AB 454: Sustainable groundwater management.

Existing law, the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, requires all groundwater basins designated as high- or medium-priority basins by the Department of Water Resources that are designated as basins subject to critical conditions of overdraft to be managed under a groundwater sustainability plan or coordinated groundwater sustainability plans by January 31, 2020, and requires all other groundwater basins designated as high- or medium-priority basins to be managed under a groundwater sustainability plan or coordinated groundwater sustainability plans by January 31, 2022, except as specified.

This bill would require a high- or medium-priority basin that is not subject to critical conditions of overdraft to be managed under a groundwater sustainability plan or coordinated groundwater sustainability plan by January 31, 2023.

The act authorizes the state board to designate a high- or medium- priority basin that is not subject to critical conditions of overdraft as a probationary basin after January 31, 2025, if the determination is made that the plan is either inadequate or not being implemented in a manner that will likely achieve the sustainability goal and the basin is in a condition where groundwater extractions result in significant depletions of interconnected surface water.

This bill would change that date to January 31, 2026.

The act authorizes the state board to designate a basin as a probationary basin if after June 30, 2017, there is not a groundwater sustainability agency or coordinated groundwater sustainability agencies for an entire high- or medium- priority basin, and no local agency has submitted an alternative.

This bill would change that date to June 30, 2018.