California Regulates Underground Water

Drought-Stricken California Makes Historic Move To Control GroundwaterFor The First Time

At least one in four Californians get their water from underground aquifers, and up until now, use of this water has been totally unregulated, with disputes about overuse settled in court. California isone of the fewwhere it's "pump as you please" with groundwater. That is about to change.

As the California State Legislature wrapped up their session, theypassedthe state's first-ever plan to regulate underground water supplies. Urban Democrats, water district managers, and environmental advocates gave the measure enough support to pass it over the opposition of Republicans and farm-area legislators. The legislation now goes to Governor Jerry Brown for his signature.

Clean Water Action's Jennifer Clary said, "the passage of the Sustainable Groundwater Management legislation takes an historic first step towards ensuring that our groundwater will remain a resource for future Californians."

Three bills make up the groundwater regulatory plan: one tells local agencies to come up with water management programs, another establishes parameters for state intervention, and the third delays that intervention in areas where groundwater pumping has affected surface water. Some agricultural interests fear regulation of the groundwater reserves that many farmers have turned to in the midst of the worst drought in a generation. State Senator Fran Pavley, author of two of the bills,saidshe worked with farmers to draft them, gaining the support of the Community Alliance with Family Farmers.

Groundwater has become even more crucial as surface water supplies have dwindled. In fact, according toa studyreleased last week, while only 70 million acre-feet of water flow through the state during a good year, 370 million acre-feet worth of water rights have been given out in the last hundred years. Yet even adding groundwater supplies to the equationstill leavesthe state with a water deficit, according to a recent report from the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Pacific Institute.

In fact, the Central Valley is consumingtwice as muchgroundwater as can be replaced through normal precipitation. The Valley is the center of gravity to the state's$36.9 billion agricultural industrybecause it contains the world's largest mass of ultra-fertile Class 1 soil.

Source: Think Progress

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