Sustainable Groundwater Management Act

Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA)
On September 16, 2014, Governor Jerry Brown signed three bills into law: Assembly Bill 1739, Senate Bill 1319, and Senate Bill 1168, that became collectively known as the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), creating a framework for sustainable, local groundwater management for the first time in California history. In 2015, the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) evaluated and prioritized the 515 groundwater basins identified in DWR Bulletin 118, and 127 of these groundwater basins were designated as high- or medium-priority basins requiring them to be sustainably managed by 2042. SGMA required local authorities to form Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSAs) by June 30, 2017 to evaluate conditions in their local groundwater basins and adopt locally-based Groundwater Sustainability Plans (GSPs), or Alternative GSPs, tailored to their regional economic and environmental needs by January 1, 2020 for critically over-drafted basins, and January 1, 2022 for the remaining high- and medium-priority basins.