Friday, April 27, 2018

California’s Groundwater Basins Draft Plans to Become Sustainable

In 2014 Governor Jerry Brown signed into law the State Groundwater Management Act, changing forever how farms, businesses, cities and residents will pump water in the future. The ultimate goal is to conserve the state’s overdrafted groundwater basins and keep them from becoming depleted. California is the last state in the American West to draft a plan managing groundwater. Over the past two years groundwater users in each of the state’s 515 groundwater basins have been busy forming local Groundwater Sustainability Agencies to implement the law. That goal being accomplished, the Department of Water Resources is now overseeing that process while providing financial and technical support to local agencies. Vic Bedoian reports from Fresno.