In today’s world, many of us are aware of water shortages here in California – especially during drought years. Many of us don’t think much about where our water comes from, we simply turn on the faucet and there it is. Water is a precious resource that we must learn more about conserving and protecting for future generations.
The Cuyama Basin, along with other areas of California, has a problem with the overuse of groundwater as it has been designated as critically overdrafted. This means more water has been pumped out of the ground than is replenished by rainfall, stream flows, and other sources. People and businesses use groundwater from wells for household and agricultural use. Wells are drilled to varying depths below the surface to reach the groundwater stored in aquifers (layers of permeable or spongy-like rock or soil where water is stored underground). Over time, groundwater use in the Cuyama Valley has increased. Water users are pumping or diverting more water than is replenished naturally. With low rainfall in the recent drought, the problem is worsened. The groundwater is not being replenished – it is being used up.
Groundwater is a vitally important resource that you never actually see. Groundwater is an important source of water stored underground in spaces between sand, soils, and fractured rock known as an aquifer. Layers of aquifers make up a groundwater basin. Today, many communities, farmers, and businesses in California rely on groundwater for most of their water supply needs. In many areas, over time, the water table, or the depth at which groundwater can be found, has gotten much deeper below the surface. As demand for groundwater has increased, more water is being drawn out of the aquifer than is replaced or replenished. Low groundwater levels can cause the ground to gradually sink or subside.
The Cuyama Basin includes the surface water from rain and in nearby streams that run downslope to the Cuyama River and it includes the groundwater in the aquifers below the surface. Title 23, Division 2, Chapter 1.5, Subchapter 1, Article 2, Section 341(g)(1) of the California Code of Regulations refers to a groundwater basin as an: “. . . aquifer or stacked series of aquifers with reasonably well-defined boundaries in a lateral direction, based on features that significantly impede groundwater flow, and a definable bottom . . .”
An aquifer is underground layer of soil or porous rock or where water is stored from which groundwater can be extracted using a well. Most of the groundwater comes from aquifers less than 1,000 feet deep.
The earth has limited supplies of water. Groundwater and surface water are essentially one resource, physically connected by the water cycle in which water evaporates, forms clouds, and falls to the ground as rain or snow. Some of this precipitation seeps into the ground and moves slowly into an underground aquifer, eventually becoming groundwater. If there no rain, then there is no water returning to the groundwater below and the groundwater supply is not “recharged” or refilled.
The National Groundwater Association defines groundwater sustainability as “the development and use of groundwater resources to meet current and future beneficial uses without causing unacceptable environmental or socioeconomic consequences.” What does this mean? A sustainable groundwater basin is one in which the water use is balanced with the water replenishment from rainfall, surface water, and other sources.
The GSP will describe a pathway for better managing the groundwater basin. The Cuyama Basin GSP will describe management measures and options to ensure that the Cuyama Basin operates within a sustainable goal for groundwater use. The goal for groundwater use will be developed during the GSP planning process. The GSP will include: historical data about groundwater levels, groundwater quality, subsidence, and groundwater-surface water interaction; historical and projected demands and supplies; recharge areas; and measurable objectives. The GSP must describe the sustainability goal for groundwater use and it must explain how the goal will be achieved in 20 years.
Everyone that has pumped water out of the ground or diverted stream flows in the Cuyama Basin played a role in creating the current conditions in the Cuyama Basin. Now, the water users in the Valley are coming together to develop a plan to protect groundwater supplies for the future.
A GSP is the plan of a GSA that provides for sustainably managed groundwater that meets the requirements of SGMA. GSAs in high and medium priority groundwater basins are required to submit a GSP to the California Department of Water Resources. The plan must outline how the GSA will implement, manage and measure specific actions for the health and viability of the basins. DWR will evaluate the GSP and provide the GSA with an assessment of the plan and any necessary recommendations every two years following its establishment.
All GSPs must be completed and begun to be implemented by January 31, 2022.
The Cuyama Valley’s groundwater basin has been designated as critically overdraft by the California Department of Water Resources (DWR). This determination was made by DWR by evaluating the period from 1989 to 2009 and is defined as “a basin is subject to critical overdraft when continuation of present water management practices would probably result in significant adverse overdraft-related environmental, social, or economic impacts.” The decline of groundwater levels is being addressed through the Cuyama Basin Groundwater Sustainability Agency’s (CBGSA) Groundwater Sustainability Plan, whose goal is to stabilize groundwater levels with direction from the CBGSA.
A Groundwater Sustainability Agency is one or more local governmental agencies that implement the provisions of SGMA. A local agency is defined as one that has water supply, water management or land management authority. GSAs assess the conditions of their local basins, adopt locally-based sustainable management plans to create drought resiliency, and improve coordination between land use and groundwater planning.
All Groundwater Sustainability Agencies must be formed by June 2017.
Forming a GSA, then developing and implementing a Groundwater Sustainability Plan (GSP) will require both start-up and ongoing costs. As part of the GSA formation, the agencies will determine how to share costs for developing and implementing the GSP. GSAs may also take advantage of grants and other funding opportunities, such as Proposition 1 bond funds, to help create and implement a GSP.
Under SGMA, GSAs are empowered to:
The GSA may use a number of management tools to achieve sustainability goals. The specific tools and methods the GSA will use to achieve sustainability will be determined in discussion with stakeholders and identified in the GSP.
It is also important to note that SGMA requires local agencies to acknowledge Groundwater Sustainability Plans when a legislative body is adopting or substantially amending its General Plan. General Plans must accurately reflect the information in the Groundwater Sustainability Plan with regards to available water supplies.
As public entities the local agencies joining together to form a GSA will review the formation process and GSP adoption process as part of their regularly noticed public meetings. The agencies also anticipate conducting workshops and creating other opportunities for input.
Each GSA must decide on the which governance structure to adopt. Common governance structures for GSAs include the use of a Memorandum of Agreement or a Joint Powers Authority.
The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) is the agency responsible for oversight of the GSAs and GSPs formation. DWR has a list of regulations, objectives and actions formulated to assist local agencies and GSAs with the preparation and implementation of GSPs. Under law, all regulations adopted by DWR only become effective only upon approval by the California Water Commission. Under a limited set of circumstances, the State Water Board may intervene if local efforts to form a GSA or prepare a viable GSP are not successful.
The regulations require that all GSAs coordinate with adjacent GSAs in a given basin. This coordination will occur through additional discussions with neighboring agencies as GSAs are formally developed, and the GSPs will describe how the adjacent GSAs will work together to achieve groundwater sustainability.
Not directly. However, this new groundwater management framework acknowledges the connectivity of surface water and groundwater, and that they are to be managed as “a single resource.”
The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, signed into law in 2014, provides a framework for long-term sustainable groundwater management across California. It requires that local and regional authorities in the medium- and high-priority groundwater basins form a locally-controlled and governed Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA), which will prepare and implement a Groundwater Sustainability Plan (GSP).
Not directly. Sustainable groundwater management, much like management of surface water resources, is the result of a long-term vision and commitment by one or more water users or communities. That said, now that the State has faced several consecutive years of drought, the need to manage groundwater is more relevant than ever. Some California groundwater basins have reached an all-time historic low. Creating a framework for state oversight ensures a standard, consistent process to maintain and actively monitor and manage basins at the local level, and reduce impacts seen from overuse of these basins.
Over the years, the California water managers, individual well owners, and communities that rely on groundwater resources have observed a rapid decline of water levels in some aquifers. Impacts and issues related to the decline is apparent. For example, some wells in California have experienced declines in excess of 10 feet during the drought and increases in groundwater pumping have exacerbated some areas of land subsidence, which also threatens infrastructure such as roads, canals and bridges.
In January 2014, the Governor’s Office identified groundwater management as one of ten key action steps in its California Water Action Plan. SGMA, signed into law months later, follows up on that action, giving local agencies the ability to manage their respective basins following statewide guidelines.
SGMA does not change existing groundwater rights. Groundwater rights will continue to be subject to regulation under article 10, section 2, of the California Constitution.
SGMA provides a framework for the improved management of groundwater supplies by local authorities. In fact, it specifically limits state intervention provided that local agencies develop and implement groundwater sustainability plans as required by the legislation. Under SGMA local agencies now have tools and authorities some agencies previously lacked to manage for sustainability.
Under a limited set of circumstances, the State Water Board may step in to help protect local groundwater resources. The process of State Water Board intervention is sometimes referred to as the State Backstop or State Intervention, and only occurs if local efforts to form a GSA or prepare a viable GSP are not successful.
If local agencies fail to form a GSA by July 1, 2017 local groundwater users must begin reporting groundwater use to the State Water Board. State Intervention requirements then remain in place until local efforts are able to sustainably manage groundwater resources.
DWR = California Department of Water Resources
GSA = Groundwater Sustainability Agency
GSP = Groundwater Sustainability Plan
JPA = Joint Powers Authority
MOA = Memorandum of Agreement
SGMA = Sustainable Groundwater Management Act
SWRCB = State Water Resources Control Board