Presentations 2016

State Implementation of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA)

State Water Resources Control Board

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRQeV_rxzos&list=PLZC-5vj9_JAZ9pQW43dCe4RxII4kOMO8l&index=3

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California uses more groundwater annually than any other state in the United States. Yet for over a century, California has not regulated groundwater extractions or required comprehensive groundwater management. The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) was signed into law in September, 2014, marking the first significant groundwater management law enacted in California in more than 100 years. SGMA will result in profound changes in how groundwater is used and managed in California. Local agencies must now define when and how groundwater extractions cause significant and unreasonable undesirable results, where an undesirable result is defined in statute as chronic lowering of groundwater levels, reduction of storage, seawater intrusion, degraded water quality, subsidence, and depletions of interconnected surface water. When local efforts are unsuccessful, SGMA authorizes the State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board) to directly intervene and develop interim groundwater management strategies. The State Water Board faces numerous challenges in setting up and implementing a groundwater management strategy. The presentation will focus on planning efforts currently underway to prepare the state for intervention, including development of regulations, future data needs, data management, and socio/economic drivers. Specific highlights will include development of a State Water Board database to collect and record groundwater extractions from individual wells, remote sensing capabilities and how remote sensing evapotranspiration data could be used for enforcement, how the State Water Board will develop water budgets and verify water budgets developed at the local level, and how State Water Board actions must comply with existing water rights laws and priorities. Additional topics will focus on how state management will differ from locally-developed plans, with particular focus on metering programs, fees, and mandated pumping reductions. Lastly, challenges to local management and state intervention will drive planning elements and will influence local definitions of sustainability. The presentation will highlight these challenges and discuss how intervention will need to incorporate local values and needs.