Overview

The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) was signed on September 16, 2014 by Governor Brown. The SGMA is comprised of three legislative bills, SB 1168 (Pavley), SB 1319 (Pavley), and AB 1739 (Dickinson) and is intended to “strengthen local management and monitoring of groundwater basins most critical to the state’s water needs” (Governor’s Office of Planning & Research).

Timeline

The Governor’s Office of Planning & Research (OPR) has published a timeline related to the SGMA that begins January 1, 2015. The Groundwater Legislation Timeline is available here.

Other Information

• Webinar Presentation – On December 10, 2014 the MCWRA Board of Directors Salinas River Basin Management Planning (BMP) Committee viewed a webinar, presented by the Groundwater Resources Association of California, about the SGMA.
  
  
  • A fact sheet distributed at the presentation is available here.
  
  
• Public Meeting – MCWRA held an initial public information meeting on January 21, 2015 to review the key aspects of the SGMA; seek input on options related to establishment of a Groundwater Sustainability Agency; and develop next steps, including individual meetings with governmental agencies and interest groups
  
  
  
  • The agenda and slides are available here (Agenda | Slides)
    
    
• Webinar Presentation – On January 21, 2015 the MCWRA Board of Directors Salinas River Basin Management Planning (BMP) Committee viewed a webinar, presented by the Groundwater Resources Association of California, about the SGMA. 
  
  
  
  • The slides are available here (Slides)
  
  
• Basin Boundary Modification Request – On April 1, 2016 MCWRA submitted a request to modify the boundary of the Paso Robles Area Subbasin. 
  
  
  
  • The details of this submittal are available here.
  
  
• Formation of the Salinas Valley Basin Groundwater Sustainability Agency - In December 2016, a Joint Powers Agreement went into effect, forming the Salinas Valley Basin Groundwater Sustainability Agency (SVBGSA). The first meeting of the SVBGSA, with an interim Board of Directors, took place in March 2017. The Permanent Board of Directors was sworn in in October 2017. Additional information about the SVBGSA is available at https://svbgsa.org.