How CA can close groundwater plans on the door

By Scott Hayman, special to Calmatters

This comment was originally published by CalmattersS Register about their ballots.

California is at a crossroads for groundwater management, as legal doors threaten to cancel the state’s progress to the responsible resistance to groundwater.

There are two legal processes at the heart of this legal conflict. The first is the Law on Sustainable Governance of Ground Waters, the Law on the Landmark, passed in 2014, in order to order the overdropping of pools and ensuring long -term resistance to groundwater resources. The second is ground ground waters, a legal tool for determining the water rights of who can pump water and how much they can use.

Increasingly, these two legal processes are confronted. As a result, it causes confusion, slows down the application of groundwater resistance plans and the more exposure to California’s water future is at risk. In fact, almost a quarter of the state -approved groundwater resistance plans are disputed in a decision of groundwater.

Court of judicial disputes use groundwater decisions to challenge the technical findings of state -approved groundwater plans, data from the Ministry of Water Resources revealed. These plans are the product of years of scientifically based research, independent modeling, local contribution of stakeholders and millions of dollars public investment.

The court cases bypass the Law on Group of Groundwater and drag every user of the groundwater in a pool in expensive, long -standing litigation, which is ultimately paid by consumers who have not selected this water battle. The result? Delayed projects, regulatory uncertainty and a system that favors those who can afford to argue for those who cannot.

One of these legal challenges includes the critically overflowing underground water pool of India Wales Valley, 597 square miles covering the cities of Kern, Io and San Bernardino. As chairman of the groundwater body responsible for the management of this pool, I know firsthand to the detriment of these legal doors.

Assembly Bill 1413 is reasonable, just legislation that would strengthen the state’s efforts to manage this precious resource. AB 1413 aims to protect the right to challenge a resistance plan, but at the same time maintain the integrity of the groundwater law and to provide clarity to the judges in the court decisions.

AB 1413 is concerned with this growing problem, confirming the original intention of the legislature: to afford the ability to challenge a resistance plan by first introducing evidence as part of validation. This process would be open, transparent and focused – unlike judicial decisions that are wide, expensive and often heard in a vessel away from the communities that affect.

Clarity is needed nowS The judges in these court decisions expressed dissatisfaction with the lack of legal guidance, noting the difficulty in the coordination of state legislation with the requests for a decision. AB 1413 gives them the tools they need to respect both processes without compromising both.

The bill also does not deprive anyone’s legal rights. It simply guarantees that technical disputes are processed in the appropriate place without undermining the wider legislation for groundwater management.

The opponents say that the court decisions and the Law on Group of Group are separate and may exist jointly. But in practice, judicial decisions are used to cancel local efforts and delay the sustainability measures.

This is not a joint existence – it is a conflict.

Without legislative action, this conflict will only grow, adversely affecting most groundwater users and leave it on legal teams that can afford to fight for wealthy clients who just want to kick the implementation of sustainability plans.

AB 1413 is not just a legal correction. It is a protection of the social process, the scientific integrity and the fair access to water management. He guarantees that all the Californians – not just those with the deepest pockets – have a voice in how our groundwater is controlled.

If legislators pass AB 1413, they may confirm California’s commitment to sustainable water management targeting. The future of our underground waters and the communities that depend on it are set.

This article was Originally Published on CalMatters and was reissued under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Noderivatives License.