Some San Joaquin Valley Groundwater Agencies don’t get a Passing Grade

After more than a century of being the wild west of groundwater “regulation,” in 2014 the California legislature decided to join states like Texas and bring the law to town. The California law was the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA). The Sheriff would be the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB). It would take over groundwater management from local groundwater sustainability agencies with sketchy plans.

Somewhat predictably, parts of the San Joaquin Valley west and east sides and the Tulare Basin may be in danger of SWRCB management of their groundwater basins rather than their local groundwater sustainability agencies (GSAs).

According to the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) — the state agency put in charge of evaluating GSA groundwater sustainability plans (GSPs) — “[t]hese GSAs did not analyze and justify continued groundwater level declines and land subsidence. Further, the GSAs lacked a clear understanding of how the management criteria may cause undesired effects on groundwater users in the basins or critical infrastructure.”

The inadequate plans were developed by the Chowchilla Subbasin in Madera and Merced counties, Delta-Mendota Subbasin in San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Merced, Fresno, Madera, and San Benito counties, Kaweah Subbasin in Tulare and Kings counties, Tule Subbasin in Tulare County, Tulare Lake Subbasin in Kings County, and the Kern Subbasin in Kern County.

Not coincidentally, these areas represent a major portion of California’s consistent groundwater overdraft and even land subsidence. Many of the agencies are authors of the San Joaquin Valley Blueprint (A Comprehensive Water Blueprint for the San Joaquin Valley, although I prefer Blueprint for Extinction). They plan to deliver two million acre-feet of water or more per year from the Delta to the east side of the southern valley — and somehow hope that it won’t severely impact the north state’s iconic fisheries. The alternative, of course, is to not use more groundwater than you have.

See article on overdrafted groundwater basins that are moving to state oversight

Ron Stork

Ron is a national expert in flood management, federal water resources development, hydropower reform, and Wild & Scenic Rivers. He joined Friends of the River as Associate Conservation Director in 1987 and became its Senior Policy Advocate in 1995. 

Ron was presented the prestigious River Conservationist of the Year award by Perception in 1996 for his work to stop the Auburn dam. In 2004, he received the California Urban Water Conservation Council’s Excellence Award for statewide and institutional innovations in water conservation.

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