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The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) today released seventeen assessments of groundwater sustainability plans (GSPs) developed by local agencies to meet the requirements of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA).
Today’s release includes the approval of eleven GSPs for the following basins: Cosumnes in Sacramento County, Eel River Valley in Humboldt County, Mound and Ojai Valley in Ventura County, Elsinore Valley and San Gorgonio Pass in Riverside County, San Pasqual Valley in San Diego County, Santa Monica in Los Angeles County, Sutter in Sutter County, White Wolf in Kern County, and Yolo in Yolo County. The assessments can be viewed on the SGMA Portal. These plans are approved with recommended corrective actions that the groundwater sustainability agencies (GSAs) will need to address in their next plan update, due in January 2027. DWR’s approval of a GSP identifies that the plan substantially complies with the GSP Regulations and SGMA law, relying upon the best available science and information and whether implementation of the plan is likely to achieve the basin’s sustainability goal over the 20-year planning horizon of SGMA.
DWR has also found in its technical review that the GSPs in six basins contain deficiencies that preclude approval and the plans are determined to be Incomplete. The six basins include the Big Valley (Basin No. 5-004) and five subbasins within the Sacramento Valley Basin, including the Antelope, Colusa, Corning, Los Molinos, and Red Bluff subbasins. The basins with GSPs that are determined Incomplete have 180 days from today’s release of DWR’s determination to address deficiencies and resubmit their corrected GSPs to the Department for review.
For additional information on these GSP assessments, DWR has prepared a press release providing an overview of these assessments and a GSP Evaluation fact sheet summarizing SGMA’s determination pathways for GSPs. SGMA lays out a process for continuous improvement, gathering information to fill data gaps, updating plans, carrying out projects and actions, and promoting science-based adaptation.
DWR encourages all SGMA interested parties to review the assessments, and related materials, accessible on our GSP webpage. For any SGMA-related questions, please email DWR at: sgmps@water.ca.gov.
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