The Department of Water Resources (DWR) has identified 21 groundwater basins and subbasins in which excessive groundwater pumping has resulted in significant overdraft. As a result, those basins and subbasins fall under the earliest deadlines required by the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA).
The basins identified by DWR as significantly overdrafted must have groundwater sustainability plans in place by January 31, 2020. The SGMA requires all basins designated as high or medium priority and subject to critical conditions of overdraft to be managed under a groundwater sustainability plan or coordinated groundwater sustainability plans two years earlier than the other high- and medium-priority basins.
This latest list of basins subject to critical conditions of overdraft will be published in the next update of Bulletin 118, the comprehensive report on California groundwater resources that is periodically updated by DWR. The next update of Bulletin 118 is expected in late 2016.
The final list of critically overdrafted basins and the statewide map of critically overdrafted basins can be accessed here.