Sustainable Groundwater Management Act Governance Strategies Summary Report

A three-bill legislative package, referred to as the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), created a fundamental change in the governance of California’s groundwater. SGMA requires, with some exceptions, the formation of groundwater sustainability agencies (GSAs) for identified groundwater subbasins. Signed into law in 2014 by Governor Jerry Brown, it set forth a long-term, statewide framework to protect groundwater resources.

This report outlines the initial implementation of these new laws by the GSAs in 21 critically overdrafted groundwater subbasins2. Based on a review of multiple statutes, regulations, early research, official government documents and interviews with individuals involved in the process, the authors explain how these first GSAs were created and the organizational and governance challenges they navigated.

Once formed, the GSAs were charged with the development and implementation of groundwater sustainability plans (GSPs). The purpose of a GSP is to avoid the undesirable results of groundwater depletion and mitigate overdraft within 20 years. A review of the formation process for this set of GSAs was particularly instructive as they were required to meet a set of SGMA requirements two years earlier than the remaining legislatively identified basins.

Presented in an approach that moves from the general to the specific, this report documents the historic process of how 125 GSAs began to implement SGMA. In addition, this report provides important baseline information to help researchers, regulators, policy makers and GSAs themselves, in the development and evaluation of governance and future governance strategies, statutes and regulatory actions.

The report is organized into two major topics.

1. Governance structure choices available to GSAs and the GSA formation process set forth in SGMA, including:

• • Specific examples of GSA governance choices.
  • How governance choices were influenced by the preparation and financing of GSPs.

2. Summary findings and observations from interviews of policymakers, technical experts, and thought leaders on their perception of the GSA governance decision-making process and the improvements they believe would benefit SGMA outcomes.The interviewees’ insights reflect the experience they gained during the formation of the critically overdrafted basins GSAs. They identified key elements they felt would be helpful when forming future GSAs, most notably:

Providing simplified groundwater science education information for managers, leaders, and groundwaters users.

• • Implementing agency leadership training so the organizational structures and efforts of GSAs can be fully responsive to constituents.
  • Heightening attention relative to some of the beneficial uses of groundwater that were not adequately addressed by GSPs, such as small domestic wells and environmental needs.

These experts also observed that implementation of SGMA is an iterative process and that time will be needed to develop, implement, measure, and improve the results of groundwater management strategies.
A variety of additional sources of information are offered throughout this report. In addition, Appendix A includes searchable links and information on GSAs, GSPs and other governance elements found in DWR’s (Department of Water Resources) SGMA Portal.