Landowners in the Cuyama Valley Groundwater Basin have been fighting major agriculture producers, Grimmway Farms and Bolthouse Farms, for their water rights. Everyone in the basin was on track to cut water usage until the carrot growers filed an adjudication in court against every landowner in the basin, including the school district, temporarily halting the cutback, and essentially leaving the courts with the decision on who gets water rights in the basin. The Cuyama Valley Groundwater Basin was designated as one of 21 basins or subbasins in California that are in a state of critical overdraft. Local Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSA), agencies under the California Department of Water Resources, are responsible for creating a Groundwater Sustainability Plan (GSP) to outline how basins throughout the state will become sustainable by 2040. Those plans then get updated every five years.

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• Record Gazette: Beaumont - New recharge facility promises expanded regional water supplies
• Produce Blue Book: Commentary – Groundwater grievances