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Groundwater Management for Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Access

Learn about the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) and its impact on ensuring clean, affordable, and accessible groundwater for all. Discover the importance of stakeholder engagement, transparency, and water quality in sustainable groundwater management.

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Groundwater Management for Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Access

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  1. SGMA for All Ensuring Equal Access to Clean, Affordable Groundwater Jennifer Clary Water Program Manager February 2, 2019

  2. ROUND 1 ABOUT CLEAN WATER ACTION

  3. Clean Water Action: Who we Are

  4. Human Right to Water “It is hereby declared to be the established policy of the state that every human being has the right to safe, clean, affordable, and accessible water adequate for human consumption, cooking, and sanitary purposes….”

  5. Local, regional and state environmental groups Environmental Justice organizations Good Government organizations Tribes Small farmers Academia Community groups NGO Groundwater Collaborative

  6. Round 2 SGMA and the link to Safe and Affordable Drinking Water

  7. Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) 2014 Requires high and medium priority groundwater agencies to be sustainably managed Emphasizes local control of groundwater Identifies 6 impacts that must be monitored and addressed Promotes strong public engagement Requires basins to be in balance within 20 years of plan completion

  8. CWA SGMA Priorities Ensure that all impacted uses and users are represented in decision-making and implementation Set measurable objectives that achieve sustainability as soon as possible Mitigate impacts on disadvantaged communities Employ sound science and transparent data

  9. Good Plan requirements • Identify wellhead protection areas and recharge areas. • Map migration of contaminated groundwater. • Include a well abandonment and destruction program. • Adopt well construction policies. • Adopt measures addressing groundwater contamination cleanup

  10. SGMA challenges:What’s “undesirable” and who decides? Significant and unreasonable…. • Lowering of groundwater levels • Reduction of groundwater storage • Seawater intrusion • Degraded water quality • Land subsidence • Surface water depletions

  11. Water Quality • Develop water quality triggers that require action before water quality standards are exceeded • Identify unique water quality concerns for shallow groundwater • Identify water quality impacts of GSP actions, such as • Changes in groundwater chemistry that can increase concentration of naturally occurring contaminants • Contaminants transported from vadose zone to groundwater

  12. Suggested Water Quality Objectives • Thresholds • Primary and Secondary Drinking Water Standards • Basin plan Objectives • Triggers • Trends • Most sensitive use • Need for treatment

  13. Additional trigger – Trends

  14. Nitrate, Well Depth, and Land UseUSGS domestic well study 2006 Urban Agriculture Forest Grass/shrub/rock Derived from GAMA PBP, GAMA DWP & USGS NWIS data

  15. Change in San Joaquin Valley Groundwater levels 2013-2014 Department of Water Resources

  16. What does a 20-year path to compliance look like?

  17. SGMA Requirements: Stakeholder Engagement • The groundwater sustainability agency shall consider the interests of all beneficial uses and users of groundwater • “A list of interested parties [shall be] developed [along with] an explanation of how their interests will be considered” • “The groundwater sustainability agency shall make available to the public and the department a written statement describing the manner in which interested parties may participate in the development and implementation of the groundwater sustainability plan” • “Any federally recognized Indian tribe… may voluntarily agree to participate in the preparation or administration of a groundwater sustainability plan or groundwater management plan … A participating tribe shall be eligible to participate fully in planning, financing, and management under this part”

  18. SGMA Public ParticipationRequirements: • The groundwater sustainability agency shall encourage the active involvement of diverse social, cultural, and economic elements of the population within the groundwater basin” • Public hearing requirements at multiple junctures – GSA formation, plan adoption or amendment, establishment of fees

  19. Stakeholder engagement is often lacking Transparency takes a back seat to expediency 20-year implementation time-frame creates disproportionate impacts to shallow groundwater users Data limitations not addressed Water quality is given short shrift SGMA Challenges: How will DWR defend statute?

  20. Thank you! For more information, contact: Jennifer Clary Water Program Manager Clean Water Action/Clean Water Fund 350 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza, Suite 200 Oakland, CA 94612 Tel. (415) 369-9160x344 Jclary@cleanwater.org

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