The Big Gulp: The Future of Groundwater Storage in the Los Angeles Coastal Plain

Abstract

This article discusses an agreement referred to as the “Big Gulp” that was recently developed by California's state and local water agencies, public and private water purveyors, and local cities to create a framework for underground water storage and recapture in the previously unused empty aquifer space of the Central and West Coast groundwater aquifer basins. To meet the challenges posed by the current drought in California, the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) recommends that local groundwater agencies engage in conjunctive‐use projects, including the management and use of available aquifer space for artificial recharge. The Big Gulp would establish 450,000 acre‐ft of available dewatered space for active conjunctive use, and would create a governance structure to promote use of the basins’ storage space dedicated to the principles of local control, stakeholder participation, and transparent administration.