DWR issues interim update to the Bulletin 118 series for Sustainable Groundwater Management Act

Late last week the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) issued an interim update to the Bulletin 118 series regarding sustainable groundwater management. Included in the update is key information to help local agencies meet requirements and deadlines under the historic Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) enacted in 2014.

News and data provided in the interim update is critical to the successful implementation of the SGMA. Topics include groundwater basins in critical overdraft, modifications to basin boundaries, and in 2017, the priority ranking of groundwater basins.

Reassessing the prioritization of California’s groundwater basins is currently underway. SGMA requirements and deadlines made it necessary to provide an interim update rather than wait for the comprehensive update of Bulletin 118 scheduled for 2020.

According to SGMA, groundwater sustainability agencies must be established for all groundwater basins that DWR has identified as high- and medium-priority by June 30, 2017. Requirements also include that basins subject to critical conditions of overdraft, as classified in Bulletin 118, be covered by groundwater sustainability plans or their equivalent by January 31, 2020. All other high and medium priority basins must be determined their groundwater sustainability plans, or their equivalent, by January 31, 2022.

The basin priority update process will include public meetings and workshops to solicit input. The Bulletin 118 interim update will be amended in 2017 to include the approach for, and results of, the basin prioritization at the completion of that effort. More information about the reprioritization of California’s groundwater basins is available at http://www.water.ca.gov/groundwater/sgm/SGM_BasinPriority.cfm.

The Department of Water Resources’ predecessor, the Division of Water Resources, published a first-ever base map showing California’s principal groundwater basins in 1952. The most recent update of Bulletin 118 is the latest in a series of reports regarding California’s groundwater.  

The Bulletin 118, scheduled for release in 2020 will be a comprehensive update in accordance with Water Code section 12924 and the California Water Action Plan. DWR states in that in addition to recommendations for the future it will also include an inventory and assessment of efforts by groundwater sustainability agencies and the state to implement SGMA and information on groundwater management successes.