Sustainable Groundwater Management Act
The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) was passed in 2014 and calls for management of groundwater resources to sustain long-term reliability while avoiding undesirable impacts. SGMA requires each groundwater basin that the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) designates as high or medium priority, to create a Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA). The purpose of a GSA is to develop, adopt, and implement a Groundwater Sustainability Plan (GSP) to sustainably manage the groundwater basin within 20 years of GSP implementation.
For more information about SGMA, please visit the DWR SGMA information page.
Olcese GSA Area
The Olcese GSA Area is located approximately 10 miles northeast of Bakersfield along Kern Canyon Road (CA Highway 178). The District provides agricultural water to lands within its approximately 5,000-acre service area, which is situated on both sides of the Kern River just downstream of the Kern Gorge Fault where the river flows out of Kern River Canyon. Approximately two-thirds of the District’s service area intersects a small portion of the Kern County Subbasin (Kern Subbasin or basin), along with the basin’s eastern-most boundary. The Kern Subbasin is a high priority basin and has been designated as being in critical groundwater overdraft condition.
The Olcese GSA covers the portion of the District service area that is contained within the current Kern Subbasin boundaries and is approximately 3,200 acres in size. The Olcese GSA service area is bounded on the northern and eastern sides by the existing Kern Subbasin boundary, and on the southern and western sides by the District’s administrative boundaries (see map below).
