[SCE] Mind the Gaps, The Case for Truly Comprehensive Sustainable Groundwater Management

[Rue]

Some good stuff here … potentials for examining/governing groundwater that could/would help.

Enjoy your read, and your evening,
Rue

Extracts (in case you don’t want to read the entire document).  There is a brief section on cannabis, too:

Re SGMA: “ … Not only are additional steps necessary as a matter of policy, in many cases the public trust doctrine requires them[36]. …”

Major SGMA Gaps …

	 ...On its face, SGMA appears to promise comprehensive groundwater management. The legislature sought to “provide for the sustainable management of groundwater basins”[4]. SGMA therefore “applies to all groundwater basins in the state”[5]. Groundwater, moreover, is defined broadly as any “water beneath the surface of the earth within the zone below the water table in which the soil is completely saturated with water”[6]. Because SGMA requires local regulation of each groundwater basin, SGMA had to determine the boundaries of those groundwater basins. SGMA does this by referencing Bulletin 118 – recently rebranded as “California’s Groundwater” – a publication in which the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) defines individual basins[7].
Bulletin 118 immediately creates two regulatory gaps, because Bulletin 118 (1) defines only alluvial basins and does not map fractured hard rock and volcanic aquifers (which it labels “non-basin areas”) and (2) does not define the basin bottom, which effectively allows local agencies to exclude lower lying brackish groundwater by defining the basin bottom as above that brackish groundwater. SGMA creates a third gap by requiring regulation only in alluvial basins that DWR ranks as medium or high priority – even though pumping in the low and very-low priority basins can lead to undesirable results, such as depletion of streamflow…. 


State Administrative Actions …

	“ … SGMA’s broad statement of intent and coverage suggests that the legislature intended SGMA to be a comprehensive solution to California’s groundwater sustainability problems. SGMA applies to “all groundwater basins in the state,” and there is no specific exemptions of brackish groundwater or non-alluvial basins. These gaps emerged not as the result of explicit provisions in SGMA, but in most cases, from administrative decisions on how groundwater basins are defined in Bulletin 118. While the legislature mandated GSPs only in medium and high priority basins, the new groundwater management powers that SGMA provides to local governments extends to all basins. The legislature, in short, sought to provide the means of protecting all groundwater in the state from unreasonable impacts, even if for practical and political reasons it mandated the preparation of detailed GSPs only for medium and high priority basins. While specifying the factors that DWR should consider in categorizing the priority of a basin, moreover, the legislature did not set a particular formula – leaving to DWR’s educated discretion how best to prioritize individual basins. …    ‘

	“… As part of a more proactive process, DWR and SWRCB should also sponsor the development of accessible numerical and analytical models that state agencies, counties and consultants can use to assess groundwater pumping impacts of new wells on surface water, ecosystems and other existing wells. And to address potential streamflow depletions associated with groundwater pumping for cannabis cultivation, SWRCB may want to consider additional groundwater protection or mitigation measures in its development and adoption of a permanent Cannabis Cultivation Policy. If SWRCB does not have adequate authority, the legislature might want to provide it….


Local Administrative Actions ...
Where justified, local governments might wish to use their authority to provide for groundwater management equivalent in scope and goals to GSPs in medium and high priority basins. Even if current conditions do not require comprehensive management, moreover, local governments can use their authority to take important interim steps, including:

Collecting of data to evaluate local groundwater conditions and to implement groundwater management quickly when needed. Local governments, for example, can require the collection and public disclosure of all existing and new wells, including location, geology and water-quality data. Local governments can also require the metering of all non-de minimis wells.

Conducting regular groundwater analyses to identify unsustainable practices before they cause serious injury.

Before issuing new well permits, ensuring that pumping impacts will not cause significant harm to existing groundwater users (including the environment) or deplete surface water[39]. For example, before issuing new building or well permits for agriculture, large-scale residential or commercial developments, local governments might require the developers to demonstrate that groundwater will be reliable and accessible for the proposed use over the long term and that the necessary pumping will not impact existing uses and users[40]. The development of web-based decision-support tools, such as analytical groundwater- surface water models[41], could equip county staff to improve the administrative process so that potential pumping impacts are considered. 

• 	Enactment of permitting rules designed to avoid the most likely local impacts, particularly to local surface water uses. Local governments, for example, could utilize appropriate groundwater modeling, including analytical approaches such as the stream- depletion equation, to assess and limit the impacts of proposed wells near natural waterways[23, 41]. Local governments could also establish pumping setbacks from streams to protect surface water rights and sensitive habitats or adopt well-density limits similar to building-density limits common in land-use planning and zoning. 


New State Legislation ...
	“ … As noted earlier, the identification and definition of non-alluvial basins may often be technically complex. The legislature therefore might wish to provide for groundwater management through a different geographical scheme such as by watershed rather than by basin. …"

	You know I like this last bit …. “… such as by watershed …”.   Gravity wins every time.