Opinion: California Must Act Now to Protect Groundwater Supplies

Lester Snow writes in the California City News about the urgent need to protect our groundwater supplies and highlights some legislation under consideration on this issue:

[Excerpt] "California has relied on overdrafting our groundwater basins for decades. This “deficit spending” of water reserves, even in normal years, means diminishing the reserves for use during drought conditions.  

However, there is no statewide framework to protect groundwater supplies. Further, localities don’t have the tools and often don’t even have the information they need to protect groundwater supplies. To safeguard our drinking water, agriculture, economy and environment, we need to better manage these resources...  

...We need to act cooperatively, both at the state and local level, to change the broken status quo. Seventy-eight percent of voters say they want to see action now. We need to establish a statewide program that includes a sustainable groundwater management goal, and provides local communities with the tools to prepare local groundwater plans that describe how they will achieve sustainability of their supplies. There are two pieces of legislation in the state Senate and Assembly that could help. Both Senate Bill 1168 (Pavley) and Assembly Bill 1739 (Dickinson) will provide the framework and needed oversight to advance sustainable management of groundwater basins...."

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