The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) defined several roles for the Department of Water Resources, including developing regulations that define how the legislation will be implemented. As the first set of regulations addressing basin boundary revisions begins to round the corner to completion, DWR turns now to address the second set of regulations to be developed, those that will address the implementation and evaluation of Groundwater Sustainability Plans. This new set of regulations, required to be in place by June 1, 2016, will identify the specific plan components for groundwater sustainability plans as listed in the water code, as well as other information that will assist agencies in developing groundwater management plans that are compliant with SGMA.
Groundwater management plans are not a new idea; many features have already been laid out in previous legislation and SGMA builds on that historical and non-regulatory framework already in place.
Previously, however, the development and implementation of groundwater management plans was voluntary, but now under SGMA, sustainable groundwater management is no longer optional. All groundwater basins that have been designated as high or medium priority must form Groundwater Sustainability Agencies and develop groundwater sustainability plans; groundwater management is now required to be coordinated and implemented on a basin/subbasin-wide scale.
There are many moving parts to a groundwater sustainability plan: information on groundwater levels and quality, historical project demands and supplies; measurable objectives and milestones, mitigation of overdraft, monitoring and management of groundwater levels, control of saline water intrusion, wellhead protection areas, recharge areas, well construction policies, recharge activities, and conjunctive use, just to name a few. Click here for a list of required GSP elements and related components listed in the water code.
As part of the process of stakeholder outreach, the Department of Water Resources has established a multi-phased approach, dividing the issues into ten topics as shown in the diagram below:
DWR will begin the series of listening sessions, beginning with the a meeting and webcast on Monday, July 20th that will discuss the first three topics. In order to advance the discussions, DWR has prepared discussion papers addressing the topics planned for this first webinar:
- Topic 1 – Pre-SGMA Conditions and Undesirable Results
- Topic 2 – Measureable Objectives and Interim Milestones
- Topic 3 – Land Use and County Involvement
Meeting details …
- The meeting will be held at the Cal EPA headquarters in downtown Sacramento on Monday, July 20th, beginning at 2pm. The meeting will be webcast at this link.
For more information …
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