Page 151 - Yucaipa Sustainable Groundwater Management Agency - Yucaipa SGMA

Project Understanding

In July 2017, the San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District (Valley District) joined eight other local
municipalities and water retailers in the Yucaipa Basin (Basin) to form the Yucaipa Groundwater
Sustainability Agency (YGSA). This governance structure allows for the YGSA to maintain local control of
ongoing management actions to better serve the interests of local groundwater users.
The Yucaipa Basin is a medium‐priority basin that is not subject to conditions of critical overdraft.
Accordingly, the YGSA is responsible for preparing a Groundwater Sustainability Plan for the Basin
(Yucaipa GSP) by January 31, 2022. The core elements of the Yucaipa GSP include:
 Documentation of the Plan Area, including land use, basin setting, and groundwater conditions

 Establishment of a sustainability goal for the Basin and set of criteria by which sustainability
indicators can be evaluated

 Identification of projects and management actions to achieve the sustainability goal by addressing
projected gaps in water supply and demand culminating in the absence of undesirable results within
20 years of GSP implementation (i.e., 2042)

 Development of an implementation plan by which performance of the GSP and interim progress are
assessed and plan elements can be re‐evaluated to allow for future adaptive management.
Over the past several years, Valley District and its partner agencies have been proactive in building the
technical foundation needed for a successful GSP. Recent studies and investigations have improved the
understanding of local hydrogeologic conditions, including the depth to the basin bottom, location and
hydraulic effect of geologic faults, long‐term groundwater level trends, and groundwater quality
distribution. Additionally, estimates of groundwater storage, usable storage, and safe yield have
revealed the need to continue management of groundwater conjunctively with surface water supplies.
While the technical foundation built to date by the YGSA can be leveraged to support GSP development,
additional data collection and analyses are needed to comply with all SGMA requirements. We
understand that the USGS, in collaboration with the YGSA, is completing the calibration of its integrated
surface water‐groundwater flow model of the Basin (USGS model). The USGS model will serve as a critical
tool for refining historical, current, and future water budgets under varying climatic conditions,
quantifying the sustainable yield of the Basin, and evaluating future projects and management actions
with regard to their ability to meet the sustainability goal. Accordingly, while final documentation of the
USGS model is not anticipated until Summer 2019, we envision that YGSA will want to obtain the USGS
model as soon as the USGS completes its historical calibration and future baseline simulations and will
want to apply it to assess proposed projects and management actions.
SGMA intends the development of the GSP to be a local stakeholder‐driven process, which considers
and encourages participation of all beneficial users of groundwater in the Basin through the
development of the GSP. This process is ensured through a coordinated public outreach plan, which
YGSA envisions will encourage participation by all interested parties in the Basin.
Project Approach

Our approach to the YGSA is to construct a technically‐credible plan that is guided by the SGMA
regulations, reliant on existing data and analyses to the extent practical, and based on locally‐
appropriate best management practices (BMPs) for groundwater management. In our review of GSP

Proposal – SBVMWD Groundwater TODD GROUNDWATER
Sustainability Plan for the Yucaipa Basin Area 2 June 2018
Yucaipa Sustainable Groundwater Management Agency - August 9, 2018 - Page 149 of 208