SB 1168 Summary

• Establishes state policy that groundwater resources be managed sustainably for long-term reliability and multiple benefits, with sustainable management achieved locally through development and implementation of groundwater sustainability plans based on best available science

• Requires Department of Water Resources to categorize all groundwater basins by priority level (high, medium, low, very low) by January 31, 2015, considering population, growth, well usage, irrigated acreage, reliance on groundwater, documented impacts, and adverse effects on local habitat and streamflows

• Prohibits adoption of new groundwater management plans beginning January 1, 2015, and requires high- and medium-priority basins designated as critically overdrafted to be managed under groundwater sustainability plans by January 31, 2020, with all other high- and medium-priority basins complying by January 31, 2022

• Authorizes local agencies or combinations of local agencies to elect to be groundwater sustainability agencies with powers to require groundwater extraction facility registration, mandate water-measuring devices, regulate extraction, and conduct inspections

• Designates county as presumed groundwater sustainability agency for unmanaged basin areas and exempts adjudicated groundwater basins from the new requirements