Central Coast

Landflex Grant Program Guidelines (revised)

California Department of Water Resources (DWR) | October 31st, 2024

LandFlex Program’s Guidelines

California Department of Water Resources (DWR) | December 8th, 2022

LandFlex is a program that will provide $25 million in block grants to local government agencies to grant to farmers who limit agricultural water use. Local government ag

LandFlex is a program that will provide $25 million in block grants to local government agencies to grant to farmers who limit agricultural water use. Local government agencies will work directly with farmers in critically overdrafted (COD) basins to identify lands that would reduce pumping impacts to nearby drinking water wells. Through financial incentives to farmers LandFlex will provide multiple community benefits such as drinking water well relief, groundwater overdraft prevention, and climate resilience. 

Langley Area Subbasin Groundwater Sustainability Plan

Salinas Valley Basin Groundwater Sustainability Agency | January 13th, 2022

The 2014 California Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) requires that medium- and high-priority groundwater basins and subbasins develop Groundwater Sustainabil

The 2014 California Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) requires that medium- and high-priority groundwater basins and subbasins develop Groundwater Sustainability Plans (GSPs) that outline how groundwater sustainably will be achieved in 20 years, and then maintained for an additional 30 years. This GSP fulfills that requirement for the Salinas Valley—Langley Area Subbasin (Subbasin), which is designated by the DWR as a medium priority groundwater subbasin. GSP approved by DRW 4/27/23.

Lessons from California’s 2012–2016 Drought

American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) | October 1st, 2018

California’s 5-year drought has ended, even as its aftermath lingers. From 2012–2016 much or all of California was under severe drought conditions, with gre

California’s 5-year drought has ended, even as its aftermath lingers. From 2012–2016 much or all of California was under severe drought conditions, with greatly diminished precipitation, snowpack, and streamflow and higher temperatures. Water shortages to forests, aquatic ecosystems, hydroelectric power plants, rural drinking water supplies, agriculture, and cities caused billions of dollars in economic losses, killed millions of forest trees, brought several fish species closer to extinction, and caused inconvenience and some expense to millions of households and businesses. The drought also brought innovations and improvements in water management, some of which will better prepare California for future droughts. This paper summarizes the magnitude and impacts of the 2012–2016 California drought. The paper then reviews innovations arising from the drought in the larger historical context of water management in California. Lessons for California and for modern drought management are then discussed. Droughts in modern, well-managed water systems serving globalized economies need not be economically catastrophic, but will always have impacts and challenges, particularly for native ecosystems. In California and every other water system, droughts usefully expose weaknesses and inadequate preparation in water management. In this regard for California, managers of ecosystems and small rural water supplies had the most to learn.

Linkages between land-use change and groundwater management foster long-term resilience of water supply in California

Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies (Elsevier) | March 9th, 2022

Study Region: We created a 270-m coupled model of land-use and groundwater conditions, LUCAS-W[ater], for California’s Central Coast. This groundwater-dependent region

Study Region: We created a 270-m coupled model of land-use and groundwater conditions, LUCAS-W[ater], for California’s Central Coast. This groundwater-dependent region is undergoing a dramatic reorganization of groundwater management under California’s 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA). Study Focus: Understanding land-use and land-cover change supports long-term sustainable water management. Anthropogenic water demand has depleted groundwater aquifers worldwide, while future water shortages will likely affect land-use change, creating system feedbacks. Our novel participatory approach fused changes in land-use and associated water use from county-scale data to local water agencies’ estimates of total sustainable supply, scaling up local hydro-geologic knowledge from heterogeneous aquifers and diverse management approaches to a regional level. We assessed five stakeholder-driven scenarios with the same historic rates of urban and agricultural land-use change, but different water and land-use management, analyzing how management strategies altered both the spatial pattern of development and subsequent water sustainability from 2001 to 2061. New Hydrological Insights for the Region: Transformative strategies using demand-side interventions that coupled water availability to land use more effectively achieved long-term sustainability than adaptive strategies using supply-side interventions to increase water supplies. Limiting water withdrawals within SGMA regulated basins resulted in leakage of development into unregulated basins, increasing groundwater pumping there. Protecting ecosystems, farmlands, and recharge areas from development reduced leakage into undeveloped basins without negatively affecting water sustainability.

Linked fire activity and climate whiplash in California during the early Holocene

Nature Portfolio (Springer Nature) | November 23rd, 2022

Recent wildfire activity in semi-arid regions like western North America exceeds the range of historical records. High-resolution paleoclimate archives such as stalagmi

Recent wildfire activity in semi-arid regions like western North America exceeds the range of historical records. High-resolution paleoclimate archives such as stalagmites could illuminate the link between hydroclimate, vegetation change, and fire activity in pre-anthropogenic climate states beyond the timescale of existing tree-ring records. Here we present an analysis of levoglucosan, a combustion-sensitive anhydrosugar, and lignin oxidation products (LOPs) in a stalagmite, reconstructing fire activity and vegetation composition in the California Coast Range across the 8.2 kyr event. Elevated levoglucosan concentrations suggest increased fire activity while altered LOP compositions indicate a shift toward more woody vegetation during the event. These changes are concurrent with increased hydroclimate volatility as shown by carbon and calcium isotope proxies. Together, these records suggest that climate whiplash (oscillations between extreme wetness and aridity) and fire activity in California, both projected to increase with anthropogenic climate change, were tightly coupled during the early Holocene.

Linking variation in water democracy to system performance on the human right to water

Springer Nature | October 8th, 2025

Little Ice Age flood events recorded in sag pond sediments in the Carrizo Plains National Monument, California

Nature Portfolio (Springer Nature) | March 8th, 2024

In California, severe precipitation events (SPEs) are often associated with winter season atmospheric rivers. These SPEs can generate hurricane-scale precipitation, creat

In California, severe precipitation events (SPEs) are often associated with winter season atmospheric rivers. These SPEs can generate hurricane-scale precipitation, creating a variety of natural hazards such as floods and landslides. For California, the most complete SPE-flood record yet generated is a 9000-year paleoflood reconstruction from the Santa Barbara Basin (Du et al. in Mar Geol 397:29–42, 2018). Finding terrestrial counterparts to compare to the Santa Barbara Basin is a challenge in Southern California where lake basins are rare and the terrestrial spatiotemporal signature of SPE floods remains largely unconstrained. Here, we present five 1–2 m sediment cores from a sag pond along the San Andreas Fault in the southern Carrizo Plain. The most complete record (core CLPC21-4) was selected for a variety of chronological, sedimentological, and biological analyses. Principal Component Analysis on these data reveals two end member sediment unit types: event versus ambient sedimentation. We focus on the two thickest sediment units likely generated by SPEs. These two units (EU 1 and EU 2) are especially distinct within CLPC21-4, characterized by erosive bases, above average sand content, normal grading, low magnetic susceptibility, and low total organic matter. Moreover, they are visually apparent across all five cores within the sag pond and thin from source to sink. Age control for the two units is constrained by AMS 14C dates on discrete organic materials and supported by the identification of Erodium’s first appearance ca. 1750–1765 CE in the Santa Barbara region. Using these age constraints, we infer the maximum limiting age range for Event Unit 1 from 1470 to 1640 CE and Event Unit 2 from 1740 to 1800 CE. Within the limits of dating, site-specific proxy sensitivities, and inherent meteorological heterogeneity, we propose a probable correlation to Santa Barbara Basin flood events at 1525 CE and 1760 CE. Our results suggest that sag ponds may represent a viable and untapped paleoclimatic archive for California. Future work will focus on a latitudinal series of sag ponds to determine the spatiotemporal sequence and correlativity of SPEs in the sediment record.

Los Osos Community Services District v. Golden State Water Company

Superior Court of California, County of San Luis Obispo | October 14th, 2015

This Stipulated Judgment concerns the Los Osos Groundwater Basin, as it is more particularly described in Sections 1.4.2 and 2.1 of this Stipulated Judgment, which underl

This Stipulated Judgment concerns the Los Osos Groundwater Basin, as it is more particularly described in Sections 1.4.2 and 2.1 of this Stipulated Judgment, which underlies the unincorporated communities of Los Osos, Baywood Park and Cuesta-by-the-Sea in San Luis Obispo County, California (“Basin”). The Basin is the only source of water for residential, commercial, institutional and agricul-tural development on properties overlying the Basin. This litigation (the “Action”) relates to efforts by the parties to sustainably manage the water resources of the Basin and to protect and promote the economic, environmental and social health of the community.

Los Osos Valley Groundwater Basin Fringe Areas Characterization

San Luis Obispo County Flood Control and Water Conservation District | May 22nd, 2018

The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) took effect on January 1, 2015, and requires that certain actions be taken in groundwater basins designated as either hi

The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) took effect on January 1, 2015, and requires that certain actions be taken in groundwater basins designated as either high or medium priority by the California Department of Water Resources (DWR), including Los Osos Basin. DWR identified the Los Osos Basin as a high priority basin subject to critical conditions of overdraft due to seawater intrusion and nitrate impairment (DWR, 2014, 2016). SGMA does not apply to the Los Osos Basin area that is at issue in Los Osos Community Services District v. Southern California Water Company [Golden State Water Company], et al.1 (Adjudicated Plan Area), for which a Stipulated Judgment was approved in San Luis Obispo Superior Court on October 14, 2015. The boundaries of the Adjudicated Plan Area do not coincide with the Basin boundaries as documented in DWR’s Interim Update to Bulletin 118 (2016). The groundwater basin areas between the Bulletin 118 Basin boundaries (Basin 3‐8) and the Adjudicated Plan Area boundary are referred to as “Fringe Areas” (Figure 1). In order to comply with SGMA, the County of San Luis Obispo (County) formed the Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA) over these Fringe Areas on April 4, 2017. The results of this basin characterization study are intended to produce a basis of knowledge for use in boundary modification requests and potential future use in development of a Groundwater Sustainability Plan (GSP). Decades of technical studies on the basin have focused primarily on aquifers within the Adjudicated Plan Area. This technical memorandum supplements prior work, which together provide a comprehensive hydrogeologic characterization and conceptual model of the Fringe Areas.