Sacramento, California - On Wednesday, Governor Newsom vetoed Assembly Bill 828 (Connolly), which would have temporarily paused high fees and groundwater pumping restrictions for disadvantaged communities and threatened wildlife areas under the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) and would have required additional local review of the impacts of plans on these users. The governor’s veto overrides strong majorities that supported the bill in Legislature and goes against established state policy to protect access to drinking water and prevent losses of wetland habitats.

A decade after passage of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, and nearly 5 years after the first plans were submitted, groundwater overdraft continues to endanger the wells of small communities and private homes, as well as the few remaining acres of managed wetlands in the San Joaquin Valley. Many wildlife species, including millions of migratory birds, that rely on those wetlands are suffering population declines and some are threatened with extinction due to lack of available wetland habitat.  

Disadvantaged communities have been found to have limited representation on local groundwater sustainability agencies boards and advisory committees. Advocates point out that this often leads local plans to underestimate or simply fail to identify plan impacts on local communities and the environment.

“Small water systems are already paying the price for unsustainable groundwater management, through water quality impairment and dry wells that drive the cost of water to unaffordable heights,” said Jennifer Clary, California Director of Clean Water Action. “The governor’s veto message appears to endorse the idea that those impacts shouldn’t be considered when determining who pays for SGMA implementation. We disagree.”   

California has lost more than 90 percent of its wetland habitats, largely due to conversion to agricultural uses. Consequently, migratory bird populations, such as ducks and geese, along the Pacific Flyway have continued to significantly decline, crowded onto the remaining wetlands. With so little habitat left, many species rely on small, managed wetlands throughout the Central Valley as the last islands of habitat in a vast, inhospitable agricultural landscape. Some of the species most impacted include greater Sandhill Crane, giant garter snake, Tricolored Blackbird, and Northern Pintail. Wetland managers across the Valley report that their wetlands will go dry if SGMA continues to be implemented without changes, dealing a crippling blow to decades of public and private investment and efforts to protect wetlands, migratory birds, and endangered species. 

“This decision goes against Governor Newsom’s professed goal to protect 30 percent of our state’s lands and waters by 2030 (“30 by 30”) and the established state policy to prevent the loss of wetlands,” said Mike Lynes, Director of Public Policy for Audubon California. “AB 828 was a common-sense approach that provided a very brief pause in the implementation of SGMA to protect important water supplies for small, vulnerable communities and managed wetlands. The governor’s decision to override the Legislature and his failure to direct state agencies to protect these vulnerable users increases water insecurity for communities and will lead to the unnecessary destruction of thousands of acres of wetlands and loss of biodiversity in the Central Valley.” 

California’s massive agricultural industry uses 80 percent of the state’s developed surface and groundwater supplies. For decades, farmers have over-pumped the state’s aquifers, resulting in significant damage to roads, bridges, wells, and other infrastructure due to subsidence. In fact, the negative impacts from groundwater pumping identified in the governor’s veto message are the consequences of the industry’s history of over-pumping groundwater while letting community wells and wetlands go dry. 

For years, Audubon, Clean Water Action, and dozens of other groups reviewed draft Groundwater Sustainability Plans (GSPs) and attempted to work with Groundwater Sustainability Agencies to elevate concerns about wetlands and small communities. Unfortunately, most of the agencies continued to cut water supplies to small communities and managed wetlands at the same rates as large agricultural producers. Small, disadvantaged communities and wetlands managers are unable to compete with large agricultural producers, who can purchase water and drill deeper wells, which also leave even more wells and wetlands dry.

“The Governor’s veto message does not even mention how his decision will impact wetlands in California,” said Lynes. “We have to ask ourselves: Did Governor Newsom understand that with the stroke of a pen, he placed thousands of managed wetlands in California at imminent risk? And if he did understand, then what will his administration do to protect these last, vital wildlife areas that are essential to so many sensitive and declining wildlife species?”