The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act
Topic: Sustainable Groundwater Management
Act
Speakers: David Gutierrez, Chief of Division of
Safety of Dams and Program
Manager for the Groundwater Sustainability Program within the
Department of
Water Resources
When: April 3rd, 2015, 12 pm
Where: Sacramento State, 6000 J Street | Santa
Clara Hall, Room 1207
Map
This seminar series is open to the public. Food will be provided
for the first
20–25 people to arrive.
Topic Overview
By David Gutierrez, Inaugural Water Seminar Series Speaker
Groundwater resources play a vital role in maintaining
California’s economic and environmental sustainability.
During an average year, California’s 515 alluvial
groundwater basins and sub-basins contribute approximately 38
percent toward the state’s total water supply. During dry
years groundwater contributes up to 46 percent or more of the
statewide annual supply and serves as a critical buffer against
the impacts of drought and climate change. Many municipal,
agricultural, and disadvantaged communities rely on groundwater
for up to 100 percent of their water supply needs. Groundwater
extraction in excess of natural and managed recharge has caused
historically low groundwater elevations in many regions of
California.
On September 16, 2014, Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. signed a
three-bill package known as the Sustainable Groundwater
Management Act (SGMA). The legislation allows local agencies to
customize groundwater sustainability plans to their regional,
economic, and environmental needs. SGMA creates a framework for
sustainable, local groundwater management for the first time in
California's history, and includes the following:
- • Provides for sustainable management of groundwater basins
- • Enhances local management of groundwater consistent with
rights to use or store groundwater
- • Establishes minimum standards for effective, continuous
management of groundwater
- • Provides local groundwater agencies with the authority,
technical, and financial assistance
- • Needed to maintain groundwater supplies
- • Avoids or minimizes impacts for land subsidence
- • Improves data collection and understanding of groundwater
resources and management
- • Increases groundwater storage and removes impediments to
recharge
- • Empowers local agencies to manage groundwater basins,
while minimizing state intervention
SGMA requires local agencies to establish a new governance
structure, known as Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSA). GSAs must
develop groundwater
sustainability plans for groundwater basins or sub-basins that
are designated as medium or high priority.
The Department of Water Resources (DWR) has key roles in the
implementation of the SGMA. DWR will develop a framework for
sustainable groundwater management by developing regulations and
best management practices and will also assist local agencies by
providing technical and planning assistance.
About the Speaker
David Gutierrez is currently the Chief of
Division of Safety of Dams and Program Manager for the
Groundwater Sustainability Program within the Department of
Water Resources. He has worked for the department in several
capacities over the past 35 years including Chief of the
Division of Safety of Dams (DSOD), Deputy Director for Public
Safety, and Deputy Director for Business Operations. As Chief of
DSOD he oversees the regulation of over 1,250 dams in California
and as Deputy Director of Public Safety, he oversaw the
development of the FloodSAFE California Program. He has a
Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering and Master of
Science degree specializing in Geotechnical Engineering from
California State University, Sacramento. He is a registered
professional civil and geotechnical engineer in the State of
California. David has served on the Board of Directors for the
Association of State Dam Safety Officials and also served as
president of the organization. He is a member of the National
Dam Safety Review Board and the Strong Motion Instrumentation
Advisory Committee of the California Division of Mines and
Geology.
