A huge thank you to all our volunteers who dedicated their time and insights to make these sessions productive and inspiring. Your commitment is what shapes GRA and drives us forward.

We’re currently refining the strategies developed and can’t wait to share the exciting new plans with all our members. Stay tuned for updates and get ready for an enriched GRA experience!

Thank you all for your continued support and engagement!

To provide additional information and context on these first GSP assessments and notification letters, DWR has prepared:

• A video message the current groundwater landscape, including drought conditions, and recent efforts to advance the development of principles and strategies related to groundwater management and drinking water well impacts, as described in Governor Newsom’s Drought Executive Order issued on April 21, 2021.
• A GSP Evaluation fact sheet summarizing SGMA’s determination pathways for GSPs.
• A press release providing an overview of this initial release.
• A Live Question and Answer Session on Thursday, June 24, 2021 from 11:30am to 1:00pm to bring the SGMA community together to answer questions related to these first groundwater sustainability plan determinations. To participate in the Live Question and Answer Session, please see the registration link.

DWR encourages all SGMA interested parties to review the assessments and notification letters, and related materials, accessible on our GSP webpage. For any SGMA-related questions, please email DWR at: sgmps@water.ca.gov.

Be a part of the effort to identify AB 1755 priorities by taking the user interface survey. Suvey will close on October 31, 2020.

Your responses will help to inform ongoing implementation efforts. Feedback is much appreciated!

Source: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/3PBPGFT

Learn more!

Environmental groups and Native American tribal members say Gov. Gavin Newsom needs to be doing more to protect the state’s waters from Trump’s plan, though the priorities Newsom picked in his Water Resilience Portfolio, which manages the state’s waters, are as environmentally unfriendly as they can get.

“We’re really disappointed in the governor right now,” said Regina Chichizola, of Save California Salmon. “We really believed him when he said he was going to fight the Trump administration.”

Klamath River salmon populations are plummeting, Chichizola said, impacting tribal people who rely on them for sustenance and the commercial fishermen who rely on them for their livelihood.

“The state previously concluded that the increased water diversions under Trump fail to protect salmon and the environment,” said John McManus, president of the Golden State Salmon Association, in a statement. “Gov. Gavin Newsom said he’d stand up to Trump’s assault on California and go to court to stop it but other voices have apparently gotten to him, and so far, Newsom has failed to act.”

Few meetings on water diversions have been held locally, Chichizola said, but Hoopa high school students were able to get a meeting scheduled in Redding.

A couple of weeks after members of local tribes and members of the Hoopa Valley High School water protectors club traveled to the state capitol, the state agreed to hold a hearing on March 2 at 6 p.m. at the Sheraton Redding Hotel (820 Sundial Bridge Dr.).

“Why is it important for people to come out and help stop the projects threatening our rivers?” said Kylee Sorrel, of the water protectors club, in a statement. “It is because these rivers are our future.”

According to a report published by conservation group California Trout and the University of California, Davis Center for Watershed Sciences, “45% of California salmonids are likely to be extinct in the next 50 years.”

Besides climate change, CalTrout listed the top three threats to the state’s salmon as agriculture, major dams and changing land uses.

In order to have an abundant fishery, the salmon need plenty of cold water which comes into the Klamath from the Trinity River, Chichizola said.

The Trump administration’s new water plan for the Central Valley and the biological opinion going along with it will lead to 22% more water being diverted to farmers, she said, meaning a lot more water will be coming out of watersheds like the Sacramento and Trinity rivers.

The governor promised to litigate against those plans, but now “he’s negotiating over water projects that are just as bad as Trump’s water plan,” she said.

“The governor wants the North State’s water, but doesn’t really want our opinions,” Chichizola said.

Restoring and recharging the aquifers would be a win-win solution for everyone, but instead Newsom and Trump “are just proposing the same old large diversions and new reservoirs” that will benefit large water brokers and the agricultural industry, Chichizola said.

“The salmon cannot sustain any more water being taken from the Trinity River,” said Margo Robbins, a Yurok tribal member and faculty adviser to the Water Protectors Club, in a statement. “We must put an end to these new diversion projects.”

Source: https://www.times-standard.com/2020/02/17/is-newsom-doing-enough-to-protect-the-states-waters/

Looking at the tape under a microscope, Deheyn sees what he's looking for: microfibers, stuck to the adhesives.

Microfibers are a subset of microplastics, tiny pieces of petroleum-based materials that break down from larger plastic pieces or are manufactured at their microscopic sizes: less than 5 millimeters across. The strands of fiber—about five times thinner than a human hair—are used in textile manufacturing; they shed from our clothes during wear, during washing and drying, flowing into waterways and drifting into the air.

Deheyn is working with Robert DeLaurentis (aka Zen Pilot) on a study that analyzes the global distribution and concentration of microfibers. He says that the best science sometimes involves the most simple technology: in this case, double-sided tape. For every part of his 30-leg flight from the North Pole to the South Pole, DeLaurentis will have a sample for Deheyn.

"It might not give us absolute numbers, but at least it will give us a good hint on the types of particles found in the atmosphere," said Deheyn. "And it will be the first time samples like this have been gathered around the globe."

These samples will add to Deheyn's current research, which has uncovered microfibers in the Arctic, in the Amazon, in the most remote and deepest parts of the sea. Pretty much everywhere he has sampled or has received samples from.

"After finding microfibers in water samples from all over the world, it was clear that one main route of contamination had to be through the atmosphere," said Deheyn. "But as a marine biologist accustomed to collecting samples underwater, I clearly had no idea how to take air samples at high altitudes around the globe."

The end of a war, the start of an era

Recent Scripps Ph.D. graduate Jenni Brandon pulls out a seabed core sample in the Scripps Geological Collections. It was taken from offshore Southern California in the Santa Barbara Basin. Its contents represent a slice of geologic history, sediments that go back 200 years.

Brandon used this and other cores in a recent study in which she found that the amount of plastics accumulating in the environment has exploded since the end of World War II. The sharp exponential increase matches a rise in the rate of plastic production worldwide and a surge in California's coastal population during the same time period. The research team noted that since the 1940s the amount of microscopic plastics has doubled about every 15 years.

"Plastic production is being almost perfectly copied in our sedimentary record. Our love of plastic is actually being left behind in our fossil record," said Brandon.

The rise of plastics beginning in 1945—as the world recovered from war—could serve as a proxy for a time period within the Anthropocene that scientists have labeled "the Great Acceleration." Scientists define the Anthropocene as the current geological age, during which human activity has been the dominant influence on the planet.

Prior to the "Great Acceleration," scientists had estimated that between 4.8 and 12.7 million metric tons of plastic waste enter the ocean every year. Because the amount of plastic waste tends to track with population, Brandon and coauthors anticipate that nearshore areas could bear a disproportionate brunt of that infusion of plastic as coastal population growth continues to accelerate.

Brandon's study is the first of its kind in that it examined accumulation of plastic over time in a location that afforded researchers the opportunity to resolve the trend in fine detail, and is among several that illustrate how pervasive plastic pollution is in the global oceans.

Getting the numbers right

Pinpointing the start of our plastic assault on the environment wasn't the only eye opener for Brandon. In a separate study, Brandon found that jelly-like, filter-feeding marine invertebrates called salps are ingesting mini-microplastics; these pieces of ultra-tiny pieces of pollution had previously flown under scientists' radar.

While it's no surprise these organisms are eating plastic, Brandon was surprised by the sheer volume of microplastics that were previously missed: about a million times more than previously thought.

Analyzing seawater samples, Bandon found some of the tiniest countable microplastics in surface seawater at much higher concentrations than previously measured. Her method unveiled that the traditional way of counting marine microplastics was likely missing the smallest particles.

On average, Brandon estimates the ocean is contaminated by 8.3 million pieces of mini-microplastics per cubic meter of water. Previous studies measuring larger pieces of plastic found only 10 pieces per cubic meter.

Brandon teamed up with co-author Linsey Sala, collections manager of the Scripps Pelagic Invertebrate Collection, one of the world's preeminent collections of marine zooplankton that dates back to 1903. Brandon dissected salps collected over multiple years of sea-going expeditions and long-term monitoring networks across the North Pacific.

Of the 100 salps Brandon surveyed from water samples collected in 2009, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2017, 100 percent had mini-microplastics in their guts. The results shocked Brandon.

"I definitely thought some of them would be clean because they have a relatively quick gut clearance time," Brandon said, noting that the time it takes a salp to consume and defecate food is between two to seven hours. As filter feeders, salps are almost always eating.

Plastics in the stomachs of salps could travel up the food chain to creatures that feed upon them, including sea turtles and commercially caught rockfish and king crab. Eventually, these mini-microplastics could be making their way into humans.

"No one eats salps, but it's not far away on the food chain from the things you do eat," Brandon said.

The BEST path forward

Tethered by rope and submerged underwater off the Scripps pier, plastic samples are slowly degrading. The two experiments are owned by different labs but are part of efforts to understand the same process: how plastics degrade.

On one side of the pier, Deheyn and postdoctoral researcher Sarah-Jeanne Royer are monitoring petroleum-based and cellulose (wood fiber) microfibers.

Royer routinely checks the status of these fibers. A postdoctoral researcher in Deheyn's lab, she is working with industry to find new sustainable options for fibers. This research is established through the BEST Initiative, a platform founded by Deheyn that facilitates the interaction between industry and academia to provide a space for collaboration.

The key to this study was to acquire raw material fibers created from popular chemical processing methods that could ultimately affect fiber biodegradability, which has been successfully implemented with fiber producers such as the Austria-based Lenzing Group. The researchers hope to address two fundamental questions: which virgin materials degrade in the marine environment, and which process in the supply chain alters the degradation of textiles.

Deheyn didn't initially plan to study microplastics; he actually specializes in biofluorescence. But he noticed strange materials glowing in his samples. At first, he thought they were just scratches on the lens, but he came to find that they were actually microfibers.

Deheyn's observation of fluorescent pollutants led to new opportunities. He and researchers at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering have been using fluorescence to develop new technology to detect microplastics filtered from water samples.

The technique, developed by engineering graduate student Jessica Sandoval, is called the Automated Microplastics Identifier (AMI). The protocol aims to replace manual counting by eye with automation processes that identify the fibers. Researchers first image the filters under UV illumination, so that the plastic fluoresces. Sandoval developed software to quantify the amount of plastic on each filter and to also generate information of features of the plastics using image recognition.

"It is an exciting first step, using automation technologies to assist with the monitoring of this prevalent marine pollutant," said Sandoval, who began developing this technology as an undergraduate student at UC San Diego. "With such technologies, we can more easily process samples from across the globe and generate a better understanding of microplastic distribution."

Deheyn is using this technology to analyze water samples that have been taken off the Scripps pier since the 1970s. These samples are analyzed for microfiber concentration in order to determine how quantities of this pollution have changed over time. This research will also show which types of fibers are the least biodegradable, and around what period in the past 50 years this particular plastic pollution became noticeable.

On the other side of the pier, post-consumer plastics such as water bottles and yogurt cups are amassing marine microbes. These organisms help break down plastics, and Scripps biological oceanographer Jeff Bowman is part of a group working to understand how, and which microbes are most important.

Bowman is working with San Diego-based National University on the CUREing Microbes on Ocean Plastics project, a program that uses Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) to center student learning around real-world issues. Funded by the National Science Foundation, the program is focused on plastics, specifically simulating plastic debris in the ocean and studying the microbes that break them down. Students become part of the research team to help answer the questions around microbes and plastic degradation.

Every couple of months for the past year and a half, a new class from National University has visited Scripps to check on the plastics off the pier. Using those samples, Bowman and other scientists teach them about marine microbiology and educate them on plastic pollution. The samples and data the students collect in these sessions are then incorporated into their coursework for the term.

Graduate students in the Bowman Lab later perform more detailed analyses of the samples in order to build a library of gene sequences of bacteria that build up on ocean plastics. They're hoping to learn more about the ability of the marine microbial community to degrade plastics, and how this understanding could then be applied to degrade plastics on an industrial scale.

"Ocean plastics are a huge environmental challenge, but also present a unique educational opportunity," said Bowman. "Undergraduate students hear about ocean plastics in the news and can see the problem when they visit local beaches. We're able to leverage this to build an understanding of the role of microbes in the marine system, and how microbes can be part of the big environmental solutions of this century."

Despite the breadth of research on this topic, scientists stress that we still have much to learn about the effects of microplastics on the environment, and ultimately us. Given headlines claiming that there will soon be more plastic in the ocean than fish, it's research that the scientific community, and society at large, is eager to explore.

"This is just the beginning of our understanding about the 'biology of plastics.' They are everywhere, in the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat," said Deheyn. "So, we need to learn how to live with them around us and inside us. However, while the fundamental scientific questions are being worked on, the key question as a society remains poorly addressed: why do we keep making materials that do not degrade and that keep accumulating in such excess that they choke our ecosystems?"

His experience aboard a nuclear submarine and on the management staff of Otay Water District shares a few commonalities. Both involve highly complex systems, which often operate away of the public eye, either underwater or underground.

“People turn on the tap and out comes water,” said Martinez, General Manager for ACWA-member Otay Water District. “It seems rather simple, but it’s really complex. It’s fascinating to me.”

Martinez’s experience as a naval nuclear engineer focused on submarines’ nuclear and non-nuclear systems, including water treatment. This gave him an advantage to transition to a civilian career in water.

A bill and new law, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in October 2019, sets the stage for making it much easier for military veterans to transition into the water industry. AB 1588, initiated by Martinez and Otay, intends to update the current water and wastewater certification system by giving military veterans credit for their experience and education that is applicable to the water industry. Essentially, veterans would not have to start at the bottom, but instead advance to testing that matches their level of experience. That way, veterans can enter the water workforce at a level that meets their paygrade.

AB 1588 was introduced by Assemblymembers Todd Gloria (D-San Diego) and Adam Gray (D-Merced), and co-authored by several state legislators, including Assemblymember Tasha Boerner Horvath (D-Oceanside). The San Diego County Water Authority and Otay cosponsored the bill, with the goal of increasing the number of veterans entering the water industry to replace retiring baby boomers.

To address this challenge, the Water Authority and its 24 member agencies created a regional workforce development task force to address the oncoming “Silver Tsunami” of retirees. The San Diego region alone employs approximately 4,500 water and wastewater workers, with more than 1,400 of those workers expected to reach retirement age by 2024, according to the Water Authority. Statewide, there are approximately 6,000 active certified wastewater treatment plant operators, and approximately 35,000 drinking water treatment and distribution operators.

Jobs within the water industry often reflect military experience, and not necessarily ones directly related to water and wastewater treatment on a base or aboard a ship. Don Jones, with the Center for Water Studies at El Cajon’s Cuyamaca College, compared experience within a Combat Information Center on a warship to operating a SCADA system at a water facility, pointing out that experienced SCADA operators can be hard to find.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re opening a pump or firing a missile, the process is very similar, it’s the mechanical and electronic interface that matters. You’re electronically activating a piece of mechanical equipment,” Jones said.

The water industry can also offer veterans a few other advantages. Shannon Cotulla served in the U.S. Army as a combat engineer between 1987 and 1992. After leaving the service, he contemplated aviation engineering, but a desire to work outdoors in civil engineering led him to the water industry. Today, Cotulla is Assistant General Manager at the South Tahoe Public Utility District and former member of ACWA’s Board of Directors.

“The work is really meaningful, it’s all about serving people and keeping our communities safe,” Cotulla said. “There’s also security in knowing that your organization has rules and standards that you can look up to and isn’t subject to the whims that you sometimes find in the private sector.”

Otay’s Martinez said that it could take a few years for the state to make the changes called for in AB 1588. Nevertheless, the process is underway and includes having a veteran with water industry experience serve on a regulatory advisory board along with water industry members. In the meantime, news about the bill’s potential for veterans is raising awareness among veterans about why careers in the water industry represent a great opportunity.

“We really want to open up this talent pool,” Martinez said. “Veterans are the right candidates to fill these jobs because of the skilled work they’ve already demonstrated in their careers and their time in the military.”


Source: https://www.acwa.com/news/spotlight-water-industry-jobs-feb-2020/

The Group is composed of 19 appointed members that represent public water systems, technical assistance providers, local agencies, nongovernmental organizations, the public and residents served by community water systems in disadvantaged communities, state small water systems, and domestic wells.

The Group meets up to four time a year at locations throughout California to provide many opportunities for public and community input. All meetings are widely publicized, open to the public, and offer translation services.

Source: https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/drinking_water/programs/safer_drinking_water/advisory_group.html

Development of CLIP is being performed by DDW with a vendor, EarthSoft. As part of this effort, a new reporting format known as “EQEDD_CASWRCB_DDW” is being developed that will replace the current electronic reporting data format specified in regulations. Regulation revisions are pending, which should incorporate the new reporting format. The new reporting format should facilitate the submission of water quality data analyses while collecting appropriate quality control elements. Information regarding future regulation changes will be made available as they are developed.

CLIP Testing by Pilot Laboratories
The Data Management Unit (DMU) solicited for volunteers to test CLIP prior to implementation. Volunteers have been selected and testing is currently planned for early 2020.

CLIP Registration
In mid-2020 all laboratories and their data submitters will be notified of the need to register, establish their identity, and obtain authorization to sign a submission electronically prior to using CLIP.

CLIP Training
DMU will provide laboratory training prior to implementation to ensure familiarity with CLIP prior to the transition from WQM.

For questions, please contact DWPDIET@Waterboards.ca.gov.


Source: https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/drinking_water/certlic/drinkingwater/clip.html

Overpumping of groundwater has led to a variety of negative effects including reduced groundwater levels, seawater intrusion, and degraded water quality. It has also led to subsidence, which causes damage to critical water infrastructure. In some cases, years of overpumping have left entire California communities and farms without safe and reliable local water supplies.

“Groundwater is a critical component of the state’s water supply resources,” said Karla Nemeth, director of the California Department of Water Resources (DWR). “California’s groundwater basins must be managed for long-term sustainability rather than for short-term need.”

California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), signed into law in 2014, requires locally led Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSAs) to develop groundwater sustainability plans outlining actions and implementation measures to halt overdraft and bring groundwater basins into sustainable conditions. Plans for critically overdrafted basins are due today, Jan. 31, 2020. High- and medium-priority basins have until 2022 to submit plans and are required to reach sustainability by 2042. SGMA allows for more than one GSP to be prepared for a single basin as long as the GSAs demonstrate the plans work together through a coordination agreement.

“The premise of SGMA is that local agencies are best suited to craft plans to sustainably manage groundwater basins,” said Joaquin Esquivel, Chair of the State Water Resources Control Board. “If the state finds a groundwater plan is unlikely to achieve sustainability, the Water Board will temporarily step in to work with the local agency and DWR to bring the basin back into compliance.”

GSAs are submitting plans to DWR, the lead state agency providing compliance and regulatory oversight. The State Water Resources Control Board can intervene in basins when local management of groundwater is not successful.

Once a plan is submitted, DWR has 20 days to post it on the website, at which point the plans are open to public comment for 75 days. GSAs will begin implementing their plans immediately after they adopt them.

SGMA directs DWR to evaluate and assess all plans to determine whether each plan is adequate, based on best available science and information, and whether implementation of the plan is likely to achieve the groundwater basin’s sustainability goal. More information about the plan submittal and review process and the significance of managing groundwater for long-term sustainability is contained on DWR’s website.

Groundwater accounts for about 40 percent of the state’s water use in a normal year and up to 60 percent during dry years. Groundwater is the only water supply for approximately a third of California residents, and many municipal, agricultural, and disadvantaged communities rely on groundwater for all of their water supply needs. Implementation of SGMA is an important component of Governor Newsom’s recently released draft Water Resilience Portfolio.

“Groundwater storage will become even more important as California’s changing climate produces less snow and more rain,” Nemeth said. “Groundwater acts as a drought buffer by providing water that is available to use when surface water supplies are diminished.”


Source: https://water.ca.gov/News/News-Releases/2020/CA-Marks-Key-Step-Toward-Achieving-Sustainable-Groundwater-Management

Sediment dynamics are an indicator of the health of aquatic ecosystems. Scientists use this data to provide information for agencies and groups interested in ecosystem restoration, fish conservation, and resource management.

In recent years, because of their accuracy and ease-of-use, the use of technologies such as acoustic doppler, multibeam echosounder, and lidar (laser light) have become increasingly popular for monitoring aquatic sediment.

In a recent USGS Science Investigations Report, California Water Science Center scientists Mathieu Marineau, Scott Wright, and Joan Lopez, discuss the use of multibeam echosounder (MBES) and terrestrial LiDAR technology to measure the accumulation of sediment in order to assess water storage capacity in California’s San Antonio Reservoir.

The USGS used these technologies to survey the bathymetry (the bottom of the reservoir) and exposed shoreline at the same time. The USGS also collected sediment samples of the reservoir bed material to investigate sedimentation characteristics and trends.

Read the full report.

In an article written for the journal, Water Resources Research, California Water Science Center scientists Dan Haught and Scott Wright, working with Canadian Scientists, discuss using acoustic Doppler technology to measure sediment flux on British Columbia’s Fraser River.

The work involved using acoustic Doppler current profilers (ADCPs) to monitor sediment discharge in rivers. Specifically, sound signals from horizontally profiling ADCPs (hADCPs) were used measure profiles across river channels to provide a degree of spatial integration that is not possible with at-a-point optical instruments. In their research, scientists used an array of three horizontally-mounted acoustic Doppler current profilers deployed in the Fraser River near the town of Mission, British Columbia to calculate suspended sediment concentration (M) and other factors using acoustic signal inversion.

Read the article.

Source: https://www.usgs.gov/center-news/usgs-scientists-use-sound-and-light-measure-sediment-water?qt-news_science_products=3#qt-news_science_products

UC Water and GRA hope that this will advance the conversation about recharge, help prepare our infrastructure and institutions for capitalizing on water available for recharge, and improve the water security and sustainability of our state.

GRA will continue to be engaged at the state level to review and provide comment on the wise protection and preservation of California’s precious groundwater resources, and we encourage you to do the same. Thank you for being a GRA member.

The public comment period for Update 2018 will run through Monday, Jan. 21. Comments can be submitted using email, fax, or postal mail. Instructions and addresses for submitting comments are included in the reviewer’s guide that begins on the second page (inside front cover) of the online report. The guide is also available as a separate online document.

• Nearly all the state experienced below average precipitation.
• Much of Southern California ended up with half or less than half of average annual precipitation.
• The April 1 statewide snowpack based on over 260 snow cores was just 58% of average for water year 2018 – a significant drop from 159% of average for April 1 in 2017.
• The water year coincided with ongoing warming conditions, setting new records this summer for maximum temperatures in the South Coast region.
• The water year 2018 is indicative of California’s ongoing transition to a warmer climate, which after years of extreme variability in annual precipitation, resulted in record-breaking wildfires.
• Despite below-average precipitation in water year 2018, most California reservoirs are storing near-average or above-average levels of water heading into the 2019 water year.

The new water year began on October 1, 2018 and runs through September 30, 2019.

To read the full report on the 2018 water year, please click the link here.

Questions regarding the survey can be sent to SGMP@water.ca.gov.

Wednesday, April 4, 2018 from 4:00 PM - 6:30 PM

The Steering Committee for the Anne J. Schneider Lecture Series
cordially invites you to attend this year's lecture presentation in support of our efforts to encourage professional and personal commitment to water law and policy and the conservation of our special landscapes in memory of Anne Schneider's lifelong devotion to these areas.

This year's distinguished lecturers are Kevin O'Brien (Downey
Brand) and Maurice Hall (Environmental Defense Fund), who will
discuss:

Can California successfully integrate groundwater and surface water
under SGMA?

The discussion and questions will be led by State Water Resources
Control Board member DeeDee D’Adamo.

The lecture will be on Wednesday, April 4, 2018 at the Crocker Art
Museum in Sacramento. Check-in begins at 3:30pm with the lecture
starting at 4:00pm. A reception with hors d'oeuvres and drinks will
follow beginning at approximately 5:30pm.

The event and reception are free to participants and are being
brought to you by sponsorships for the Anne J. Schneider Lecture
Series. Please RSVP below by Wednesday, March 28, 2018.
If you have any questions please contact Danyella Herrera at
dherrera@norcalwater.org or (916) 442-8333.

For more information and registration, follow the link below:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/anne-j-schneider-lecture-2018-feat-kevin-obrien-and-maurice-hall-tickets-42649818756

The public comment period for the Draft Funding Recommendations is now open and will close on February 21.  For more information, please visit the following webpage:  http://water.ca.gov/irwm/grants/sgwp/solicitation.cfm

On May 8, 2017, The California State Superior Court issued an order vacating the California State Water Board’s current 10 ppb Hexavalent Chromium Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL).  In the Ruling, the court also ordered the State Water Board to establish a new Hexavalent Chromium MCL as close as feasible to the current 0.02 ppb Public Health Goal (PHG) but also includes consideration of the economic feasibility of compliance with the new MCL, particularly for small water systems.
 
Once a formal judgment is finalized between the Petitioner (California Manufacturers & Technology Association) and the State Water Resources Control Board, the State will proceed with re-establishing an MCL for Hexavalent Chromium.
 

GRA will continue to be engaged at the State level to review and provide comment on the wise protection and preservation of California’s precious groundwater resources, and we encourage you to do the same.  Thank you for being a GRA member.
 
Sincerely,
 
Chris Petersen, P.G., C.H.G
President, GRA

 GRA is very pleased to announce that this year we partnered with the Mexican National Water Commission (CONAGUA), the Engineering Institute of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), International Association of Hydrogeologists (IAH), American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), Arizona Hydrological Society and others to plan and conduct the International Symposium on Managed Aquifer Recharge (ISMAR9) in Mexico City in June 2016 (www.ismar9.org). A desired outcome of ISMAR9 on the part of CONAGUA, who strongly supported the event, was to develop a globally applicable document to help them address some of the large groundwater challenges they have in Mexico. The result was the development of the “ISMAR9 Call to Action: Sustainable Groudnwater Management Policy Directives,” provided as English and Spanish versions 

 The document was developed largely during the conference for decision-makers and the public to inform, engage and educate stakeholders on the critical need for addressing our shrinking groundwater resources. We hope you will find it is useful to help educate groundwater stakeholders and the public on the need for sustainable groundwater management in your area. We think that the “ISMAR9 Call to Action” helps address some of GRA’s objectives including:

•  Develop scientific educational programs that promote the understanding and implementation of groundwater assessment, protection, and management
• The Groundwater Resources Association assumes a leadership role in communicating the needs and values of our industry to government officials and the public

 Wishing you a Merry Christmas and Sustainable Groundwater Future.

 Sincerely,

Tim Parker, GRA Director