The Legislature finds that the greater portion of the water used in this state is obtained from underground sources and that those waters are subject to impairment in quality and purity, causing detriment to the health, safety and welfare of the people of the state. The Legislature therefore declares that the people of the state have a primary interest in the location, construction, maintenance, abandonment, and destruction of water wells, cathodic protection wells, groundwater monitoring wells, and geothermal heat exchange wells, which activities directly affect the quality and purity of underground waters.

(Amended by Stats. 1996, Ch. 581, Sec. 1. Effective January 1, 1997.)