SEC. 2.
The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:(a) California’s water usage is highly reliant on capturing the snow melt from the snowpack in the Sierra Nevada Region on an annual basis. That water is stored in lakes and reservoirs and is then transported throughout the state for environmental, residential, commercial, and agricultural use when needed.
(b) In California’s coastal watersheds, groundwater is a significant contributor to streamflows that support coastal communities and ecosystems.
(c) California has the most
intricate and elaborate system of water conveyance in the world.
(d) The State Water Project and the Central Valley Project are of transcendent importance to statewide water supply.
(e) The State Water Project and the Central Valley Project provide water for approximately 30,000,000 people and nearly 4,000,000 acres of agricultural land.
(f) Most California cities and farms as we know them today would not exist without the State Water Project and the Central Valley Project.
(g) Climate change is resulting in a snowpack that is no longer
reliable. Instead, California is experiencing infrequent storm events and long periods of drought. California’s precipitation is changing from seasonal snow in the Sierra Nevada Region to periods of substantial rainfall, like those from atmospheric rivers.
(h) Climate change is a serious threat to the State Water Project and the Central Valley Project, and by extension, to our statewide water supply. These systems will lose 10 percent of their water supplies by 2040. This constitutes a loss of 6,000,000 to 9,000,000 acre-feet of water annually, or the equivalent of the amount of water used to irrigate approximately 20 percent of all agricultural land in the state, or by all of the residents, businesses, schools, parks, and sports fields in the state.
(i) As of 2023, one
necessary solution that can meet the scale of the problem is groundwater recharge.
(j) The Department of Water Resources describes a statewide
capacity in groundwater basins in the range of 1,000,000,000 acre-feet, or approximately 20 times the total surface water storage capacity statewide.
(k) According to the Department of Water Resources, there is the potential for over 13,000,000 acre-feet of groundwater recharge in any given wet year, with more than 2,500,000 acre-feet of existing infrastructure that could currently be available, but that is underutilized.
(l) Groundwater recharge has the greatest capacity to meet the scale of this challenge and is also the lowest cost option per acre-foot.
(m) Groundwater recharge can be environmentally friendly. Its utilization can provide benefits, including, but not limited to, water supply, flood
control, and improved environmental conditions for rivers, wetlands, and habitat. For example, in a recent analysis of
a central valley river, it was estimated that full implementation of groundwater recharge projects could simultaneously address 63 percent of water supply shortages and provide a 65-percent reduction in flood risk. Additionally, other groundwater recharge projects would prioritize storage in reservoirs, minimizing demand for surface water in dry conditions when that water is most valuable for environmental flows.
(n) California must make a historic change in how water is provided for environmental, residential, commercial, and agricultural use when needed. Enhancing the ability to recharge groundwater is essential for current and future water management that is consistent with present-day values of equity and environmental stewardship. As the lowest cost option to meet the scale of water supply needs, groundwater recharge can best
balance equity challenges faced between affordability and access.
(o) California must prioritize significantly increasing the recharge of groundwater by 2035 in order to avoid the severe impacts on water supplies coming by 2040.