San Joaquin County Municipal Code Ch. 2 Definitions

(a) "Aquifer" means a geologic formation that stores, transmits and yields significant quantities of water to wells and springs.

(b) "Board" means the Board of Supervisors of San Joaquin County.

(c) "Commission" means the Advisory Water Commission of the San Joaquin County Flood Control and Water Conservation District, which is advisory to the Board.

(d) "Conjunctive use groundwater replenishment project" means a project for artificial groundwater recharge and storage through methods which include, but are not limited to, (1) direct recharge by percolation using basins, pits, ditches and furrows, modified streambed, flooding, and well injection or (2) in-lieu recharge. In-lieu recharge means accomplishing increased storage of groundwater by providing surface water to a user who relies on groundwater as a primary supply, to accomplish groundwater storage through the direct use of that surface water in lieu of pumping.

(e) "Consumptive use" means water consumed by vegetative growth in transpiration and building plant tissue and water evaporated from adjacent soil, from water surfaces and from foliage. It also includes water similarly consumed and evaporated by urban and non-vegetative types of land use.

(f) "County" means the County of San Joaquin.

(g) "Director" means the Director of Public Works of the County or designee.

(h) "District" means a public entity wholly or in part located within the boundaries of the County, which is a purveyor of water for agricultural, domestic, or municipal use, or is an irrigation district.

(i) "Groundwater" means all water beneath the surface of the earth within the zone below the water table in which the soil is completely saturated with water, but does not include water that flows in known and definite channels.

(j) "Groundwater Management Act" means Water Code Section 10750 et seq.

(k) "Hydraulic gradient" means the slope of the water table.

(l) "Hydrology" means the origin, distribution, and circulation of water through precipitation, stream flow, infiltration, groundwater storage, and evaporation.

(m) "Land subsidence" means the lowering of the land surface in elevation.

(n) "Overdraft" means the condition of a groundwater supply in which the amount of water withdrawn by pumping exceeds the amount of water replenishing the supply over a period of time and also the point at which extractions from the supply exceed its safe yield plus any temporary surplus.

(o) "Percolation" means the movement of water through the soil to the groundwater table.

(p) "Permeability" means the capability of the soil or another geologic formation to transmit water.

(q) "Piezometric surface" means the surface to which the water in a confined aquifer will rise.

(r) "Porosity" means voids or open spaces in alluvium and rocks that can be filled with water.

(s) "Recharge" means flow to groundwater storage from precipitation, irrigation, infiltration from streams, spreading basins and other sources of water.

(t) "Safe yield" means the maximum quantity of water, which can be withdrawn annually from a groundwater supply under a given set of conditions without causing overdraft or adverse water quality conditions.

(u) "Saline intrusion" means the movement of salt water into fresh water aquifers.

(v) "Specific capacity" means the volume of water pumped from a well in gallons per minute per foot of drawdown.

(w) "Spreading water" means discharging native or imported water to a permeable area for the purpose of allowing it to percolate to the zone of saturation.

(x) "Static water level" means the level at which water stands in a well when no water is being removed from the aquifer by pumping or free flow within twenty-four (24) hours. It is generally expressed as the distance from the ground surface to the water level in the well.

(y) "Transmissivity" means the rate of flow of water through an aquifer.

(z) "Usable storage capacity" means the quantity of groundwater of acceptable quality that can be economically withdrawn from storage.

(aa) "Usable groundwater" means groundwater of acceptable quality that can economically be withdrawn by the user without adverse impacts.

(bb) "Water table" means the surface or level where groundwater is encountered in a well in an unconfined aquifer.

(cc) "Water year" means the year beginning March 1st and ending the last day of the following February.

(dd) "Zone of saturation" means the area below the water table in which the soil is completely saturated with groundwater.

(Ord. 3879 § 3, 1996; Ord. 4064 § 1 (part), 2000)