The California Legislature Mandates a Statewide Comprehensive Groundwater Level Monitoring System

When compared to other states in the U.S., California extracts nearly 20 percent of the groundwater pumped, produces approximately 50 percent of the fruits, nuts and vegetables, has the largest population with more than 38 million, and has a gross domestic product of about $1.5 trillion or about 13% of the entire country. California is generally perceived as leading the country when it comes to regulating industry and the environment, however, until recently there was no requirement for statewide groundwater level monitoring. That changed when a groundwater monitoring bill passed the state Legislature, and was one of five bills of the Delta Legislative Package signed by the Governor in November 2009. This followed numerous hearings, months of debate at the capitol, and included two groundwater policy sessions at the state groundwater organization annual meeting attended by several key policymakers and staff. The policy sessions included presentations on groundwater policy, permitting, and monitoring in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, and Texas. The new groundwater level monitoring statute encourages voluntary groundwater level monitoring and reporting, requires the state Department of Water Resources (DWR) to step in and collect and make the data publicly available if the local public agencies or the county do not, and subsequently makes those pubic agencies or counties ineligible for state funding for water/groundwater projects. The bill also mandates that the DWR update Bulletin 118 California’s Groundwater every five years, to understand long-term trends and help answer the question of how much groundwater we have available.