Groundwater management needed during a drought

Managing water in California is no small task.  State legislators took a major step with the enactment of the 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. Prior to this Act, there were no comprehensive regulations governing groundwater in California.  Individual court decisions provided the only governing rules.

While much of the public attention related to water supply has been focused on the depth of the snow cap and the conditions on the Colorado River, local groundwater typically provides approximately 38 percent of the state’s water.  The State Department of Water Resources has identified 515 alluvial groundwater basins and sub-basins which provide this important water source.

The courts have adjudicated 22 of these basins - 20 in Southern California.  Where there are multiple users and development or other pressures have threatened to overwhelm the limits of the water supply in the basin, courts have been asked to establish rules determining the pumping rights of each user.

Adjudication takes years, even decades, as court must unravel established practices and water rights.  After adjudication, the court usually appoints a water master to make sure that going forward the court imposed limits are adhered to by all users having rights in the basin.

In non-adjudicated basins, the courts have upheld landowners “overlaying rights” – the right to extract and use water from the groundwater basin beneath their lands - as long as the water is used only on the land directly above the basin.  Of course, not everyone owns land over a basin but may still have a right to pump water.  So-called “appropriative rights” allow these owners to pump water for use on land not located above the basin or sell it to other customers.

But it isn’t just where your land is, it is also when you can show a chain of title to the land. Riparian rights - land abutting a waterway - that are pre-1914 are senior rights. 

This all works fine when there is plenty of water but when there is a drought, things quickly become complicated.   Disputes trudge through the courts.  Holders of “overlaying rights” and “senior rights” generally win leaving “appropriative rights” and later rights holders and their water uses high and dry. 

During the drought groundwater pumping around the state has increased to an unprecedented level with devastating results.  In some areas over pumping has caused land to sink at an alarming rate - as much as one foot per year. This is an irreversible condition.  The inequities of the current system were apparent.  The need for better groundwater management was clear. 

The new regulations require that non-adjudicated basins form local “groundwater sustainability agencies” (GSA).  Each GSA must measure how much water is being pumped in its basin, estimate future demands, and develop a plan that protects the basin from over-pumping.  If the basin is in a critical condition because of over-pumping, a plan must be completed within five to seven years.  If the basin is not endangered, a GSA may be given up to twenty years to complete its plan. If a plan is not completed on schedule, the state may intervene to impose its own plan.

Every person and business needs water.  Until the Legislature acted, California was one of the few western states that did not have a comprehensive statutory framework for groundwater management.  There remains much more to do and additional legislation will be needed as the plans are developed but this is a great first step to protect California’s future water supplies.