SGMA Resources for Growers and Landowners

The California Farm Bureau Federation has developed various resources for farmers and landowners to help you understand why SGMA is important and how you can be involved.

SGMA requires the formation of local agencies to develop new plans, called Groundwater Sustainability Plans or GSPs, to address and prevent problems in groundwater basins in most areas of the state. Signed into law in September 2014, SGMA focuses on protecting California’s groundwater for generations to come.

CFBF SGMA Resources

SGMA: A Summary of SGMA (2016)
SGMA: Understanding the Law
SGMA: Understanding Groundwater Hydrology
SGMA: Surface Water Depletion

SGMA Terms to Know

Adjudicated Areas: Where disputes over legal rights to groundwater have resulted in a court-issued ruling (known as an adjudication). Adjudications can cover an entire basin, a portion of a basin, or a group of basins.
Basin Prioritization: Classification of California’s 517 groundwater basins and subbasins into priorities based primarily on the importance of groundwater to the area. The priority of basins and subbasins determines the schedule for completing GSPs and whether SGMA provisions apply in a given basin. High- and medium-priority basins must comply with SGMA.
Best Management Practices (BMPs): Practices designed to help achieve sustainable groundwater management. BMPs are intended to be effective, practical, and based on best available science.
Bulletin 118: A California Department of Water Resources (DWR) document outlining the locations and characteristics of groundwater basins in California.
Critically Overdrafted: Basins and subbasins identified by DWR to be subject to conditions of critical overdraft. GSPs are due in 2020.
Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA): One or more local agencies that implement the provisions of SGMA.
Groundwater Sustainability Plan (GSP): A local plan proposed by a GSA and approved by the state.
Measurable Objectives: Conditions linked to the sustainability goals of the GSP, to be achieved in the basin within 20 years.
Sustainability Goals: Metrics established in the GSP planning process to ensure that a basin is operated within its sustainable yield.
Sustainable Yield: The amount of water that can be extracted from a basin without causing problems to the groundwater basin. See undesirable results on the “Why SGMA?” page 4 of the SGMA: Understanding the Law document.
Undesirable Results: The problems that SGMA strives to solve or prevent. See undesirable results on the “Why SGMA?” page 4 of the SGMA: Understanding the Law document.
Water Budget: An estimated accounting of all the water (surface and groundwater) that flows into and out of a basin.

Other Resources and References