AFTER YEARS OF DISCUSSION, NEGOTIATION, AND controversy, the landmark Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, known as SGMA, was passed in the California State Legislature in 2014. One key element during deliberations was the issue of local control. In the context of SGMA and other natural resource management policies, local control is loosely defined as an aversion to state and federal involvement in resource management through top-down regulations and legal mandates. This concept of local control, which has roots in the perspectives of European settlers, is a common organizing principle for proponents of limited government. In the end, SGMA explicitly centered local control while calling for state intervention as a lastresort backstop. But should local control be the guiding principle for future groundwater management?
展开▼
