The Santa Clarita Valley Groundwater Sustainability Agency announced it will hold its final in-person workshop on Aug. 25 for residents to provide their input on a draft plan for long-term management of the local groundwater basin.

The workshop is the last in-person opportunity for the public to ask questions and weigh in on issues and proposed projects and management actions designed to protect the basin from overuse.

Work on the Groundwater Sustainability Plan (GSP) began in 2017 and has involved a groundwater flow model, analysis and input from all user groups who depend on water from the Santa Clara River Valley East Subbasin. Santa Clarita Valley gets about half of its drinking and agricultural irrigation water from the basin.

Without the local resource, water providers would have to purchase more expensive water imported from hundreds of miles away. The GSP lays out a path for maintaining or achieving a balance of inflow and pumping in the basin within 20 years, based on sources and uses of water and anticipated changes such as population growth and climate change.

The plan is tailored to the resources and needs of the community and drew on the perspectives of pumpers, environmental and business interests and the community at large, which were represented on a Stakeholder Advisory Committee.

The meeting on Aug. 25 will be the eighth and final forum prior to a public hearing on the final plan scheduled for Dec. 15. The workshop will be held remotely via Zoom from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Log-in details and a comment form can be found online at scvgsa.org, along with videos and fact sheets from previous workshops, which focused on topics such as groundwater conditions, sustainable management criteria and groundwater dependent ecosystems.

“Careful management of the basin will help safeguard this important resource against drought and ensure a reliable and enduring water supply for the Santa Clarita Valley,” said B.J. Atkins, president of the SCV-GSA Board of Directors.

The plan is required under the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA).