RIDGECREST, Calif. (March 20, 2025) – The Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority has a single, urgent mandate by the state: ensure the long-term supply of water for residents and businesses in the Indian Wells Valley. This mandate has been interrupted by litigation that is taking time and money that would be better spent dealing with this daunting challenge.
Those filing lawsuits do not challenge the reality that the Indian Wells Valley groundwater basin suffers from “severe overdraft” (the condition when water is pumped out of the ground much faster than it can be replaced). In fact, no one relying on water from the basin, including the litigants Searles Valley Minerals and the Indian Wells Valley Water District, are disagreeing that at some point the groundwater basin will simply run out of water.
So what, exactly, is being claimed in the lawsuits? Essentially, the litigants contend that when the Groundwater Authority developed its state-approved Groundwater Sustainability Plan, it significantly underestimated the groundwater basin’s “sustainable yield.” Moreover, they are falsely claiming that the Authority is concealing the methods used to determine that sustainable yield.
“The sustainable yield claim by these two litigants is not based on verifiable science or data, and the accusation that we are concealing data is an attempt to disinform the public,” said Scott Hayman, chair of the Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority. “The groundwater resiliency data used to help develop the Groundwater Sustainability Plan comes from independent research produced by a highly respected research institute retained by the U.S. Navy. And the results of this study are available for anyone to read and evaluate.”
What is a “sustainable yield” of groundwater?
Hydrologists have long defined sustainable yield as the maximum amount of water that can be withdrawn from an aquifer without causing undesirable environmental, economic, or social consequences, while maintaining its long-term availability. Assessing the sustainable yield was a critical priority when developing a plan to address long-term viability of the Indian Wells Valley groundwater
Without going deep into computational mathematics, in short, the sustainable yield findings come from the review and assessment of the Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Basin Model that was produced by the Desert Research Institute for the U.S. Navy. The study was initiated so the U.S. Navy could assess mission readiness and impacts from the lack of local water management and the continued overdraft of water in the basin.
This model determined the sustainable yield of the Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Basin to be 7,650 acre-feet per year, and this determination is consistent with the findings of 12 other independent basin studies over the last 53 years. If this stays consistent, the basin will run out in approximately 40 years. The lawsuit plaintiffs are claiming a substantially higher sustainability yield at 14,300 acre-feet per year.
“Arriving at these figures requires substantial research and expertise, and we remain confident in the research and in-depth analysis that came from one of the world’s most widely respected team of experts in the field,” said Hayman. “This science and the modeling conclusions have always been a matter of public record and never withheld for review.”
The Modeling Science
Policy and solutions for significant challenges like this require research to be independent, comprehensive and credible. The nonprofit Desert Research Institute, established in 1959 as part of the Nevada System of Higher Education and University of Nevada, is world renowned for its Hydrologic Sciences expertise and meets the criteria as a credible research source unaffiliated with the Indian Wells Valley or even the state.
The Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority was able to leverage this research produced for the U.S. Navy to help develop the Groundwater Sustainability Plan, a public document that has been posted on the IWVGA website since it was adopted in 2020. This plan was approved by the state government (including the California Department of Water Resources), Kern County, Inyo County, San Bernardino County, the Indian Wells Valley Water District and the City of Ridgecrest. As part of the process, all affected parties had access to data from DRI and other research.
The entire 227-page report (“Groundwater Resource Sustainability: Modeling Evaluation for the Naval Air Weapons Station, China Lake, California”) can be found here. To be clear, the groundwater resource sustainability modeling tools (computer programs created by DRI) are proprietary information owned by the U.S. Navy.
Room for New Insights
The Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority exists today by state edict only because the Indian Wells Valley groundwater basin is in severe overdraft after more than six decades of unchecked water withdrawals. Since the overdrafting began, there has been no sustainable solution to replenish the diminishing groundwater.
A critical responsibility of the IWVGA is to implement the Groundwater Sustainability Plan. To ensure the latest data and conditions are taken into consideration, there is a built-in process for a Periodic Review and Assessment to be done by the Technical Advisory Committee every five years.
The Indian Wells Valley Water District and Searles Valley Minerals are both members of this committee and can provide new insights for possible updates to the Groundwater Sustainability Plan but have chosen instead to stop attending committee meetings and pursue litigation. To date, neither the water district nor Searles Valley Minerals have been able to share any verifiable scientific data to prove that the sustainable yields should be adjusted, despite the claims within their lawsuit. In fact, in a hearing in February 2025, the judge admonished them for the lack of a model and a possible bias, which can be read in this court transcript.
The Authority continues to stand by the science in the Ground Sustainability Plan and the detailed analysis performed by the Desert Research Institute and urges the litigants to drop their legal maneuvering and work with the Authority to solve this crucial challenge.
