In keeping with that policy, California counties will soon have access to grant funds to help them get started addressing critically over-tapped groundwater. The Department of Water Resources (DWR) has released its draft guidelines for the 2015 Sustainable Groundwater Planning Grant Program, a $10 million program to help counties with stressed groundwater basins develop or strengthen local ordinances and conservation plans.
The grant program is funded by Proposition 1, a statewide water bond, overwhelmingly approved by voters last year. This program will help implement plans that will lead to sustainable recharge and withdrawal of groundwater, a resource that provides 40 percent or more of the water Californians use each year.
The guidelines establish the processes that DWR will use to administer the grant program, which will support counties with stressed groundwater basins to do the following:
• Update or develop county groundwater ordinances to improve sustainable management of groundwater.
• Update or develop plans that protect basins and their beneficial uses and help facilitate basin-wide sustainable groundwater management.
Governor Brown’s 2015-16 budget enables streamlined environmental review for any county ordinance that reduces groundwater pumping.
DWR will hold three meetings on the draft guidelines, where the public will be able to review documents and make comments:
The public comment period will be open until October 5, 2015 at 5:00 p.m. The final documents and other information about the SGWP Grant Program are available at: http://water.ca.gov/irwm/grants/sgwp. To be added to the SGWP contact list, please e-mail your contact information to: SGWP@water.ca.gov
California has been dealing with the effects of drought for four years.
To learn about all the actions the state has taken to manage our water system and cope with the impacts of the drought, visit Drought.CA.Gov.
Every Californian should take steps to conserve water. Find out how at SaveOurWater.com.
Source: DWR
