There is a new piece of legislation regulating groundwater, that was introduced to California yesterday by Governor Jerry Brown. The bill was sign by Brown after years and years of unregulated use of California's groundwater. The legislation states that the state government will intervene if the local government can't control the use of groundwater. So it first will allow the local levels of government to try to regulate the use of their groundwater but if the water is not regulated well then the state government can take over.
The Los Angeles Times describes the opposition and supporters of this new legislation which mainly pins the environmentalist against the farmers of the Central Valley.There is a lot of concern on the opposing side over how much power the state government now has when it comes to telling farmers how much of their own water they can use. Farmers worry that this new bill will limit the amount of water that they can use to grow their crops. The supporters of this new legislation argue that the bill is needed to protect the aquifers in California. Supporters also state that the we are taking too much of the groundwater and we are not able to put as much as we take out back into the aquifers.
The recent drought that California is having, propelled this legislation forward. Now all we can do is wait to see how this bill will pan out after it is put into effect. We might not see any results any times soon. As stated in the Los Angeles Times the effects of this new bill might not be felt until 2040 because it might take a long time to make and implement plans.
Link: http://www.latimes.com/local/politics/la-me-pol-water-brown-20140917-story.html
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