71462. (a) Title to any geologic storage reservoir is vested in the owner of the overlying surface estate unless it has been severed and separately conveyed.
(b) A conveyance of the surface ownership of real property shall be a conveyance of any geologic storage reservoir below the surface of the real property unless the ownership interest in the geologic storage reservoir previously has been severed from the surface ownership or is explicitly excluded in the conveyance. The ownership of a geologic storage reservoir may be conveyed in the manner provided by law for the transfer of mineral interests in real property. No agreement or instrument conveying a mineral or other interest underlying the surface shall act to convey ownership of a geologic storage reservoir unless the agreement explicitly conveys that ownership interest.
(c) (1) An instrument that transfers the rights to a geologic storage reservoir under this section shall include all of the following:
(A) A description of the scope of any right of the owner of the geologic storage reservoir to use the surface estate.
(B) A general description of the potential location of the geologic storage reservoir, including a subsurface geologic or seismic survey or a metes and bounds description of the surface overlying the geologic storage reservoir and any depths or portions of the subsurface that are excluded from the geologic storage reservoir being transferred.
(C) An allocation of legal liability from the overlying surface estate owner to the geologic storage reservoir owner consistent with the standards developed in accordance with paragraph (6) of subdivision (a) of Section 71461.
(2) The owner of a geologic storage reservoir right shall have no right to use the surface estate beyond that set out in a properly recorded instrument.
(d) Not less than 60 days before commencing development of a carbon dioxide capture, removal, and sequestration project, the carbon dioxide capture, removal, or sequestration project operator shall provide written notice of the project to each owner of a surface, subsurface, or storage reservoir estate that is adjacent to a geologic storage complex or a geologic storage reservoir that is included in the project.
(e) Each carbon dioxide capture, removal, or sequestration project operator shall record a notation on the deed to the property, or deeds to the properties, where the geologic storage complex or geologic storage reservoir is located, or any other document that is normally examined during a title search, that will notify a potential purchaser of the property, or properties, that the property has, or properties have, been used to sequester carbon dioxide, the volume of carbon dioxide sequestered, the injection zone or zones into which the carbon dioxide was injected, and the dates during which injection occurred.
(f) A carbon dioxide capture, removal, or sequestration project operator shall be liable for any damages caused by the operation of the carbon dioxide capture, removal, or sequestration project.
(g) Nothing in this section shall alter, amend, diminish, or invalidate a right to the use of a geologic storage reservoir that was acquired by contract or lease before the effective date of this part.
(h) This section is enacted for the limited purpose of facilitating the development of carbon dioxide capture, removal, or sequestration projects.
(i) (1) This section shall remain operative only until January 1, 2033, or until seven years after the date that the state board adopts regulations pursuant to Section 39741.1. of the Health and Safety Code, whichever is sooner.
(2) This section is repealed on January 1 following the date the section becomes inoperative pursuant to paragraph (1).
(Added by Stats. 2022, Ch. 359, Sec. 5. (SB 905) Effective January 1, 2023. Conditionally inoperative on date prescribed by its own provisions. Repealed on January 1 following the inoperative date.)