Groundwater basin prioritization was initiated by the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) in response to the 2009 Comprehensive Water Package and Statewide Groundwater Elevation Monitoring (CASGEM) Program.
The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) passed by the California legislation in 2014 is intended to prevent groundwater basins from experiencing the following undesired effects:
SGMA also required DWR to update the priority for groundwater basins by 2015 and to reassess prioritization when the DWR Bulletin 118 is updated. The SGMA 2019 basin prioritization was undertaken in response to requests from agencies after the 2018 release of the draft prioritization performed subsequent to the 2016 interim update of Bulletin 118. The 2019 prioritization was finalized in December 2019.
The final results determined that Owens Valley Groundwater Basin is a low priority basin. Details regarding the prioritization process and data utilized for the determination of the basin priority are available on the
DWR Prioritization Dashboard.
