Four decades of sustainable groundwater management

Basin Watermaster, the nine-person entity created in 1978 by a state Superior Court adjudication judgment. The Watermaster is charged by the Court to sustainably manage groundwater in the 235-square-mile Chino Basin in San Bernardino, Riverside and Los Angeles counties. Under the oversight of a board that represents the basin’s groundwater users, Watermaster monitors groundwater extraction so that it does not exceed the basin’s safe yield. In some ways, the roles and responsibilities of the Watermaster are similar to those of the groundwater sustainability agencies (GSAs) formed recently around the state under the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. California Agriculture spoke with Kavounas about the challenges that the Chino Basin Watermaster has faced and potential lessons that the agency’s experience may offer for GSAs around the state as they prepare and implement groundwater sustainability plans (GSPs).