The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act of 2014 (Act) directs the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) to develop a list of priority basins by Jan. 31, 2015. TODAY, Dec. 15, 2014, DWR announced that the basin prioritization finalized in June 2014 under the California Statewide Groundwater Elevation Monitoring (CASGEM) program will be the initial prioritization required by the Act when it goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2015. The Act requires the preparation of a Groundwater Sustainability Plan for the 127 high and medium priority groundwater basins included in DWR’s initial prioritization, which according to DWR’s announcement, account for approximately 96 percent of groundwater use in California.

A basin’s initial prioritization under the Act may change in the future any time DWR updates its Bulletin 118 alluvial groundwater basin boundaries. The next update of Bulletin 118 is expected in 2016.