Category: Uncategorized

The Nature Conservancy’s Sarah Heard goes through the mechanics of the market, the first to be formed since the passage of SGMA A water market is much like a stock market for water​, but instead of ​trading stocks and bonds, sellers in water markets offer short- or long-term ​transfers of water.  Water ​trading can be […]

David Sandino and Maurice Hall present their big ideas on groundwater management The Groundwater Resources Association of California (GRA) created the David Keith Todd Distinguished Lecture Series to honor Dr. David Keith Todd, a GRA 1999 Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, for his enormous contributions to groundwater science and technology, and to foster interest and excellence […]

Groundwater managers across the state are looking to groundwater recharge as a potential solution to their community’s water challenges. However, there are concerns about how groundwater recharge in the age of SGMA actually works and how to ensure sufficient instream flows to protect those beneficial uses. To address these questions, the Local Government Commission and […]

California water law is complex, governed by both state and federal law, part property law and part environmental law. Adding to this complexity is the existence of a large number of federal, state and local agencies which play a role in the allocation and management of the state’s water resources. At the 2019 California Water […]

Minimum thresholds, measurable objectives, undesirable results: A panel of consultants discuss the specifics of how their GSAs determined sustainable management criteria The passage of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act in 2014 requires that groundwater basins be managed such that the use of groundwater can be maintained during the planning and implementation horizon without causing undesirable […]

From the Department of Water Resources: The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) today announced approval of nine alternatives to groundwater sustainability plans (GSPs) submitted by water agencies to meet requirements of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA). SGMA requires local agencies throughout the state to sustainably manage groundwater basins. Basins ranked as medium- or high-priority […]

Panel discusses land use issues, including well permitting, land fallowing, general plans and SGMA, and more … Groundwater is intimately connected with the landscape and land use that it underlies.  How land is developed above can change both water demand and how much water can be recharged, and inappropriate land use and poor land management […]

The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), passed in 2014, is California’s first statewide law that explicitly reflects the fact that surface water and groundwater are frequently interconnected and that groundwater management can impact groundwater-dependent ecosystems, surface water flows, and the beneficial uses of those flows. SGMA requires groundwater sustainability agencies (GSAs) to manage groundwater to […]

Groundwater managers working in four critically-overdrafted basins discuss how their planning efforts are going In basins all over California, groundwater managers are focused on developing their groundwater sustainability plans to meet the deadlines set by the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA).  For groundwater basins designated as critically-overdrafted basins, the 2020 is right around the corner. […]

Ellen Hanak delivers four priorities for managing the implementation of SGMA in the San Joaquin Valley The San Joaquin Valley is California’s largest agricultural region and an important contributor to the nation’s food supply, producing more than half of the state’s agricultural output.  Irrigated agriculture is the region’s main economic driver and predominant water user. […]