Chaudhry, Anita

In the 1990s several counties in California adopted policies prohibiting the export of groundwater outside the county. County policymakers’ declared rationale was protecting local water resources – and local water users – from water speculators and water marketers who might seek financial gains from moving water to other locations where it might command a higher price. Looking back at this period of local policy-making, we pursue three goals in this paper. First, we examine how these local ordinances came about and spread across the state, using the analytical tools of the IAD framework plus Elinor Ostrom’s design principles for sustained management of common-pool resources. Second, we reexamine those ordinances in light of the groundwater policy changes in California over the past ten years – the enactment of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), the formation of local Groundwater Sustainability Agencies and the development of Groundwater Sustainability Plans – and assess whether and in what ways the export-restriction ordinances will aid or hinder basin-scale efforts to attain groundwater sustainability as defined in SGMA. Third, we compare the California experience with county water export bans with an effort newly underway in Indiana to block the extraction and transfer of groundwater outside a county there. The overall aim of the paper is to offer insights and analysis about the intentions and effects of these types of policies on the management of groundwater as a common-pool resource.