California Code, Water Code - WAT § 12406

(a) The department, in consultation with the California Water Quality Monitoring Council, the state board, and the Department of Fish and Wildlife, shall develop protocols for data sharing, documentation, quality control, public access, and promotion of open-source platforms and decision support tools related to water data. The department shall develop and submit to the Legislature, in compliance with Section 9795 of the Government Code and by January 1, 2018, a report describing these protocols. The report shall be developed in collaboration with the California Water Quality Monitoring Council, the state board, the Department of Fish and Wildlife, relevant federal agencies, and interested stakeholders, including, but not limited to, technology and open data experts and water data users.

(b) Recipients of state funds through grants or contracts for research or projects relating to the improvement of water or ecological data shall, as a condition of the receipt of a grant or contract, adhere to the protocols developed pursuant to subdivision (a) for data sharing, transparency, documentation, and quality control.

(c) A grant or contract recipient that does not comply with subdivision (b) is not eligible for state funding until the grant or contract recipient complies with those requirements.