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Cal. PEN § 592

This is the official text of Cal. PEN § 592, part of California’s Penal Code — defines crimes and sets criminal procedure in California.

Not legal advice. This page reproduces the official text of a government statute for reference only. Laws change, and how a statute applies depends on your specific facts. For advice about your situation, consult a licensed attorney in your state.

Official statutory text

(a) Every person who shall, without authority of the owner or managing agent, and with intent to defraud, take water from any canal, ditch, flume, or reservoir used for the purpose of holding or conveying water for manufacturing, agricultural, mining, irrigating, generation of power, or domestic uses is guilty of a misdemeanor.

(b) If the total retail value of all the water taken is more than nine hundred fifty dollars ($950), or if the defendant has previously been convicted of an offense under this section or any former section that would be an offense under this section, or of an offense under the laws of another state or of the United States that would have been an offense under this section if committed in this state, then the violation is punishable by imprisonment in a county jail for not more than one year, or in the state prison.

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.