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July 2015 WINES&VINES 29 GROUNDED GRAPEGROWING to be used for irrigation and urban use. In 1893 Dr. Eugene Hilgard, a famous soil scientist from the University of California, Berkeley, released a landmark report detailing his research of how to reclaim and manage saline-sodic soils with gypsum. This was key to opening many parts of the Central Valley and desert regions for irrigated crops and keeping the soils productive over time. By the early 1900s, the Bureau of Reclama- tion began a series of huge irrigation projects to provide water to the thirsty western states. To date they have built 180 dams (including the Hoover Dam, the Klamath Project, the Shasta Dam and the Colorado River Aqueduct, which are particularly important to California). The Army Corps of Engineers were assigned the task of flood control that resulted in many more dams in the state, along with those built by power companies, various water districts and other entities. There are more than 1,300 reservoirs in California providing both munici- pal and irrigation water. There are also numer- o u s s m a l l r e s e r v o i r s c o n s t r u c t e d b y landowners. The huge California State Water Project that distributes water from Northern California (mostly for urban use in Southern California) began in 1960 and best exemplifies how large- scale agriculture and urban California are de- pendent on water delivered to them from far away by expensive infrastructure. The state's population grew from 16.7 million to 38.8 million people today. The state's economy grew from $520 billion in 1963 to $2.2 trillion today, making California the seventh largest economy on the planet. Without imported water, much of the southern part of the state would be un- LAWMAKERS ADDRESS GROUNDWATER With snow and surface water storage at critically low levels, growers are pumping groundwater to make up the difference. In some areas, long-term overdraft (more water removed than annually replenished) has created critically low water levels. Land subsidence as much as 30 feet has been measured as a result of the over drafting. This can cause compression of rocks and other formations that may permanently reduce below-ground water storage and cause surface features such as roads, canals and levees to buckle and break. Growers in parts of the Central Valley are pumping nearly 2,000 feet below the surface in some places, using water that found its way there thou- sands of years ago. To address the overdraft problem, California lawmak- ers have passed legisla- tion called the Sustainable Ground Water Management Act (SGWMA). The California Department of Water Re- sources (DWR) will coordinate its imple- mentation and has identified groundwater basins around the state that are either high- or medium-priority basins that will require water elevation monitoring. There are 127 groundwater basins and sub- basins that are high or medium priority for monitoring, mostly in the Central Val- ley and around urban areas. These make up only a quarter of all of California's groundwater basins but represent about 96% of groundwater that is pumped. Believing that the best solutions will prob- ably be based on local knowledge, the state is asking land owners or local agen- cies in these basins to develop groundwa- ter sustainability plans that will monitor well levels and also come up with a plan to reverse the declining water tables. The water basins affected by this legislation have until 2017 to identify a local ground- water sustainability agency. This could be an existing county water agency, irrigation district, joint powers authority or other or- ganization representing affected land own- ers. Depending on how serious overdrafts might be, groups have until 2020 or 2022 to develop a plan to address overdrafts. The legislation envisions that by 2040, significant progress will be made toward solving overdrafts. If there is no local entity willing to take on the SGWMA, the DWR will step in and run it for the basin. DWR has created a draft strategic plan to guide this process. TTB LABEL APPROVALS Low per-label costs Gov't. Liaison Negotiations or Footwork Reasonable Hourly Rates TRADEMARK SEARCHES As Low as $185 Your trade names or designs are searched at the U.S. Patent Office to help establish valuable ownership or avoid costly legal liability. Over 100 years' total staff experience handling every government liaison need for industry. Phone or write for details. 200 N. Glebe Rd., Suite 321 Arlington, Virginia 22203 Phone: (703) 524-8200 Fax: 525-8451 TOLL-FREE 1-800-642-6564 Major Credit Cards Accepted www.trademarkinfo.com Since 1957 GovtLiaison_Dir08 11/29/07 2:00 PM Pag Include Code 0114 on your first order for an extra 10% off! 510-732-7010 A Division of Bay Seal Company Providing Sealing Solutions for over 50 Years wineryseals.com California Gov. Jerry Brown discusses groundwater legislation in September 2014. OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR