Assemblymember Hart presented AB 1466 as a measure to streamline groundwater adjudications and protect small and disadvantaged water users from costly multi‑year litigation. The bill would allow a court early in an adjudication to determine whether small pumpers should be exempted or resolved in a separate process and would require a groundwater sustainability agency (GSA) to provide a technical report quantifying and describing water users in the basin to assist the court.

Philip Peters, a Kern County supervisor who represents the Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority, told the committee that the bill clarifies SGMA’s enforceability and prevents large‑scale litigation from undermining local groundwater sustainability plans. Katherine Van Dyke of the Community Alliance of Family Farmers said small family farmers often lack the resources to participate in adjudications and could be defaulted out without protections.

Opponents — including the Association of California Water Agencies and other GSAs — said many GSAs do not have the data or staff to prepare the level of technical quantification requested, that data collection would be costly, and that the bill risks shifting costs to underfunded agencies. Witnesses said some basins do have allocation programs and data that could support such a report, but argued it is not feasible in many others.

The committee took the bill up for a vote and moved it as amended to the Senate Judiciary Committee for further consideration. (Vote recorded during hearing; motion advanced — tally left on call.)