California Sets Stage for First Groundwater Regulations

California lawmakers have sent Governor Jerry Brown legislation that would for the first time regulate groundwater use as the most-populous U.S. state suffers from a record drought.

The proposals would require local governments to develop groundwater regulations and give the state the power to step in and enforce restrictions if necessary.

Three years of record low rain and snow have left more than 80 percent of California in extreme drought. With reservoirs at less than half capacity and water supplies to the nation’s most productive agricultural region rationed, well drilling has doubled and even tripled in some counties.

California Sets Stage for First Groundwater Regulations