Lithium, commonly used in batteries, has become a critical resource with the proliferation of electric vehicles, cell phones, and solar power systems. According to an article in Mining Technology, “Lithium is a red-hot topic, given its status as one of the most important materials in the green energy future.”[1] Since 2009, Montgomery & Associates (M&A) […]

The Montgomery & Associates Data Management System (M&A DMS) is the engine that powers the Salinas Valley Basin Groundwater Sustainability Agency’s (SVBGSA) progress towards sustainable groundwater management. As a component of its Groundwater Sustainability Plans (GSPs), SVBGSA is required by California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) to develop and maintain a data management system capable […]

From the 1950s through the 1990s, as farms, mines, and cities in the Southwest pumped increasing amounts of groundwater, the aquifers became overdrafted. One important way that the Arizona Groundwater Management Act of 1980 sought to reduce groundwater overdraft was by importing water from the Colorado River via the Central Arizona Project (CAP) canal. When […]

California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) is a complex program with a new language that must be mastered by consultants, basin managers, and stakeholders alike. When California first embarked upon the SGMA journey five years ago, there was a lot of trepidation about implementing this bold and untested groundwater management program. M&A’s SGMA team has […]

California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) passed in 2014 requires high- and medium-priority basins to form Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSAs) and develop Groundwater Sustainability Plans (GSPs). The steps in the GSP development process, shown below, begin with establishing and defining the role of a local advisory committee. Development of the Santa Cruz Mid-County Basin GSP […]

We residents of southern Arizona have a unique relationship with water.  Our water supplies are unseen – pumped from vast underground aquifers or piped hundreds of miles from the Colorado River.  Lacking natural lakes and rivers and with scant rainfall, we invest in backyard pools and irrigated landscapes.  This combination of scarcity and dependency reminds […]

By:  Gary Woodard, Senior Water Policy & Economics Consultant, Montgomery & Associates Arturo Gabaldon, President, Community Water Company of Green Valley Community Water Company of Green Valley (CWC) is a non-profit public service corporation serving customers in Green Valley and Sahuarita for over 40 years.  In July 2015, CWC filed a rate case with the […]

At Montgomery & Associates, our expertise is groundwater.  For more than 30 years, we have helped our clients develop, protect, and sustain this limited resource in arid regions of the western US and South America.  In recent years, as local groundwater supplies are stretched, our clients’ approach to water planning is expanding to all types […]

As a result of this analysis, M&A obtained regulatory approval to use low-flow sampling methods for long-term monitoring, reducing sampling costs by 75 percent. M&A recently had the opportunity to challenge a long-established practice that hydrologists have applied when collecting groundwater samples. This practice, which has been largely driven by environmental regulators, involves “purging” three […]

California’s new funding paradigm for water storage infrastructure requires that projects provide environmental benefits as well as hundreds of thousands of acre-feet of new storage. How will the state reconcile this apparent paradox? The answer is via the Water Storage Investment Program (WSIP). This carefully designed, competitive program includes long-term, state agency oversight to ensure […]