

(A) The availability of new technology or information.

(B) The ability of the agricultural water supplier to obtain or use additional water supplies during drought conditions.

(C) A description of other actions planned for implementation to improve drought resilience.

(b) Drought response planning, including all of the following:

(1) Policies and a process for declaring a water shortage and for implementing water shortage allocations and related response actions.

(2) Methods and procedures for the enforcement or appeal of, or exemption from, triggered shortage response actions.

(3) Methods and procedures for monitoring and evaluation of the effectiveness of the drought plan.

(4) Communication protocols and procedures to inform and coordinate customers, the public, interested parties, and local, regional, and state government.

(5) A description of the potential impacts on the revenues, financial condition, and planned expenditures of the agricultural water supplier during drought conditions that reduce water allocations, and proposed measures to overcome those impacts, including reserve-level policies.

(Added by Stats. 2018, Ch. 15, Sec. 16. (AB 1668) Effective January 1, 2019.)