Forming A Groundwater Sustainability Agency for Salinas Valley
Contents
Summary
Following three years of severe drought -- the driest recorded period in the century and a half since the state began recording rainfall -- California passed the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act of 2014 (SGMA) to create a statewide framework for groundwater regulation. This legislation called for local agencies to form Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSA) for 127 priority groundwater basins by June 2017, develop groundwater sustainability plans (GSPs) by 2022, and achieve sustainability within 20 years. Each GSA has the significant challenge and opportunity to develop the GSP and prevent “undesirable results” of chronic groundwater overdraft while considering the interest of “all beneficial uses and users of groundwater.”
The Salinas Valley is one basin that the State of California required to comply with SGMA. The Salinas Valley relies almost completely on groundwater. Agriculture is the primary water user and economic driver, with a total estimated impact of over $8.1 billion on the local economy (Monterey Farm Bureau, 2015). In 2016-2017, a group of diverse stakeholders came together to develop consensus on on the formation of a groundwater sustainability agency. Initially, local and county government joined with agricultural representatives to enlist the support of an impartial mediation organization, the Consensus Building Institute (CBI). CBI conducted an assessment and, based on interview findings, recommended an inclusive stakeholder process with representatives from agriculture, environmental organizations, disadvantaged communities, city and county government, land use nonprofits, residential well owners, and water agencies. The process was built on transparency, including a website (SalinasGroundwater.org) and a robust public outreach program to engage English and Spanish-speaking communities.The charge of this collaborative was to develop recommendations on forming a GSA that each eligible agency’s elected board would vote to approve.
The agreement included the legal structure, board composition and selection, voting, and funding for the agency formation process. The newly formed agency will regulate groundwater in the Salinas Valley. The process achieved success for a variety of reasons: it was significant that such diverse interest groups came together and reached a consensus outcome on the newly formed agency. The process was also successful from a statewide perspective because the GSA governing board, which has the power to curtail groundwater pumping, has seats for non-governmental actors, including 4 seats for agriculture, a seat for environmental interests, a public seat, and others. A wide range of stakeholders contributed to the outcome. Stakeholders committed to coming together to develop agreement on the path forward and conducted the necessary work to realize this outcome.
Natural, Historic, Economic, Regional, and Political Framework
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References
Monterey County Farm Bureau, Facts, Figures, and FAQs, 2015
