{"id":12361,"date":"2021-01-15T11:55:48","date_gmt":"2021-01-15T16:55:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/?p=12361"},"modified":"2022-01-13T17:24:10","modified_gmt":"2022-01-13T22:24:10","slug":"bill-california-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/2021\/01\/15\/bill-california-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Dusty barren fields or thriving farmland and habitat? This bill creates a better vision for California\u2019s future"},"content":{"rendered":"

Update: Gov. Gavin Newsom approved a budget in September 2021 that dedicates $50 million for a new land repurposing program<\/a> to help farmers reduce groundwater use while simultaneously creating new benefits for people and wildlife.<\/em><\/p>\n

As California legislators returned to Sacramento this week rightfully focused on COVID relief, I am encouraged that at least two legislators are also focused on another major and even longer-term challenge: water scarcity.<\/p>\n

Today Assemblymembers Robert Rivas (D-Hollister), chair of the Assembly Agriculture Committee and vice-chair of the California Latino Legislative Caucus, and Rudy Salas (D-Bakersfield) introduced a bill, AB 252<\/a>, to help farmers and rural communities adapt to more sustainable groundwater use while simultaneously creating new benefits for people and wildlife.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis legislation provides critical economic support to the rural communities in the San Joaquin Valley that will be most impacted by SGMA, while also providing an opportunity to restore some our natural heritage.\u201d \u2014 Emmy Cattani, fifth-generation farmer, Cattani Farms, Bakersfield<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

A bill to help balance groundwater supplies<\/strong><\/p>\n

Groundwater is an important water supply that meets roughly one-third of California\u2019s water needs in an average year and more than half of the state\u2019s needs during droughts, which are becoming more frequent and severe.<\/p>\n

As a result of the\u00a0Sustainable Groundwater Management Act<\/a>, passed in 2014 during our last drought, regions with the most critically overdrafted groundwater basins will have to balance supply and demand by 2040.<\/p>\n

Local groundwater agencies are still figuring out how exactly to achieve that goal, through strategies like groundwater recharge and well-designed water trading programs<\/a>.\u00a0 Still, \u00a0one unfortunate outcome is likely: To balance groundwater demand with supply, some agricultural land will have to be taken out of production \u2014 as much\u00a0as 500,000 to 750,000 acres<\/a>, roughly equivalent to the size of Yosemite National Park.<\/p>\n

Bill rewards farmers for water-saving land uses<\/strong><\/p>\n

AB 252, sponsored by EDF, will help create opportunities on these previously irrigated agricultural land and ease the transition to sustainable groundwater management. It will create a new program through the California Department of Conservation to provide incentive payments to landowners who voluntarily and strategically repurpose at least some portion of their agricultural land to other less water-intensive uses for at least 10 years.<\/p>\n

Possibilities for these lands include:<\/p>\n