Regional Water Management for Sustaining the Human Right to Water: The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act Kristin Dobbin Community Water Center

Community Water Center Mission: The Community Water Center (CWC) acts as a catalyst for community-driven water solutions through organizing, education and advocacy in California’s San Joaquin Valley. Vision: All communities have access to safe, clean, and affordable drinking water.

The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA): Political revolution of entrenching the status quo? California’s drinking water crisis: Nearly 300 community water systems are not providing safe drinking water, some for years or even decades Each year, more than a million Californians receive water that does not meet safe drinking water standards 3,511 reported household water outages state-wide Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times

The Importance of Water Management Various tools are needed for achieving the Human Right to Water Capital improvements Sustainable funding for operation and maintenance costs Consolidations Interim and emergency solutions Long-term, sustaining the human right to water will require that we are planning for it. Groundwater and watershed management Land-use and non-proliferation More tools are needed to achieve the human right to water in California. But even once we achieve it, we need to be thinking about sustaining it. Fundamentally, we have a drinking water crisis in California because community needs are not being addressed and that to proactively prevent the proliferation of drinking water challenges, we need to focus on the critical role of regional water management, planning and policy long-term. Not to say water management can’t also be part of the solution, certainly it can be, but it is always got to be part of the long term strategy.

The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) was signed by Governor Brown in 2014 and went into affect in 2015. First time groundwater to be regulated by the state Designed to provide local control with a state backstop 4.1 million Californians are 100% reliant on groundwater (506 communities), many others rely on it for part of their supply More than 90% of residents in the central valley rely on groundwater

Getting to Groundwater Sustainability Three part process for ensuring “sustainability” Form Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSAs) responsible for groundwater management by June 30, 2017. Develop Groundwater Sustainability Plans (GSPs) to achieve sustainability by 2020 or 2022. Implement GSPs and achieve sustainability within twenty years (2040/2042).

What Qualifies as “Sustainable”? Avoiding significant and unreasonable undesirable results Chronic lowering of groundwater levels; Reduction of groundwater storage; Seawater intrusion; Degraded water quality, including the migration of contaminant plumes that impair water supplies; Land subsidence that interferes with surface land uses; Depletions of interconnected surface water. Must consider all beneficial uses and users of groundwater including drinking water Challenge and opportunity

Other important avenues: Integrated Regional Water Management program Land-use planning (General Plans, ordinances etc.) Salt and nutrient management planning (e.g. Irrigated Lands Regulatory Program)

Immediate policies to support SGMA County ordinances & land use policies Groundwater ordinances. Well ordinances. Non-proliferation policies. Thank you! kristin.dobbin@communitywatercenter.org www.communitywatercenter.org