Gov. Brown signs historic groundwater legislation

In an effort to strengthen local management and monitoring of groundwater basins, Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation on Sept. 16 that brings California out of its role as the only state in the nation that doesn’t keep track of most of its groundwater.

“We have to learn to manage wisely water, energy, land, and our investments,” Brown said in a press release. “That’s why this is important.”

The legislation was a package of three bills passed in the wee hours of this year’s legislative session: Two were authored by Sen. Fran Pavley (D-Agoura Hills), and one was authored by Assembly Member Roger Dickinson (D-Sacramento). The legislative trio requires the adoption of groundwater sustainability plans by 2020 for basins in overdraft conditions and by 2022 for all other basins, unless they’ve been legally adjudicated; establishes groundwater sustainability agencies; creates a set of implementation tools and enforcement authorities; and sets requirements for the State Water Resources Control Board as far as enforcement and management are concerned.

While advocates for the groundwater management say the new legislation is necessary to ensure the state’s water future—though groundwater basins won’t fall under the legislation for another five to 15 years—some of the state’s farmers believe that regulation isn’t the answer.

Claire Wineman of the Grower-Shipper Association of Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo Counties told the Sun earlier this summer that it doesn’t make sense to put something into place that treats the whole state as one entity when it comes to groundwater.

“Managing [water] basins is so basin specific,” she said.

The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors heard about the status of one of the county’s unmanaged water basins during its Sept. 9 meeting in a presentation from the Santa Barbara County Water Agency and the U.S. Geological Survey about a Cuyama Valley groundwater study. The study concluded that the area uses 29,900 acre-feet more water per year than is replenished in the basin, and the basin has steadily declined since 1947.

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