As you may have seen in recent news, the California State Water
Resources Control Board has announced new mandatory water
restrictions for outdoor irrigation. The first being you cannot
water your lawn within 48 hours of a rain event and the second
being you can not allow your sprinklers to run off onto
adjacent hardscaping, such as the sidewalk. … There is a
wonderful device called a rain sensor that you can install to
almost all irrigation controllers and it usually costs around
$100. Its job is to interrupt the electrical connection at your
irrigation controller so it will not operate your valves during
or right after a rain event. -Written by Justin White, CEO of K&D Landscaping,
headquartered in Watsonville, CA.
Some marine species can help protect others from climate change
by shielding them from heat, according to a new study by Texas
A&M University at Galveston and other scientists. Laura
Jurgens and colleagues at the University of Vermont and the
University of California, Davis detail the findings in the
journal Ecology. The team studied how tiny crabs and isopods –
marine versions of pill bugs — that live on rocky shores react
to warming of their habitats. The researchers found that the
mussel beds these animals live in protect them from temperature
swings and keep them from drying out on hot, sunny days.
… The research was conducted near Bodega Bay in northern
California.
They say children are sponges who soak up ideas and concepts
more quickly than adults. That’s why one of the state’s largest
water providers is hoping to soak in some of their thoughts on
ways to solve local water issues. Last month, California Water
Service (Cal Water) along with the California Association of
Science Educators (CASE) and consulting firm DoGoodery, has
launched the eighth annual Cal Water H2O Challenge. The free,
project-based competition invites fourth-, fifth-, and
sixth-grade classrooms in Cal Water service areas to develop
and implement solutions for local water issues.
After recent reservoir-boosting rainfall, Marin County’s
largest water district decided Tuesday to repeal recently
established financial penalties for excessive water use. In
September, the Marin Municipal Water District board adopted an
ordinance that established financial penalties for exceeding
certain water use limits it set in April as drought conditions
worsened across the Bay Area and California. In the
September ordinance, the district set penalties for going over
“tier 1” water usage, which, for single family households, is
65 gallons of water per person, per day.
This year, our reservoirs were reaching near historic lows in
September. We were faced with the realistic prospect of running
out of water by the summer of 2022. Then the “atmospheric
river” storm in October set rainfall records in Marin. Despite
predictions of a dry winter, the rain continued and now five of
our seven reservoirs are full, eliminating the danger of
running out of water this summer. The pendulum swung fast. But
the lessons of the past year are clear: We must prepare now for
what broad scientific consensus tells us the future holds,
particularly the extreme swings in precipitation due to climate
change. -Written by Monty Schmitt, representing San
Rafael’s District 2 as a member of the Marin Municipal Water
District Board of Directors.
The More Water Now campaign was formed to qualify
the Water Infrastructure Funding Act to appear as a
state ballot initiative in November. Nearly every expert in
California agrees that more water infrastructure is necessary;
that conservation alone will not protect Californians from the
impact of climate change. Projects to capture storm runoff and
recycle urban wastewater are urgently needed, and this
initiative provides the funding to get it done. -Written by Edward Ring, lead proponent of the Water
Infrastructure Funding Act, a proposed state ballot
initiative.
After a soaking wet December that ended fire season, delivered
more 15 feet of snow to the Sierra Nevada, and boosted hopes
that California’s severe drought might be coming to and end,
dry weather is back, in a big way. Like a baseball player stuck
in a hitting slump, it hasn’t rained significantly in the Bay
Area for 14 days, since Jan. 4. Although reservoirs received a
nice boost from big storms in December and late October, they
still remain well below normal levels in most parts of the
state. Time to start sweating that the state’s two-year drought
might be turning into a three-year drought? Not yet, say
experts.
Voters who live in proximity to the Pajaro River levee system
will soon decide on adding a special assessment to their
property tax bill that would help fund the long-awaited Pajaro
River Flood Risk Management Project. The Pajaro Regional Flood
Management Agency (PRFMA) on Wednesday took several significant
steps forward in making the project reality. Among them:
unanimously approving an agreement to share the estimated $3.8
million annual cost for operations, maintenance, repair,
replacement and rehabilitation of the levee system with the
Monterey County Water Resources Agency, the Santa Cruz Flood
Control and Water Conservation District and the city of
Watsonville.
An underwater volcanic eruption Saturday near Tonga in the
southern Pacific Ocean triggered flooding in the nation’s
largest island and led to a tsunami advisory along the
California coast. … Although NOAA’s tsunami
advisory did include the west Delta, Jeff Mount, a watershed
expert at the Public Policy Institute of California, said he
doesn’t expect tidal action caused by the tsunami to be
noticeable further inland in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
After a strong start to the water year, all of the
Bay Area and California have moved out of the exceptional
drought category, with most of the state now in the lesser
extreme or severe drought categories, according to U.S. Drought
Monitor data posted Thursday. The national Drought Monitor
uses a number of drought measurements, including precipitation,
soil moisture and streamflow, to determine which category an
area is in. Exceptional drought is the worst category —
indicating a water emergency. The next category is extreme
drought, which brings with it widespread water shortages and
restrictions.
As it carves its way through Muir Woods National Monument,
Redwood Creek might look to be the way nature intended it. But
it isn’t. It is the way the Civilian Conservation Corps
intended it, shoved and straightened by 120 tons of rock riprap
placed in the 1930s as a flood-control measure. … Now,
nearly a century later, most of the man-made embankment will be
removed, allowing a mile-long stretch of the creek on the
valley floor to return to its natural floodplain.
Maybe you’ve been wondering why Gen. Jim Moore Boulevard is
being torn up right now, and what’s up with the massive pipe
sections being staged on its median. The answer to both of
those questions is at least in part because as of Dec. 31,
2021, California American Water finally had to scale back its
pumping of the Carmel River to its legal limit of 3,376
acre-feet annually. There are already two pipelines under the
road – both projects of Marina Coast Water District, another
utility – one of which is currently being used to pipe water
from the Pure Water Monterey project south into the Cal Am
system.
After months of falling short, Santa Clara County residents
have finally begun to hit the target when it comes to water
conservation. Following two record-dry years, the Santa Clara
Valley Water District declared a drought emergency in June and
asked the county’s 2 million residents to cut water use by 15%
from 2019 levels. After failing to achieve that goal for four
months, county water use fell 16% in October. But there was a
catch: Unusually heavy rains that month caused people to turn
off yard sprinklers.
The city of Santa Cruz is planning to start a multi-million
dollar flood control project. It will address the area of the
San Lorenzo River that flows into the main beach by the
boardwalk. The project will help relieve constant flooding in
that area when it rains. The flooding can be dangerous for
people visiting the main beach and a nuisance. … The
problem with the flooding started several years ago.
Last week, the Marin Municipal Water District announced that it
was slowing down its plans to build an emergency water
pipeline. The district was initially moving quickly in its
timeline to consider building a pipeline under the bridge that
would carry third-party water sources to Marin. Typically,
projects like pipelines or any other construction that has the
potential to directly or indirectly physically change the
environment must undergo processes in the California
Environmental Quality Act.
Unfortunately, all California coastal communities pump millions
of gallons of “sewage effluent” into the Pacific Ocean daily!
All of these coastal cities are really to blame for the
decrease of flora and fauna in our ocean. Communities in
California who are not near the ocean deal with their sewage
effluent in a far more environmentally sustainable manner. How?
Valley cities and mountain communities rid themselves of their
waste by recycling the effluent, which is used to make compost
or irrigate farmland by growing crops that are not for human
consumption or treating the effluent and recycling water for
domestic needs. -Written by Ed Davis, a professional agronomist,
water science specialist, APCA, CCA and has been a business
owner since 1981.
After an atmospheric river unleashed a torrent of rain over
Northern California in October, the state saw another
moisture-rich system in November and then a parade of storms
across December. With a wet start this season, the rivers
are rushing, the waterfalls flowing and the reservoirs
beginning to rise. The snowpack is signaling a
remarkable turnaround after two dry seasons. The Hyatt Power
Plant is back online at Lake Oroville after it
was forced to shut down due to historic low
reservoir levels in August. … This is all
promising, but the drought is not over.
The Ojai Valley in Ventura County is a magical place. Consider
its elements: the sweet smell of California citrus blossoms in
the spring, the open space preserved by orchards, the seasonal
creeks that run free through the cultivated lands. But the Ojai
Valley is also a place in peril. That’s because the water
source that keeps this inland Ventura hamlet thriving is nearly
dry. Lake Casitas reservoir was built in the late 1950s, when
decades of plentiful rain hid the true nature of California’s
arid climate. Back then, the official projections for
water-resources potential were optimistic. Today, that story
has changed dramatically. -Written by Stephanie Pincetl, a professor at the
UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability and
founding director of the California Center for Sustainable
Communities at UCLA.
Maybe one of the reasons Harry and Meghan are reportedly
looking to sell their Montecito estate is that they learned
that it’s costly and not environmentally friendly to maintain a
large home and garden during a drought, especially one
featuring rolling lawns, a lush garden, a swimming pool and an
artificial pond. News last week that the couple were
dissatisfied and “not over the moon” with their sprawling $14
million, nine-bedroom, 16-bath mansion came as the State Water
Resources Control Board imposed mandatory restrictions on
Californians’ outdoor water use.
California is hoping for a good soaking this wet season. After
two extraordinarily dry years, water supplies are running
short, low-flowing rivers have pummelled fish and wildlife, and
parched forests and grasslands have increased the risk of
wildfire. Most of California’s precipitation comes between
December and April. Winter storms from the Pacific Ocean bring
rain to thirsty hills and valleys and drop snow on
mountaintops, which later melts and provides an additional
burst of needed moisture.
It’s been almost a month since the Bay Area’s last atmospheric
river and the hope is there will be more rain in the coming
weeks, so water restrictions can be eased. California can hope
that’s the fairytale like water story in Marin and Santa Cruz
comes true statewide: eased restrictions. The two major
atmospheric rivers and some other healthy rains came to the Bay
region since October, working wonders for water supplies. So,
the Marin Municipal Water District and the Santa Cruz Water
Company are both seriously considering easing their water
restrictions.
In the latest setback for a project that has been fraught with
delays and cost overruns for more than a decade, the price tag
to rebuild Anderson Dam — Santa Clara County’s largest — to
improve earthquake safety is nearly doubling, from $648 million
to $1.2 billion. The news comes one year after the Santa Clara
Valley Water District, the government agency that owns the dam
near Morgan Hill, announced that another of its large
construction plans, a proposal to build a huge new reservoir
near Pacheco Pass, also had doubled in price, from $1.3 billion
to $2.5 billion.
When it comes to water conservation, California is burying its
head in the winter snow. Future generations will not look
kindly at our leaders’ complete failure to strategically
address the state’s water shortages, which will only get worse
with climate change. Two years of some of the worst drought
conditions in state history haven’t slowed Big Ag’s demands for
more water. Meanwhile, urban users aren’t coming close to
meeting Gov. Gavin Newsom’s call to voluntarily cut their water
use by 15% from 2020 levels.
The Monterey County Local Agency Formation Commission voted 5-2
Wednesday to finalize its denial of the Monterey Peninsula
Water Management District’s planned takeover of California
American Water. The 5-2 LAFCO vote followed its initial vote
Dec. 6 to dismiss the water district’s application for the
buyout, an acquisition mandated by a 2018 ballot measure.
General Manager Dave Stoldt of the Monterey Peninsula Water
Management District said he wasn’t surprised by the vote.
The city of Half Moon Bay is examining the impact of sea level
rise and erosion on its southern coastline, which could harm
the most significant contributor to the city’s economy.
According to ongoing studies from San Mateo County and its
environmental consulting firm Integral Consulting, parts of the
Ritz-Carlton, Half Moon Bay, the Golf Links and Ocean Colony
neighborhood are at risk of erosion and flooding as a result of
sea level rise.
Steady rains and refilled reservoirs are prompting the Marin
Municipal Water District to consider rolling back water use
restrictions and penalties adopted during the worst of the
drought last year. The district board signaled this week that
it would prefer a gradual lifting of its drought rules rather
than a complete repeal. … Newsha Ajami, an urban water
policy specialist at Stanford University, agreed that the
district should take a more cautious approach on how its water
is used, considering the emergency it faced just months ago.
Severe drought conditions that plagued California one month ago
diminished in parts of the state due in part to a series of
early winter storms, this week’s U.S. Drought Monitor report
shows. Most of California, except for the extreme northwest
corner, remains is some level of drought this week, but
conditions improved significantly in the most severe
categories. The weekly report released Thursday shows
exceptional drought was nearly erased after 28 percent of the
state was under the most severe category in the first week of
December.
USGS scientists, industry engineers, and an innovative NGO are
partnering to map surface soil moisture over 13 km2 of
wildfire-prone grasslands, oak lands, and closed-canopy
forest in Sonoma County, California. The partnership is
exploring how to improve our ability to measure water in ways
that inform land and water resource management practices during
wildfire season and during droughts and floods.
It’s the decades-long conflict even our recent surge of storms
can’t wash away — How to build the thousands of new housing
units we desperately need and at the same time ensure there’s
enough water for an expanding population. … While the
recent storms may bring short-term relief, many experts believe
a true end to the current drought, could still be a long ways
off. Marin County is currently working on plans for a new
emergency water pipeline across the Richmond – San Rafael
Bridge.
A study examining vulnerabilities to the southern coast near
Half Moon Bay from climate change was presented to the City
Council Dec. 21, showing buildings like the Ritz Carlton are at
risk from sea-level rise. … It found the Ritz
Carlton and the California Coastal Trail is at serious risk of
erosion with just 5 feet of sea level rise, while other
structures, residences and trails are at risk. Erosion would
affect 123 buildings, including Pescadero Cal Fire Station, the
Ritz Carlton, Pigeon Point Lighthouse and Gazos Creek Gas
Station. Pescadero, Martin’s Beach and Tunitas Creek are
vulnerable communities due to creek and storm wave flooding.
In November this year, San Francisco declared a water shortage
emergency and called for reducing usage by 10%, impacting
nearly three million city customers. In March, Utah also
declared a state of emergency as 90% of the state was in
extreme drought conditions. These are just 2 of the 17 states
that experienced water shortages in the past year. State and
local governments are now motivated to protect their
communities going into 2022 and beyond, with little consensus
on water sources that are shared by so many, like the Colorado
River.
The dusty hills of Griffith Park are sprouting shades of green.
In Pasadena, water is streaming through arroyos that only weeks
ago sat caked and dry. And from the perfect vantage point
downtown, the distant San Gabriel Mountains are gleaming with
crowns of snow. After one of the driest years in recent memory,
Los Angeles — and California — is off to a notably wet start.
… But while all that moisture gave a much-needed boost
to statewide drought conditions, … experts emphasized that
California will need to maintain this wet trend in order to
truly climb out of its dry spell.
Water has become a precious commodity worldwide. In many
places, drought has dried up the water supply. And in places
where water is plentiful, it can sometimes be surprisingly
expensive. The city with the most expensive water in the world
is Oslo, Norway. … The city with the highest average
price of water was Oslo, Norway, at $6.69. It was also the city
with the highest water quality score, at 97.8 – compared to the
city with the lowest quality score, San Diego at 84.
Droughtsville, California, is in trouble. Its water supply is
endangered as multiple crises intensify: worsening droughts,
competition for scarce supplies, sea level rise, groundwater
contamination, earthquakes, wildfires and extreme weather. All
of these factors, and more, threaten Droughtville’s ability to
provide clean water to its residents. The city is
fictional, but the threats are not. … CalMatters delved
into the details of what scientists and planners have
determined could jeopardize the water supply of a typical
California city — and some potential solutions.
Drought-stricken California is facing a week of heavy mountain
snowfall and widespread rain from another series of the kind of
storms that were not expected to be likely this fall and winter
due to La Nina conditions in the Pacific Ocean. Successive
waves of precipitation moving into Northern California from
Tuesday — the first day of winter — through Sunday afternoon
will coat parts of the Sierra Nevada with 1 to 5 feet (0.3-1.5
meters) of snow and possibly up to 8 feet (2.4 meters) at some
higher elevations, the National Weather Service said.
A proposed ballot measure that would dedicate $100 billion to
bolster California’s water supply is drawing a sharp rebuke,
not only for the amount of spending but also for the dramatic
sidesteps it would allow in the environmental review process.
For example, the proposal would make the controversial plan for
a Huntington Beach desalination plant eligible for a huge
taxpayer subsidy — even though the private, for-profit Poseidon
Water company currently intends to pay for the $1.4 billion in
construction costs.
Senators Dianne Feinstein and Alex Padilla (both D-Calif.)
today called on the Interior Department to prioritize $8.3
billion in Western water infrastructure funding for California
projects that will promote preparedness and resiliency to
climate-driven droughts.
A one-two punch of storm systems is expected to drape the Bay
Area in rainy weather for much of the upcoming week while
potentially making holiday travel in the Sierra Nevada
mountains “very challenging to impossible,” meteorologists
say…. Several feet of snow — including possibly five to eight
feet along the highest reaches of the Sierra — are forecast to
hit beginning Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday, and continue
through Dec. 26, said Anna Wanless, another National Weather
Service meteorologist…. The upcoming storms come as much
of the Bay Area and California remain mired in extreme and
exceptional drought, despite multiple atmospheric river storms
in recent months.
Healthy coastal wetlands can help combat climate change by
absorbing large amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere
and storing it for the long term. Coastal wetlands also provide
habitat for fish and other wildlife, reduce erosion and coastal
flooding, improve water quality, and support recreational uses.
The Department of Water Resources and the State Water Resources
Control Board issued final groundwater management principles
and strategies to help protect drinking water wells from the
impacts of drought. Developed in response to Governor
Gavin Newsom’s drought state of emergency proclamation in
April, the principles and strategies provide a framework for
state actions to proactively address impacts on
groundwater-dependent communities as droughts become more
frequent and intense as a result of climate change.
A team of researchers at UC Santa Barbara and the National
Forest Service have spent the past five years researching the
impacts of wildfires and droughts on stream communities and the
wildlife that live in these riparian habitats. The studies were
launched in the wake of the Zaca and Jesusita fires of 2007 and
2009, when the team hoped to document the effects of wildfires
on the plant and animal life that rely on the waterways in the
burn areas 10 years later.
The Soquel Creek Water District in California held a
groundbreaking ceremony last week, commemorating the start of
construction on its Advanced Water Purification Center – the
core of the district’s Pure Water Soquel Groundwater
Replenishment and Seawater Contamination Prevention
Project. The festive groundbreaking event took place at
the site of the new facility, on Chanticleer Avenue near Soquel
Avenue in the Live Oak area of Santa Cruz County, just north of
Capitola. Approximately 50 invited guests attended to help
celebrate the official start of construction on this
state-of-the-art water purification facility.
To protect biodiversity, advance equitable access to nature and
combat climate change, the California Natural Resources Agency
(CNRA) today released California’s draft strategy to conserve
30 percent of the state’s land and coastal waters by 2030
(30×30). The draft of Pathways to 30×30: Accelerating
Conservation of California’s Nature is now available for public
review and feedback. Input is welcomed through January 28,
2022.
Farmers in the Bay Area were excited that the latest storm
brought another round of much-needed rain in the hopes it will
bring them closer to the end of what has been a difficult
drought. Many in the agricultural and farming industries of the
Santa Clara Valley are relieved the region took in substantial
rainfall over the past few days. … [F]armers in the region
have had to find ways to adapt because of the drought, such as
implementing drip-irrigation systems. So when rain comes
naturally – they hope the ground soaks up as much as possible.
Our country faces a flood crisis. More people and places are at
risk, with climate-induced flooding threatening widespread
social, environmental and economic impacts. We need a holistic
approach to reduce flood risk now. The U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers has focused on building levees, spillways and
hardened infrastructure to address episodic storm events. But,
by focusing solely on storm surge, they leave millions exposed
to chronic flooding from sea level rise, tides and extreme
rainfall. … Coastal areas experience flooding from
rising seas, storm surge, rainfall, and swelling rivers and
streams.
-Written by Natalie Snider, associate vice
president of Climate Resilient Coasts and Watersheds at
Environmental Defense Fund; and David
Lewis, executive director of Save The Bay.
A major winter storm hitting Northern California with rain and
snow was expected to intensify Monday and bring travel
headaches and the threat of localized flooding after an
especially warm and dry fall in the U.S. West…. The multiday
storm could dump more than 8 feet (2.4 meters) of snow on the
highest peaks in California and Nevada and drench other parts
of the states as it pushes south and east before moving out
midweek…. The storm will bring much needed moisture to the
broader region that’s been gripped by drought caused by climate
change.
The winter storm that could dump several feet of snow in the
Sierra and soak the Sacramento Valley with rain is listed as a
“strong” category “AR 3” system by the scientists who study the
powerful storms that supply California with most of its water.
In 2019, the scientists who study the storms known as
“atmospheric rivers” agreed to a ranking scale similar to the
“Cat” system used to describe a hurricane. An “AR 1” is the
weakest system. An “AR 5” is the most destructive. The five
categories the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes at
Scripps Oceanography list are “weak,” “moderate,” “strong,”
“extreme,” and “exceptional.”
Innovative efforts to accelerate
restoration of headwater forests and to improve a river for the
benefit of both farmers and fish. Hard-earned lessons for water
agencies from a string of devastating California wildfires.
Efforts to drought-proof a chronically water-short region of
California. And a broad debate surrounding how best to address
persistent challenges facing the Colorado River.
These were among the issues Western Water explored in
2019, and are still worth taking a look at in case you missed
them.
To survive the next drought and meet
the looming demands of the state’s groundwater sustainability
law, California is going to have to put more water back in the
ground. But as other Western states have found, recharging
overpumped aquifers is no easy task.
Successfully recharging aquifers could bring multiple benefits
for farms and wildlife and help restore the vital interconnection
between groundwater and rivers or streams. As local areas around
California draft their groundwater sustainability plans, though,
landowners in the hardest hit regions of the state know they will
have to reduce pumping to address the chronic overdraft in which
millions of acre-feet more are withdrawn than are naturally
recharged.
The southern part of California’s Central Coast from San Luis Obispo County to Ventura County, home to about 1.5 million people, is blessed with a pleasing Mediterranean climate and a picturesque terrain. Yet while its unique geography abounds in beauty, the area perpetually struggles with drought.
Indeed, while the rest of California breathed a sigh of relief with the return of wet weather after the severe drought of 2012–2016, places such as Santa Barbara still grappled with dry conditions.
New to this year’s slate of water
tours, our Edge of
Drought Tour Aug. 27-29 will venture into the Santa
Barbara area to learn about the challenges of limited local
surface and groundwater supplies and the solutions being
implemented to address them.
Despite Santa Barbara County’s decision to lift a drought
emergency declaration after this winter’s storms replenished
local reservoirs, the region’s hydrologic recovery often has
lagged behind much of the rest of the state.
This 2-day, 1-night tour offered participants the opportunity to
learn about water issues affecting California’s scenic Central
Coast and efforts to solve some of the challenges of a region
struggling to be sustainable with limited local supplies that
have potential applications statewide.
There’s going to be a new governor
in California next year – and a host of challenges both old and
new involving the state’s most vital natural resource, water.
So what should be the next governor’s water priorities?
That was one of the questions put to more than 150 participants
during a wrap-up session at the end of the Water Education
Foundation’s Sept. 20 Water Summit in Sacramento.
Spurred by drought and a major
policy shift, groundwater management has assumed an unprecedented
mantle of importance in California. Local agencies in the
hardest-hit areas of groundwater depletion are drawing plans to
halt overdraft and bring stressed aquifers to the road of
recovery.
Along the way, an army of experts has been enlisted to help
characterize the extent of the problem and how the Sustainable
Groundwater Management Act of 2014 is implemented in a manner
that reflects its original intent.
ARkStorm stands for an atmospheric
river (“AR”) that carries precipitation levels expected to occur
once every 1,000 years (“k”). The concept was presented in a 2011
report by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) intended to elevate
the visibility of the very real threats to human life, property
and ecosystems posed by extreme storms on the West Coast.
Mired in drought, expectations are high that new storage funded
by Prop. 1 will be constructed to help California weather the
adverse conditions and keep water flowing to homes and farms.
At the same time, there are some dams in the state eyed for
removal because they are obsolete – choked by accumulated
sediment, seismically vulnerable and out of compliance with
federal regulations that require environmental balance.
A new era of groundwater management
began in 2014 with the passage of the Sustainable Groundwater
Management Act (SGMA), which aims for local and regional agencies
to develop and implement sustainable groundwater management
plans with the state as the backstop.
SGMA defines “sustainable groundwater management” as the
“management and use of groundwater in a manner that can be
maintained during the planning and implementation horizon without
causing undesirable results.”
This handbook provides crucial
background information on the Sustainable Groundwater Management
Act, signed into law in 2014 by Gov. Jerry Brown. The handbook
also includes a section on options for new governance.
