April 2025
The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) requires local Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSAs) to develop Plans for how they will achieve long-term sustainability. California’s Department of Water Resources (DWR) is required to evaluate whether Plans “substantially comply” with SGMA’s requirements. Adequate financing is a crucial ingredient for local groundwater management. However, establishing new sources of revenue and repurposing existing ones is not easy, and indeed is something GSAs have struggled with in the past. Proactively developing financing plans will help GSAs avoid funding-related failures.
This issue brief, More state and local attention to financing can advance sustainable groundwater management, examines how well GSAs have addressed this need and assesses DWR’s process for reviewing this criteria. Our results indicate that (1) there are many opportunities for GSAs to improve the quality of their attention to financing and (2) DWR has authority to exercise more effective oversight.
To address this possible weakness in SGMA implementation and to support the law’s timely implementation, we recommend that:
- GSAs provide more information about how they will finance SGMA implementation in their Plans and Periodic Evaluations;
- DWR more closely assess financing when evaluating Plans and Periodic Evaluations;
- DWR provide more guidance and technical resources to enable GSAs’ successful financing; and
- the engaged public assess financing efforts and demand more detail.
The issue brief and supplemental material provide a structure and tools that can guide such efforts.
Download the Issue Brief: More state and local attention to financing can advance sustainable groundwater management, April 2025
Download the Supplemental Information: https://www.law.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/SupplementalInformation-1.pdf
Suggested citation: Bruce, M. & M. Kiparsky 2025. More state and local attention to financing can advance sustainable groundwater management. Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, UC Berkeley School of Law, Berkeley, CA. 13 pp., available at law.berkeley.edu/SGMA-financing
For more information: Contact Molly Bruce, Research Fellow, or Mike Kiparsky, Director, Wheeler Water Institute, Center for Law, Energy & the Environment
This work is supported by the Water Foundation, the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative [Competitive Grant no. 2021-69012-35916] from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Assistance Agreement no. RD-84086301-0.