FAQ Category: What Is The GSP

SGMA strongly encourages closer planning coordination between water supply and land use agencies to ensure water supply planning accurately forecasts and secures water supplies for future land use changes, and that land use planning considers the effects of projected growth on water resource management. Local agencies are required to acknowledge GSPs or Alternative Plans when a legislative body is adopting or substantially amending its General Plan. General Plans must accurately reflect the information in the GSP or Alternative Plan with regards to available water supplies. In addition, a city or county must now refer the proposed adoption or substantial amendment of a General Plan to any affected GSA(s). In response, the GSA(s) must provide the land use agency with the current version of its GSP or Alternative Plan and any information that is relevant to determining the adequacy of existing and planned future water supplies to meet existing and planned future demands.

The Mission Creek Subbasin Alternative Plan will coordinate with adjacent subbasin GSAs and their planning processes, including the Indio Subbasin Alternative Plan and the San Gorgonio Pass Subbasin GSP.

SGMA mandates that all GSPs and Alternative Plans be updated every five years. In its approval of the Mission CreekCreek Subbasin Alternative Plan, DWR has indicated that the first five-year update to the Alternative Plan needs to be submitted to DWR by January 1, 2022.

A GSP is the plan outlining how to achieve sustainably managed groundwater that meets the requirements of SGMA. GSAs in high and medium priority groundwater basins are required to submit a GSP to the State. The plan must outline how the GSA will implement, manage and measure specific actions to achieve groundwater sustainability within 20 years. If a GSA already had an existing groundwater management plan that is functionally equivalent to a GSP, they were able to submit it for DWR approval as an Alternative Plan.

In December 2016, the CVWD, DWA, and MSWD collaboratively submitted the 2013 Mission Creek/Garnet Hill Water Management Plan and the SGMA Alternative Groundwater Sustainability Plan Bridge Document for the Mission Creek Subbasin, and other supporting documents as an Alternative Plan to a GSP for the Subbasin, which was subsequently approved by DWR on July 17, 2019. Since then, the Alternative Plan has undergone one periodic evaluation in 2022 and is currently underway for the 2027 periodic evaluation.

In 2009, the Coachella Valley Water District (CVWD), Desert Water Agency (DWA), and Mission Springs Water District (MSWD) began development of the 2013 Mission Creek/Garnet Hill Water Management Plan (MC/GH WMP) to address groundwater sustainability in the Subbasin. In 2016, the SGMA Alternative Groundwater Sustainability Plan Bridge Document was prepared to demonstrate that the 2013 MC/GH WMP met the functional requirements of a Groundwater Sustainability Plan (GSP). This led to the submission and DWR approval of the first Alternative Plan in 2017. The Management Committee continues to submit annual reports to DWR, with the third report (for Water Year 2018-2019) and subsequent reports available online. In 2022, the first required Alternative Plan update was submitted to DWR, incorporating new data and addressing recommendations. This 2022 plan was approved by DWR in 2023. The Management Committee is now preparing the next periodic update, which is due by January 1, 2027, to ensure ongoing compliance with SGMA and progress toward basin sustainability.

A Groundwater Sustainability Plan (GSP) or Alternative Plan is a document that outlines how the Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSAs) will implement, manage and measure the results of specific actions for the health and viability of the groundwater basin. The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) will evaluate GSPs or Alternative Plans to provide the GSA with an assessment of the plan and any necessary recommendations every five years following its establishment.