Category: Best of the Notebook

PANEL DISCUSSION: Emerging legal issues in SGMA implementation

Best of the Notebook, Conferences and Seminars

Panel discusses water rights and pumping allocations, groundwater recharge as a beneficial use, public trust doctrine and groundwater, and the fee authorities for GSAs In 2014, California passed the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), which required all groundwater basins designated as high or medium priority to form Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSAs) to prepare locally-developed plans to bring the basin into […]

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DR. JEFF MOUNT: Making groundwater a centerpiece of managing the droughts of the future

Best of the Notebook, Conferences and Seminars

Four essential policy reforms are needed to reduce the social, economic, and environmental costs of future droughts, says Dr. Mount California’s climate is changing. Hotter temperatures, a shrinking snowpack, shorter and more intense wet seasons, rising sea level, and more volatile precipitation—with wetter wet years and drier dry years—are stressing the state’s water management system. Recent climate projections indicate that […]

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Innovative Technologies to Expand California’s Water Supply

Best of the Notebook, Conferences and Seminars

Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley Labs discuss their work on groundwater recharge, brackish desalination, and seawater desalinization As droughts intensify and the snowpacks diminish, California will need creative solutions to provide enhanced water supplies for urban use and agriculture. Scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories are working on addressing these problems, focusing on  groundwater recharge, low-cost desalination, and energy efficient purification. […]

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Managed Aquifer Recharge in California

Best of the Notebook, Conferences and Seminars

Timothy Parker and Graham Fogg discuss the benefits and the challenges of Managed Aquifer Recharge, and how MAR can be key to water security in a changing climate Groundwater is an essential water source, providing 35% of the fresh water used in California, and significantly more in drought years.  However, when groundwater is used more rapidly than it is naturally […]

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The unintended consequences of water conservation

Best of the Notebook, Conferences and Seminars

Dr. Kurt Schwabe discusses the impact of water conservation on recycled water; Yorba Linda Water District GM discusses effects of 36% water conservation on his district During the recent drought, conservation mandates were imposed across the state with some areas mandated to cut their water use by one-third or more.  However, reducing water consumption by one-third means a significant reduction […]

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DR. JEFF MOUNT: The Consequences of Sustainable Groundwater Management

Best of the Notebook, Conferences and Seminars

In 2014 California enacted the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) which mandates that areas that depend upon groundwater achieve sustainability by 2040.  Meeting the requirements of SGMA will mean a net reduction in groundwater overdraft of about 2 million acre-feet per year. The social, economic and environmental consequences—intended or otherwise—of this change in water policy are vast. Dr. Jeffrey Mount […]

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SUSTAINABLE GROUNDWATER MANAGEMENT: Can California successfully integrate groundwater and surface water under SGMA?

Best of the Notebook, Speeches and profiles

Maurice Hall and Kevin O’Brien present differing scenarios for how Groundwater Sustainability Agencies might address surface water impacts of groundwater pumping “The year 2014 was historic for groundwater in many ways,” began Moderator Dorene O’Adamo, member of the State Water Resources Control Board.  “First, while it wasn’t recognized at the time, the state was well into one of the most […]

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GROUNDWATER RIGHTS PRIMER: What Agencies & Project Developers Need to Know

Best of the Notebook, Conferences and Seminars

A seminar at McGeorge School of Law takes a deep dive into groundwater rights and SGMA California depends on groundwater for a major portion of its annual water supply, and sustainable groundwater management is essential to a reliable and resilient water system. In recognition of this, the legislature passed a three-bill package known as the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act in […]

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What’s the Potential for Increased Groundwater Replenishment in California?

Best of the Notebook, Conferences and Seminars

Panel at ACWA highlights state efforts to scale up Flood Managed Aquifer Recharge, survey on groundwater recharge in the Central Valley, and ACWA’s groundwater replenishment initiative With implementation of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) fully underway, the newly formed Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSAs) now turn their attention to developing Groundwater Sustainability Plans (GSPs) for their basins.  For basins that […]

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Earthquake Resilience of Southern California’s Water Distribution Systems

Best of the Notebook, News and Features

All the major water infrastructure bringing in water to Southern California cross the San Andreas fault at least once, sometimes multiple times.  What would happen in the event of an earthquake?  UCLA’s Dr. Jon Stewart (and others) have been conducting research to find out. California is earthquake country, renowned for being one of the most seismically active regions in the […]

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