RIDGECREST, Calif. (June 10, 2026) – On June 8, 2026, the Orange County Superior Court began hearing Phase 2 of the comprehensive adjudication for the Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Basin. The trial will focus on the basin’s “safe yield” and the scientific evidence used to calculate that figure.
At the conclusion of Phase 2, a judge will issue a ruling determining the basin’s safe yield, which is the amount of groundwater that can be pumped from the basin each year without causing long-term harm, such as falling water tables, dry wells, or land subsidence. In short, the Indian Wells Valley Water District filed a comprehensive groundwater adjudication in 2021 to challenge the groundwater authority’s findings that the basin’s sustainable yield is 7,650 acre-feet per year. Three years later, the water district claimed the safe yield in the basin is 14,300 acre-feet per year.
Phase 2 is a critical milestone in the adjudication process that will ultimately effect pumping in the basin. What it will not do, however, is change the fundamental challenge water users face. In 2024, legally required reporting of all pumpers in the valley showed that 20,840 acre-feet was pumped from the basin, which is far more than either estimate presented of what the basin can sustain.
“It’s important for our community to understand that the court process and the long-term work of managing this basin are not the same thing,” said Scott Hayman, chair of the Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority. “Phase 2 will help establish a foundational scientific and legal record. But the obligation to bring this basin to sustainability by 2040 under the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act continues regardless of how the court rules.”
The Adjudication Journey
Phase 1 of the adjudication addressed the federal reserve water right held by the U.S. Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake. In a final statement of decision issued in September 2025, the judge capped the Navy’s federal right at 2,008 acre-feet per year, significantly lower than the 6,350 acre-feet per year requested by the Navy.
Phase 2 will determine the basin’s safe yield. The parties to the case, including the groundwater authority, the water district, the Navy and other water users in the basin, will present expert testimony and evidence. The judge will determine, based on that evidence, what is the basin’s safe yield.
A court ruling on safe yield is one input into the larger work of bringing the basin into balance. It does not, by itself, achieve sustainability or end the regulatory framework that applies to the basin. Overall, the IWVGA has opposed the adjudication because it ties up the basin in years of litigation, delaying action to address the very active groundwater depletion that is continuing year over year.
Under the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), passed in 2014, critically overdrafted basins like the Indian Wells Valley must be sustainably managed by 2040. That obligation rests with the IWVGA as the basin’s Groundwater Sustainability Agency.
IWVGA’s Role During and After Adjudication
The groundwater authority’s role does not end with Phase 2 or with any subsequent phase of the adjudication. As long as the basin is in overdraft, IWVGA’s responsibility under SGMA is to develop, implement, and enforce a Groundwater Sustainability Plan that brings the basin into compliance with state law.
That responsibility includes demand reduction measures, alternative water supply development, in particular the Indian Wells Valley Pipeline Project, and continued annual reporting to the California Department of Water Resources on the basin’s status.
“The public has every right to understand how the court process and our work as an Authority fit together,” said Hayman. “The court will make decisions about safe yield. The Authority will continue working to bring this basin into sustainability. Those are parallel processes, and both will continue.”
