The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) requires local agencies throughout California to sustainably manage groundwater basins. Basins ranked as medium- or high-priority are required to develop groundwater sustainability plans (GSPs) or submit an alternative to a GSP (Alternative GSP) by the applicable statutory deadline. Alternative GSPs should demonstrate how water managers have already achieved, or will achieve, sustainable groundwater management.

An Alternative GSP, per Water Code Section 10733.6 (b), may be any of the following:

1. An existing groundwater management plan or other law authorizing groundwater management.
2. Groundwater management pursuant to an adjudication.
3. An analysis of basin conditions that demonstrates that the basin has operated within its sustainable yield over a period of at least 10 years.

The initial deadline to submit Alternative GSPs was December 31, 2016. Alternative GSPs underwent extensive technical review by Department staff to confirm they will achieve the same outcome as a GSP, which is sustainable groundwater management for the basin. Nine Alternative GSPs were approved on July 17, 2019. Agencies in these nine basins resubmitted their Alternative GSPs in late 2021 and early 2022, initiating the Department’s periodic review of these plans.