2021

New Report Addresses Findings That Most California Groundwater Sustainability Plans Fail to Protect Vulnerable Communities and the Environment

By Maven / August 10, 2023

A new report, authored by experts from organizations including The Nature Conservancy, the Union of Concerned Scientists, Audubon California, and...

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New Report Addresses Findings That Most California Groundwater Sustainability Plans Fail to Protect Vulnerable Communities and the Environment

UPCOMING WEBINAR: SGMA Review: Achieving Groundwater Access for All & Visual Data Tool Demonstration, plus Office Hours returns

By Maven / August 10, 2023

CivicWell and the Groundwater Exchange are excited to announce a webinar event to share the Groundwater Leadership Forum’s comprehensive review...

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UPCOMING WEBINAR: SGMA Review: Achieving Groundwater Access for All & Visual Data Tool Demonstration, plus Office Hours returns

How Farmers Used California’s Floods to Revive Aquifers

By Maven / August 10, 2023

As an onslaught of storms soaked California with record-breaking rain last winter, Christine Gemperle found herself crisscrossing her almond orchards...

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How Farmers Used California’s Floods to Revive Aquifers

SGMA Inadequate Subbasins Update

By Maven / August 10, 2023

By Geoff Vanden Heuvel, Director of Regulatory and Economic Affairs at the Milk Producers Council: There is intense activity going...

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SGMA Inadequate Subbasins Update

RESEARCH ARTICLE: From Drought to Deluge: Designing Groundwater Pricing Policies to Cope With California’s Water Woes

By Maven / August 10, 2023

Groundwater pricing presents a promising tool for managing groundwater demand under California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. We use data from...

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RESEARCH ARTICLE: From Drought to Deluge: Designing Groundwater Pricing Policies to Cope With California’s Water Woes

RESEARCH ARTICLE: How Is Demand Management Developing in SGMA Groundwater Sustainability Plans

By Maven / August 10, 2023

Demand management will play a critical role in both reaching groundwater sustainability under SGMA and determining the economic costs of...

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RESEARCH ARTICLE: How Is Demand Management Developing in SGMA Groundwater Sustainability Plans

RESEARCH ARTICLE: Recycled water could recharge aquifers in the Central Valley

By Maven / August 10, 2023

Drawing out too much groundwater, or overdrafting, is a serious problem in California. As a result, groundwater sustainability agencies are...

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RESEARCH ARTICLE: Recycled water could recharge aquifers in the Central Valley

SGMA in the news …

By Maven / August 10, 2023

Can California cropland be repurposed for community solar? “When you think of solar power, California undoubtedly comes to mind. The...

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SGMA in the news …

GW Basics

Learn more about groundwater, SGMA, what it means, and who it covers. Learn More

Practitioner Resources

Resources for Groundwater Sustainability Plan development. Learn More

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Guidance for engaging in local groundwater management. Learn More

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Basin Pages

Click here to discover models, publications, and information organized by basin or subbasin.

SGMA Articles from Maven’s Notebook

Notebook SGMA Implementation Posts

PRESS RELEASE: Safe Yield Trial is a Go: Appellate Court declines to hear IWVGA’s challenge to trial court’s decision to hold safe yield trialPress release from the Indian Wells Valley Water District and Searles Valley Minerals The Indian Wells Valley Water District and Searles Valley Minerals are pleased to announce a significant development in their ongoing commitment to securing a sustainable water future for our community. The Court of Appeal has declined to hear the Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority’s most recent challenge to the ongoing groundwater basin adjudication. Trial on the Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Basin’s safe yield will proceed. Last month, […]

SJV WATER: Madera County project aims to curb groundwater pull by paying farmers to find new uses for landBy Jesse Vad, SJV Water Residents and advocates in the small community of Fairmead have been working for years to find ways to relieve pressure on the area’s aquifer to protect domestic wells. With the latest election, they hope all that planning can finally come to fruition. On Tuesday, Californians voted to approve Proposition 4, $10 billion in bonds for environmental projects. That includes $200 million for the state’s Multibenefit Land Repurposing Program (MLRP) which pays farmers and local agencies […]

SJV WATER: Lawsuit accuses Friant Water Authority of holding secret meetings that resulted in massive fees pinned on a handful of Tulare County irrigation districtsBy Lisa McEwen, SJV Water The legal fracas over who should pay to fix the sinking Friant-Kern Canal grew Friday when three Tulare County irrigation districts sued the Friant Water Authority for imposing steep fees on the districts approved through allegedly secret communications and serial meetings. In a suit filed Nov. 1 the Terra Bella, Saucelito and Porterville irrigation districts also seek to declare the fees, up to $295 million approved in a special meeting held in August, void. “We […]

AG ALERT: Farms face ruin as groundwater law takes its tollBy Caleb Hampton, Ag Alert Last month, on the final day of his almond harvest, Amrik Singh Basra sat outside his Madera County farmhouse, cradling a heavy folder. The documents, sent by his bank during the past several months, were an ultimatum: Pay up or lose the farm. Originally from India, Basra came to California in 1980. He worked in trucking for several years before using his savings to buy a small farm plot. In 1997, he bought the house […]

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Groundwater Documents

CWL Groundwater Docs

Modern groundwater reaches deeper depths in heavily pumped aquifer systemsDeep groundwater is an important source of drinking water, and can be preferable to shallower groundwaters where they are polluted by surface-borne contaminants. Surface-borne contaminants are disproportionately common in ‘modern’ groundwaters that are made up of precipitation that fell since the ~1950s. Some local-scale studies have suggested that groundwater pumping can draw modern groundwater downward … Continue reading "Modern groundwater reaches deeper depths in heavily pumped aquifer systems"

Mapping Structural Control Through Analysis of Land-Surface Deformation for the Rialto-Colton Groundwater Subbasin, San Bernardino County, California, 1992–2010The locations of many faults in and near the Rialto-Colton groundwater subbasin are not precisely known because the spatial density of existing lithologic and hydrologic data used to infer the locations of faults can be sparse. The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District, analyzed structural control of groundwater … Continue reading "Mapping Structural Control Through Analysis of Land-Surface Deformation for the Rialto-Colton Groundwater Subbasin, San Bernardino County, California, 1992–2010"

A State Role in Supporting Groundwater Trading with Safeguards for Vulnerable Users: Findings and Next StepsIn those parts of California where groundwater pumping has long exceeded replenishment, people are striving to bring groundwater basins into sustainable conditions within 20 years, between 2040 and 2042, as the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) requires. In some areas, groundwater sustainability agencies (GSAs) – the local agencies tasked with sustainable groundwater management – are … Continue reading "A State Role in Supporting Groundwater Trading with Safeguards for Vulnerable Users: Findings and Next Steps"

Development and Application of a 1D Compaction Model to Understand 65 Years of Subsidence in the San Joaquin ValleyHigh rates of land subsidence, caused by groundwater overdraft, are resulting in millions of dollars of infrastructure damage in California’s San Joaquin Valley (SJV). In recent years, the use of interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) has enabled us to substantially improve our understanding of this subsidence. However, only very occasionally have the InSAR data been … Continue reading "Development and Application of a 1D Compaction Model to Understand 65 Years of Subsidence in the San Joaquin Valley"