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The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) is now ten years old but the State Water Resources Control Board’s role is relatively new. SGMA prioritizes local groundwater management but two state agencies play a key role. The Department of Water Resources reviews SGMA groundwater sustainability plans or “GSPs” for each basin and, if those GSPs do not meet SGMA’s standards, refers the basin to the State Water Board for potential intervention. The first referrals were made in 2023, and the Board is facing litigation in one basin it has designated as “probationary.” Join us for a discussion of how SGMA changed groundwater law, what the State Water Board has done in the basins referred to it through the state intervention process, and some of the emerging legal issues.
Tina Cannon Leahy, Attorney Supervisor, State Water Resources Control Board, Office of the Chief Counsel
Tina Cannon Leahy is lead attorney to the Office of Sustainable Groundwater Management, which implements California’s landmark Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA). She also works on the Water Quality Control Plan for the San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Estuary. Previously, she was the Principal Consultant for the California Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee, where she had the privilege of serving as a technical drafter of AB 1739, one of the bills that later became SGMA. Leahy is also a water law Lecturer in the UC Davis Department of Land, Air, and Water Resources, and Co-Chair of the CELPC Advisory Board.
Amanda Pearson, Attorney, State Water Resources Control Board, Office of the Chief Counsel
Amanda Pearson attended undergraduate school at UC Santa Barbara, where her time as a coxswain for the rowing team sparked an interest in water management. After graduating from King Hall at UC Davis in 2009, she worked in private practice advising clients regarding water rights and compliance with CEQA. In 2018, she joined the Office of Chief Counsel, where she focuses on water rights and groundwater management.
Margaret Tides, Deputy Attorney General
As a DAG in the Natural Resources Law Section of the California Attorney General’s Office, Margaret Tides serves as a litigation attorney for the state’s natural resource agencies. Before joining the AG’s office, she was in-house counsel to California counties and also represented states and local agencies across the country in affirmative litigation related to climate change and environmental contamination. She graduated from the UC Berkeley School of Law and holds a professional degree in architecture and a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the University of Southern California.