Improving California's Water Market
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Water trading and banking are important tools that can help California bring its groundwater basins into balance by the early 2040s, as mandated by the 2014 Sustainable Water Management Act (SGMA). But the expansion of the state’s water market still faces some bottlenecks, including aging infrastructure and complex regulations. The stakes for preserving California’s groundwater are rising, however, as is interest in improving the state’s water market.
"Groundwater … is a really important drought reserve for California,” said Ellen Hanak, director of the PPIC Water Policy Center, at a virtual event last week. "By the time you get into the second and third dry year, you really need to lean on your groundwater very heavily. One of the challenges in California is that we’ve been leaning on it too heavily.”
Water trading and banking can help. Hanak and PPIC research fellow Andrew Ayres convened a panel to discuss a new report about how to improve the state’s water market in order to aid SGMA implementation and increase drought resilience across the state.
Click here to read the entire article from California Ag Network..
