FAQs

The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act was enacted by the California Legislature to ensure better local and regional management of groundwater use. One legislative intent of SGMA is to recognize and preserve the authority of cities and counties to manage groundwater according to their existing powers. SGMA established Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSAs) throughout California, each managed locally. Among the GSA’s responsibilities is the development and implementation of Groundwater Sustainability Plans (GSPs) to avoid undesirable results and mitigate overdraft of groundwater basins within 20 years. The GSPs are submitted to the state’s Department of Water Resources (DWR) for review.

Groundwater is used by 85% of California’s population and is especially important to the state’s agriculture industry, since it’s a primary water source for crops. Before the passage of SGMA, groundwater use was under- regulated to the point where many areas of the state faced significant depletion. The Indian Wells Valley basin is among those the DWR has designated as being critically over-drafted. This area relies exclusively on groundwater and has experienced declining groundwater levels since at least 1945. That means that water has been extracted beyond its natural rate of replenishment, which in return is lowering the groundwater table. This phenomenon, called “overdraft,” can degrade water quality, cause severe land subsidence and cause wells to go dry.

Our problems are very serious – and solving them will be a difficult and lengthy process. The groundwater basin is currently in overdraft; water has been extracted far beyond its natural replenishment rate for over six decades. The historical overdraft of water is approximately 20,000 acre-feet per year. (An acre-foot is the amount of water needed to cover one acre of land with one foot of water, or 325,851 gallons. Picture a football field completely covered in a foot of water). In short, if we don’t find another source of water, there will be a continued steady decline of water quality in certain areas, and it is likely to significantly reduce the quantity of accessible groundwater to meet the area’s water needs within 40 years.

This significant reduction of groundwater in storage is directly related to the chronic lowering of groundwater levels, water quality degradation, and potential land subsidence. It is important to remember that groundwater is currently the sole water source for the Indian Wells Valley.

By ensuring a long-term, sustainable water supply, we can also maintain the character of the community, preserve the quality of life of our residents, sustain normal growth and support the U.S. Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake. It is a daunting challenge given that by 2015, water demand was already significantly exceeding the current sustainable yield of the Indian Wells Valley.

An extensive study of the effects of this long-term overdraft came from the U.S. Navy in 2016. The Navy hired Desert Research Institute (DRI) at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, a world-renowned research institute, to study the basin and it concluded that without drastic changes, one in three wells would be affected with low groundwater levels by 2040 and the entire basin by 2065. 

 DRI developed an Indian Wells Valley groundwater basin model so the Navy could assess readiness and mission impacts from the continued overdraft and the lack of local water management. The Navy declaration on critical water supply model and determination considered 14 other studies and models on the Indian Wells Valley groundwater basin. IWVGA did not simply rely on the DRI model but independently validated its findings. The validation and findings were then reviewed and approved by the California Department of Water Resources. The full study can be found here. 

The IWVGA’s first major task was to develop and seek State approval of a Groundwater Sustainability Plan (GSP) as mandated by SGMA. The GSP — a roadmap for how groundwater basins will reach long-term sustainability — was due to the State before January 31, 2020. The Indian Wells Valley GSP was submitted in January 2020 and approved by the DWR in January 2022.

The Indian Wells Valley GSP is an extensive, detailed document totaling almost 300 pages. Since its adoption, it has been supported by the federal government, the state government (including the Department of Water Resources), Kern County, Inyo County, San Bernardino County, and the City of Ridgecrest. It covers a wide variety of topics, including the region’s geology and hydrology, historical and current conditions, sustainable management criteria and proposed projects and management actions. You can access the entire document here.

IWVGA understood the daunting challenge behind developing a credible GSP. Any projects and management actions pursued to address long-term water sustainability goals must carefully consider ways to avoid (or at least mitigate) undesirable consequences to those affected. These efforts will take years to implement and require significant changes to the current status quo.

While we did not make the relevant laws mandated by the state, we are legally obligated to follow them. Moreover, we understand the critical importance of water sustainability. If IWVGA failed to form a GSP, or if the State did not agree it would achieve sustainability, the State of California would take over our local basin management and take any steps it considers necessary.

 To ensure that all the stakeholders affected by the GSP were able to comment on specific proposals, IWVGA established a Policy Advisory Committee to gain input from the community on various policy-related matters. The Policy Advisory Committee included voting members from an array of constituent groups, including large and small agriculture, wholesale and industrial water users, other business interests, domestic well owners, residential customers of the IWVWD and the Inyokern Community Services District, and the Eastern Kern County Resource Conservation District.

In addition, the Policy Advisory Committee had four ex officio (non-voting) members representing the U.S. Navy, the Indian Wells Valley Water District, the Bureau of Land Management and Kern County. The IWVGA board also established a Technical Advisory Committee to give affected parties an opportunity to review and evaluate technical elements of the GSP during development and through completion.

IVWGA developed the GSP in a years-long collaborative and comprehensive process using the detailed groundwater model created for the Navy. Ridgecrest, all three counties and the Indian Wells Valley Water District were proponents of the decision to use the Navy groundwater model for the development of the Plan. The Plan was unanimously adopted by these five entities in January of 2020, and after a required two-year long open review process, it was subsequently approved by the State in January of 2022.

After intensive study and analysis of multiple options, the IWVGA identified what has proven to be the sole long-term solution to this incredibly difficult challenge: the importation of additional water supplies (also known as imported water) through a connection to the State Water Project. To that end, the GSP has two keystones. The first is the funding and construction of the Indian Wells Valley Water Replenishment Pipeline, which will largely use grant funding to connect our basin to the 700-plus miles of the State Water Project. The State Water Project uses canals, pipelines, reservoirs and hydroelectric power to deliver water to 27 million Californians, 750,000 acres of farmland and businesses throughout the State. Importing water is a solution already relied on by cities and counties throughout California.

The second keystone provides a transient pool of water to agricultural users so they can prepare for and eventually cease pumping groundwater from the basin. This pool was effectively the same amount of overdraft water that will be pumped by long-term users that will ultimately receive some water from the State Water Project.   

The GSP identified numerous recommendations and a more detailed examination of these proposed actions are in the GSP itself, which can be found here. (Specific projects and management actions begin in section ES 5.0 Projects and Management Actions, which begins on page 235 of the Final GSP PDF.) After assessing conservation measures, multiple imported water sources and recycled water to achieve sustainability, only imported water can accomplish sustainability. The following is a summary of the other considerations.

Basin-Wide Conservation Efforts

The Indian Wells Valley Water District, the City of Ridgecrest, and NAWS China Lake have previously adopted conservation measures within their respective service areas to mitigate overdraft conditions in the groundwater basin. Additional efforts will be made to coordinate with domestic and municipal groundwater producers to develop additional voluntary and rebate-based conservation efforts, while promoting further conservation efforts for other beneficial uses (primarily industrial) that rely on groundwater from the basin. Conservation is an important part of groundwater management; however, it will never completely mitigate the overdraft issues without severe cutbacks or production ramp downs, essentially removing all unnecessary pumping. 

 Optimize Use of Recycled Water

From 2019 through 2023, IWVGA extensively studied the reuse of sewage water produced by the City of Ridgecrest wastewater treatment. Recycled water is mostly used for non-potable purposes like irrigation in agriculture, landscaping (parks, golf courses), and public spaces, since it is not typically treated to meet safe drinking water standards. IWVGA secured funding authorization of $30 million to design and construct a recycled water plant. Despite this funding award, the amount of recycled water produced does not meet California’s sustainability requirements.

 Furthermore, recycled water costs between $4,000 and $6,000 per acre-foot, significantly higher than the estimated $2,900 per acre-foot cost of imported water. For these reasons, IWVGA suspended activities on a recycled water plant. Nonetheless, IWVGA hopes to coordinate with the city to further optimize the use of recycled water in the groundwater basin beyond the current scope of the city’s project.

 The Use of Brackish Water

IWVGA and the Indian Wells Valley Water District have intensively studied the possible reuse of brackish water in the aquifer. Brackish water is saltier than freshwater but less salty than seawater. It’s often found in brackish fossil aquifers and some seas and lakes. This is not new water; reclaiming it for reuse would be “mining” the existing water within the Groundwater Basin. The State does not include brackish water recovery in its determination of sustainability; it is factored as stored water within the aquifer. Recovery of brackish water involves desalination and significant treatment. To date, the amount of water recovered by brackish water treatment does not justify the significant costs to desalinate, treat, and dispose of unusable brine.

 Other Projects at IWVGA

Additional projects are being considered as part of the GSP implementation. These projects have significantly less impact on water sustainability than the imported water project. These include Shallow Well Mitigation, Dust Control Mitigation, Pumping Optimization and Direct Potable Reuse. For more information on these projects, please review the GSP (Starting at Section 5.3.4 on Page 273 of the Final GSP PDF) here.