Unless the context otherwise requires, the following definitions govern the construction of this article:
(a)
(1)“Drainage water management units” means land and facilities for the treatment, storage, conveyance, reduction, or disposal of agricultural drainage water which, if discharged untreated, would pollute or threaten to pollute the waters of the state.
(2)
Drainage water management units shall include one or more of the following:
(A)
A surface impoundment that is designed to hold an accumulation of drainage water, including, but not limited to, holding, storage, settling, and aeration pits, and lagoons. A surface impoundment does not include a landfill, a land farm, a pile, an emergency containment dike, tank, injection well, evaporation pond, or percolation pond.
(B)
Conveyance facilities to the treatment or storage site, including devices for flow regulation.
(C)
Facilities or works to treat agricultural drainage water to remove or substantially reduce the level of constituents which pollute or threaten to pollute the waters of the state, including, but not limited to, processes utilizing ion exchange, desalting technologies such as reverse osmosis, and biological treatment.
(D)
Facilities or works to reduce the amount of agricultural drainage water discharged, including, but not limited to, source control projects.
(E)
Diked areas or cells that are (i) used for the purpose of water conservation, water management, or environmental mitigation and (ii) located within inland bodies of saline water in Imperial and Riverside Counties.
(3)
Any or all of the drainage water management units, including the land under the unit, may consist of separable features, or an appropriate share of multipurpose features, of a larger system, or both.
(4)
Drainage water management units do not include facilities for the direct discharge of agricultural drainage water to the bay-delta or Pacific Ocean.
(b)
“Local agency” or “agency” means any city, county, district, joint powers authority, or other political subdivision of the state involved with water management.
(c)
“Project” means drainage water management units.
(d)
“Subaccount” means the Drainage Management Subaccount created by Section 78641.