SACRAMENTO - (INT) – Governor Brown has signed historic legislation to strengthen local management of the state’s groundwater basins.

Groundwater makes up nearly 60 percent of the state's water use during dry years. But it is not monitored and managed the same way as water from reservoirs and rivers.

The opposition was driven by agricultural interests that are increasingly dependent on pumping from wells as reservoirs dry up and government water allocations plunge in the drought.

California will no longer be the last Western state with a pump-as-you-please approach to groundwater.

Story Date: September 21, 2014