Your Future With California Groundwater
California Groundwater | The days of unrestricted use of groundwater may be ending. In much of the State, farmers, ranchers, and municipalities will ultimately have to choose either to develop a Groundwater Sustainability Plan which has sufficient support to be politically acceptable and can be legally defended, or allow the courts to determine pumpers rights through an adjudication, which will be very time consuming, expensive, and create no new water supplies. Behind this movement is California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act of 2014. The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) is a comprehensive package that charts a path for “sustainable management of groundwater supplies” by local authorities, with the state having a “hammer” to compel compliance if necessary. Success will be seen through preservation of local control at as many levels as possible. Farmers and Ranchers, big and small, can and should take action now to work together in developing an agency in their areas with water districts, municipalities, and counties to sustain and protect the agricultural lifeblood of the State.
The SGMA is probably the most significant change in groundwater law and management in over 100 years. The SGMA mandates the creation of local Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSAs) that must evaluate conditions in their local basins and eventually adopt Groundwater Sustainability Plans (GSPs). The GSAs must be formed and identify themselves to the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) by June 30, 2017. Boundaries for GSAs will be based on DWRs Bulletin 118, unless a process is pursued to change boundaries through DWR. Along with the GSA’s present duties, DWR has several tasks under the act such as designating basins as high, medium, low or very low priority by Jan. 31, 2015 and adopting regulations for basin boundary adjustments by Jan. 1, 2016.
The act does provide substantial time – 20 years – for GSAs to implement plans and achieve long-term groundwater sustainability. It protects existing surface water and groundwater rights and does not impact current drought response measures. Basins that are identified as critically overdrafted must develop and file a GSP by January 31, 2020 and the Plan must provide for achieving the “sustainability goal” within 20 years.
The State Water Resources Control Board may intervene if a GSA is not formed or it fails to adopt or implement compliant plans by certain dates. DWR is tasked with reviewing GSPs for adequacy after they are adopted at the local level. If DWR determines in its review that a GSP is not adequate, the State Board may designate the basin as “probationary.” If the local agency does not respond, the State Board is authorized to create an interim plan that will remain in place until a local GSA is able to reassume responsibility with a compliant plan. As with any new law, there are many unanswered questions of exactly how it will be implemented and interpreted. DWR is tasked to develop regulations for evaluating GSPs. However, many local authorities are currently at work evaluating the SGMA and developing GSAs that will succeed at the local level and are working jointly with DWR to map out a fruitful future.
