In 2014, California legislators passed the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, mandating local jurisdictions manage their groundwater basins or the Department of Water Resources would step in.
Groundwater basins were designated by severity of overdraft and depending on the designation, given different timelines for local stakeholder groups to create Groundwater Sustainability Plans to bring the basins into sustainability.
The Salinas Valley GSA followed the Department of Water Resources’ general geographic designations for subbasins and created six committees of stakeholders for each subbasin to oversee the development of Groundwater Sustainability Plans, starting with the 180/400 Subbasin which was considered in Critical Overdraft.
Each GSP is reviewed and updated every five years and includes monitoring data on current groundwater levels as well as thresholds which trigger stakeholder-recommended projects and management actions.
To learn more about the Groundwater Sustainability Agency and committee members representing each subbasin, visit www.svbgsa.com.
