45-2611. Transportation of underground water and stored water away from an eastern protection zone or western protection zone prohibited; exceptions

A. Except as provided in subsection B of this section, beginning on the effective date of this section, underground water or stored water withdrawn in an eastern protection zone or a western protection zone may not be transported away from the protection zone in which the water was withdrawn if the transportation is for a nonirrigation use.

B. Subsection A of this section does not apply to any of the following:

1. The transportation of underground water or stored water away from an eastern protection zone or a western protection zone for a nonirrigation use in an annual amount that does not exceed the highest annual volume of underground water or stored water transported away from the same protection zone for that use during calendar years 1999 through 2001.

2. The transportation of underground water or stored water away from an eastern protection zone or a western protection zone for a nonirrigation use if the person transporting the underground water or stored water replenishes the water as provided in section 45-2625 within twenty-four months after the end of the calendar year in which the transportation occurs.

3. The transportation of underground water or stored water away from an eastern protection zone or a western protection zone for a nonirrigation use if the person transporting the underground water or stored water replaces the water with an equivalent amount of water imported into that protection zone within the same calendar year in which the transportation occurs.

4. The transportation of stored water away from an eastern protection zone or a western protection zone if the stored water was originally stored in the protection zone from which the water was recovered.

5. The transportation of underground water or stored water between the eastern protection zone north and the eastern protection zone south.

6. The transportation of underground water or stored water between the western municipal and industrial protection zone and the western municipal protection zone if the water is transported for a municipal use on municipal acres.

7. Through 2023, the transportation of underground water and stored water withdrawn by a water company within an eastern protection zone and transported by the water company for municipal uses outside of the eastern protection zones.  For the purposes of this paragraph, stored water does not include any water stored within an eastern protection zone and recovered within that protection zone.

8. Beginning with calendar year 2024, the annual transportation of up to one thousand two hundred seventy-five acre-feet of underground water and stored water withdrawn by a water company within the eastern protection zones and transported by the water company for municipal uses outside of the eastern protection zones.  For the purposes of this paragraph, stored water does not include any water stored within an eastern protection zone and recovered within that protection zone.