Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA)
Why is groundwater so important to us?
Groundwater is water that is stored underground beneath our feet. We depend on it to drink, bathe, grow food, and more. Without proper care, our groundwater can run out or become contaminated. About 85% of Californians depend on groundwater for some portion of their water supply.
With severe drought conditions and flooding, we must protect our groundwater, especially in areas highly susceptible to water scarcity, such as the San Joaquin Valley and the Central Coast.
What is SGMA? Who makes decisions?
In response to the historic drought, the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) was introduced in 2014 to protect groundwater. SGMA requires local agencies to create plans to define what sustainability is for our groundwater. For example, local agencies decide how much water can be pumped out versus how much needs to be left in the ground for the future. The state agency Department of Water Resources oversees these plans.
SGMA should protect everyone who relies on groundwater, including community members who use it for drinking water.
What are the community impacts and costs?
Overpumping of our limited groundwater leads to dry wells, water contamination, land subsidence, and other harmful impacts. In 2022, communities who rely on shallow groundwater wells faced this devastating reality with more than 1,400 wells running dry. In 2023, over 400 households reported having a dry well and lost their only source of running water. Unfortunately, even with storms, communities may still experience water access challenges.
San Joaquin Valley
Low-income families and communities of color in the San Joaquin Valley are the hardest hit by water scarcity during a drought. So it’s critical that we protect access to safe water for vulnerable communities as part of SGMA implementation.
A report commissioned by the Water Foundation in 2020 found that 26 plans in the San Joaquin Valley fail to protect drinking water for vulnerable communities.
Under these plans:
Up to 12,000 drinking water wells will go dry by 2040.
This will impact up to 127,000 people who would lose their primary source of water.
This would cost up to $359 million to address the damage.
This is a warning sign that there will be drastic negative impacts to community access to drinking water if these plans are approved as is. This could mean considerable devastation to surface water, wildlife, and drinking water wells.
Central Coast
Over 80% of the people living on the Central Coast rely on groundwater for their drinking water and other uses. Overpumping of limited groundwater, water contamination, and seawater intrusion are major concerns in the Salinas Valley and Pajaro Valley. Deep wells, like major agricultural wells, can overuse groundwater and allow the sea to move in towards wells, ruining drinking water. Seawater intrusion is irreversible so it’s important for us to protect our groundwater now.
What’s happening now?
San Joaquin Valley
In March 2023, the Department of Water Resources rejected six inadequate plans, while approving other faulty plans that leave drinking water users at risk in the San Joaquin Valley.
As of April 2024, the State Water Resources Control Board approved placing the Tulare Lake basin on probation. This is monumental. With this decision, the SWB can now monitor critical revisions to these plans and require extraction fees, reporting, and well metering for industrial farmers to move the basin towards sustainability. These steps will also ensure that local agencies protect people from drinking water wells going dry or being contaminated, preserve wetlands, and safeguard roads and bridges from damage.
Five basins (Tule, Kaweah, Chowchilla, Kern, and Delta-Mendota) remain under the SWB’s review to be put on probation, with Tule basin’s probationary hearing set for September 17. We continue to call on the State to set schedules for Kaweah, Chowchilla, Kern, and Delta-Mendota basins, whose residents need help now.
Central Coast
In April 2023, the Department of Water Resources approved 12 plans for basins located across California including the Salinas Valley. While the approvals came with recommendations to improve each plan in the next five years, the plans currently fail to protect drinking water users. The Department of Water Resources’ responsibility under SGMA is to hold local agencies accountable and designate these plans as inadequate in order for the state to intervene and protect groundwater in the region. The future of drinking water for California’s rural communities of color depends on the state protecting the Human Right to Water.
How can I participate in SGMA?
EVERYONE can participate in the process to achieve sustainable groundwater conditions in their basin. Decisions made during public meetings and during state agency reviews will either protect or threaten your drinking water.
The map shows the hundreds of GSAs in California. Find your local GSA by typing your address in CWC’s Drinking Water Tool. Once on the page, type your address on the top left side and learn what GSA you are part of.
ACT NOW:
Submit a public comment through video or in writing to your GSA. Call on GSAs to include effective Drinking Water Well Impact Mitigation Programs in their sustainability plans to protect drinking water wells.
CWC can support you in recording your comment, joining related public meetings, or even a local advisory committee. Please contact Tien Tran at tien.tran@communitywatercenter.org for more information.
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