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Cal. WAT § 383

This is the official text of Cal. WAT § 383, part of California’s Water Code — governs water rights and water resource management.

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

For the purposes of this chapter, water that is surplus to the needs of the agency’s water users shall mean any of the following:

(a) Water, to which the right is held by the agency pursuant to an appropriation made under the Water Commission Act or Division 2 (commencing with Section 1000), which the agency finds will be in excess of the needs of water users within the agency for the duration of the transfer.

(b) Water, to which the right is held by the agency pursuant to an appropriation made under the Water Commission Act or Division 2 (commencing with Section 1000), of which any water user agrees with the agency, upon mutually satisfactory terms, to forego use for the duration of the transfer.

(c) Water, to which the right is held by a water user within the agency pursuant to an appropriation made under the Water Commission Act or Division 2 (commencing with Section 1000) where the water user and the agency agree, upon mutually satisfactory terms, that the water user will forego use for the period of time specified in the agreement and that the agency shall act as agent for the water user to effect the transfer.

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

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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.