SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The statewide Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA) today presented sweeping recommendations for improving groundwater management at a workshop convened by four state agencies, according to a press release published by Marketwired.
The recommendations, developed by a statewide task force formed by ACWA and released last week, come as the Brown Administration considers potential legislative solutions and other measures to address potentially unsustainable groundwater level declines, local subsidence and degraded water quality in some basins of the state, the release reported.
The workshop was held by the California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA), the California Natural Resources Agency, the California Department of Food and Agriculture and the Governor's Office of Planning and Research, noted the release.
ACWA's recommendations, continued the release, outline legislative and administrative changes that would strengthen groundwater management and accountability where it is deficient, provide new tools and authorities to restrict pumping or take other measures where appropriate and define a "backstop" role for the state in cases where a local or regional agency is unable to protect and manage a basin.
"The vast majority of the state's groundwater basins are under sound local and regional management, but some are not," ACWA Executive Director Timothy Quinn said at the workshop. "There is a clear need to raise the bar, and we believe the best way to do that is to provide tools and authorities for local agencies to do what they need to do. We also need to build on the many successes in well-managed basins around the state by taking the knowledge and management tools that are working there and duplicating them in basins that need improvement."
Read the full release here.
