Following is a list of terms that appear in these documents and elsewhere
in the literature relevant to the Main San Gabriel Basin and its
management. Many of the definitions given here are paraphrased or
simplified versions of fuller definitions taken from the Judgment,
Rules and Regulations, and other documents, and as such should not be
construed to serve as or substitute for the precise legal definitions
provided in those documents.
- Aquifer
- Rock or sediment in a geologic formation which is saturated and
sufficiently permeable to transmit economic quantities of water.
- Cyclic Storage
- Storage in the Basin of supplemental water for subsequent recovery
and use under a special agreement with Watermaster.
- Divert
- To take waters of any surface stream.
- Diverter
- Any party who diverts.
- Fiscal Year
- The period July 1 through June 30.
- Groundwater
- Water beneath the surface of the ground and within the zone
of saturation.
- Groundwater basin
- An interconnected permeable geologic formation capable of storing
a substantial groundwater supply.
- Judgment
- The Main San Gabriel Basin Judgment, a judgment of the California
State Superior Court for Los Angeles County (Case No. 924128,
Upper San Gabriel Valley Municipal Water District vs. City of
Alhambra, et al.). The final judgment was entered in January 1973.
- Key Well
- A water-level monitoring well, also known as the Baldwin Park
Key Well and Los Angeles County Flood Control District well #3030F.
Water levels in the Key Well are continuously recorded and used,
among other things, to determine when imported water may or may
not be spread in the Basin.
- Natural Safe Yield
- The quantity of natural water supply which can be extracted
annually from the Basin under conditions of the long-term average
annual supply, net of the requirement to meet downstream rights.
- Operating Safe Yield
- The quantity of water which Watermaster determines may be pumped from
the Basin in a particular fiscal year.
- Overdraft
- A condition wherein the total annual production from the basin
exceeds the natural safe yield thereof.
- Physical Solution
- The court decreed method (via the Judgment) of managing the waters
of the Basin so as to achieve the maximum utilization of the Basin
and its water supply, consistent with the adjudicated water rights.
- Produce
- To pump or divert water from the Basin.
- Producer
- Any party who produces water from the Basin.
- Relevant Watershed
- That portion of the San Gabriel River watershed tributary to
Whittier Narrows, and within which water rights were adjudicated
by the Judgment. A map of the
Relevant Watershed boundary is available, as well as a written
legal description.
- Replacement Water
- Water purchased by Watermaster to replace water produced in
excess of a producer's normal allotted share or right.
- Section 28
- That portion of the Watermaster Rules and Regulations which defines
Watermaster's role and responsibilities in management of
groundwater quality in the Basin.
- Supplemental Water
- Nontributary water imported into the Basin by one of the three
overlying municipal water districts.
- Title 22
- That portion of the California Administrative Code which requires
that producers of drinking water regularly monitor their wells and
other sources of supply for various chemical constituents.