C-WIN: What Lies Beneath—New C-WIN Reports Explain California’s Groundwater Resources and Regulations
When Californians consider water supplies, they typically think of rivers and reservoirs. And it’s true that surface water accounts for about 70% of state water consumption on average. But that remaining 30% is pumped from subterranean aquifers. A secure groundwater supply is thus essential for California’s communities, farms and industries, and central to any sound water management strategy.
But while California’s surface water is relatively well quantified and subject to extensive – if convoluted – regulations, the extent of the state’s groundwater supplies is not fully known, and active management is both recent and minimal. The 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) was the first real attempt to regulate groundwater withdrawals and mitigate overpumping.
So how is SGMA doing? It’s – complicated. SGMA has both positive attributes and deficits, and as usual with complex regulations, the devil is in the details and how they’re applied. C-WIN has drafted a brief but informative report on SGMA that highlights its strengths and weaknesses and proposes ways to make the legislation more effective and equitable.
C-WIN has also produced a separate analysis on a crucial area of groundwater basin management that SGMA has left largely unaddressed: aquifer recharge. Injecting surplus surface water into heavily exploited aquifers is an essential component of any sustainable groundwater management policy. But some water agencies allied with power corporate agricultural interests, with backing from the Governor, now claim that contributing to a groundwater basin’s recharge allows them to escape from SGMA’s sustainable pumping requirements. C-WIN’s report explains why this rationale is flawed – and dangerous.
For C-WIN’s groundwater reports, go to:
CONTACT
Max Gomberg
(415) 310-7013
maxgombergca@gmail.com
Christina Speed
C-WIN Communications Director
info.cwin@gmail.com