News & Insights: Sustainable Groundwater

It is human nature to fear the unknown.  If you are a water manager, your “fear list” may include earthquakes, climate change, having your water use made public and not least of all, new laws and regulations.  California has a law that is new and complex – the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act.  At this point, many summaries of the new legislation have been developed such as...

Above image: from the Water in the West series, "Understanding California's Groundwater" It’s a big year for groundwater in California.  For the first time in California history, the state is close to setting up a comprehensive framework for managing groundwater.  A package of groundwater bills has been passed by the legislature and now awaits the governor’s signature. If signed,...

Lessons from Kansas: A More Sustainable Groundwater Management Approach By Burke Griggs   Kansas’ Hydrological Problem and Basic Water Law Over eighty percent of the water used in Kansas is for irrigation, and nearly ninety percent of that water is groundwater, drawn mostly from the Ogallala-High Plains Aquifer. Because most of the Ogallala in Kansas is effectively non-renewable, Kansas...

Last fall, about thirty groundwater managers and land use planners from all over California came together at Stanford to talk about how to improve existing policies and practices between groundwater management and land use planning in the state.  A recent Water in the West report highlights the key outcomes of the workshop, but one crucial takeaway that needs more focus than the report was...