SB 1449 Summary

• Amends groundwater code provisions governing designation of subsequent irrigation non-expansion areas by establishing new procedures for petitions, including requirements for a numeric groundwater flow model and hydrologic report signed by a registered professional geologist or engineer.

• Establishes eligibility criteria for irrigation users signing petitions, limiting signatories to land owners who have irrigated two or more acres within the five years preceding petition submission and are capable of future irrigation.

• Modifies the sufficiency determination process for petitions by making the director's decision that a petition complies non-reviewable, while allowing judicial review of decisions that a petition does not comply.

• Restricts judicial review of the director's final order designating an irrigation non-expansion area to petitioners and those who submitted evidence at the public hearing, with grounds for review limited to issues raised in the petition or at the hearing.

• Allows acres irrigated after the director's initial refusal to designate an area to continue being irrigated if the decision is reversed on judicial review, and prohibits refiling a petition to designate the same area for three years after a refusal becomes final.