California’s Groundwater Governance Successes with Dr. Maurice Hall

California depends heavily on groundwater to support its cities, industries, and one of the world’s most productive agricultural economies. But decades of unmanaged pumping led to falling groundwater levels, drying rivers, land subsidence, and seawater intrusion across many aquifers.

In this episode of the Water Data Podcast, Dr. Maurice Hall, Senior Advisor for Climate Resilient Water Systems at the Environmental Defense Fund, joins host Veena Srinivasan to speak about California’s landmark Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA).

Dr. Maurice explains how California’s unique history of water rights shaped groundwater use, why the 2012–2016 drought became a turning point, and how the state created Groundwater Sustainability Agencies to locally manage aquifers.
Maurice explains the science behind land subsidence, disappearing streamflows, and groundwater depletion, while also unpacking how California invested heavily in groundwater monitoring, basin-scale models, satellite-based evapotranspiration tools like OpenET, and new approaches to managed aquifer recharge.

The episode also reflects on what India can learn from California’s experience. While the political and agricultural contexts are very different, the challenges of groundwater depletion, fragmented governance, and delayed action resonate strongly across both regions.

This episode offers a rare inside look into the science, politics, and institutional challenges of groundwater governance at scale.

Resources:

1. Maurice Hall: LinkedIn, Website
2. Leahy, T. C. (2016). Desperate times call for sensible measures: The making of the California Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal, 9(1), 5-40.
3. Kiparsky, M. (2016). Unanswered questions for implementation of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. California Agriculture, 70(4). https://doi.org/10.3733/ca.2016a0014 
4. Bruno, E. M., & Hagerty, N. (2025). California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act: What are its early impacts? ARE Update, 28(4), 2-4. University of California Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics.
5. Milman, A., Galindo, L., Blomquist, W., & Conrad, E. (2018). Establishment of agencies for local groundwater governance under California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. Water Alternatives, 11(3), 458-480.
6. Bostic, D., Mendez-Barrientos, L., Pauloo, R., Dobbin, K., & MacClements, V. (2023). Thousands of domestic and public supply wells face failure despite groundwater sustainability reform in California’s Central Valley. Scientific Reports, 13, 14757. (Corrected 2024)
7. Cantor, A., Owen, D., Harter, T., Nylen, N. G., & Kiparsky, M. (2018). Navigating groundwater-surface water interactions under the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, UC Berkeley School of Law.
8. Quandt, A., Larsen, A. E., Bartel, G., Okamura, K., & Sousa, D. (2023). Sustainable groundwater management and its implications for agricultural land repurposing. Regional Environmental Change, 23, 120 
9. California Department of Water Resources. (n.d.). Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA). Retrieved May 21, 2026, from https://water.ca.gov/programs/groundwater-management/sgma-groundwater-management 
10. California Department of Water Resources. (n.d.). SGMA Data Viewer. Retrieved May 21, 2026, from https://sgma.water.ca.gov/webgis/?appid=SGMADataViewer#gwlevels 

The WELL Labs Show features rich conversations on water, environment, land and livelihoods, from the people and partners of WELL Labs. Hosted by Pavan Srinath, each episode explores complex environmental and social issues and helps you understand systems and dynamics better.

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