Earlier this week, the California State Board of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) brought in state and federal officials to discuss drought planning and groundwater management in light of 2015 looking to be another dry year.  Richard Howitt and Jay Lund of UC Davis indicated that both the urban and agricultural sectors have fared fairly well, while acknowledging there are pockets of pain and suffering in the state due to the drought.  The ability to manage the drought this past year was in part due to being able to utilize the groundwater to meet the needs of the state.  However, five million acre feet of groundwater was pumped this year to get through the drought, which will not be available going into 2015, and will make resource management much more difficult if it proves to be another dry year. 

According to Gordon Burns, Undersecretary of the California Department of Environmental Protection (CalEPA), the Administration may pursue a legislative effort to streamline the judicial adjudication of groundwater rights to create a faster, less expensive process.  Gordon also provided an update on the recently signed three bill package that comprised the groundwater management legislation.

The panelists agreed that perhaps the only good news is that the drought has brought many of the stakeholders and State and Federal Agencies out of their respective silos, and fostered a sense of urgency and cooperation to collaborate on issues regarding the drought.  The panelists’ presentations can be accessed here.