WHY AN ISSUE ON CALIFORNIA? BOTH OF US HAVE lived in California—Lisa for her entire life and Michael for seven years (Santa Cruz and Truckee). We’ve had a close-up look, therefore, at how California moves water like few other states. With the Endangered Species Act curtailing historic allocation of water supplies, groundwater has picked up some of the slack so as not to imperil California’s incredible agricultural production and its industries. This shift toward groundwater use has come at a high cost: land subsidence redux and more unsustainable groundwater pumping. The state has now mandated groundwater management by passing the 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA). SGMA could be a bellwether--or a warning.
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