California law requires the Department of Water Resources (DWR) to create, promulgate, and update every five years the California Water Plan (Plan). The Plan is intended to provide a comprehensive strategy for the sustainable management and stewardship of California’s water resources. However, the Plan has not had significant revisions responsive to increasing climate unpredictability. On October 1, 2025, Governor Newsom signed Senate Bill (SB) 72 into law, significantly expanding the requirements of the Plan to provide a more forward-looking, actionable roadmap to secure water resources across the state.
SB 72 primarily amends provisions of the Water Code that dictate the contents of the Plan and requires DWR to undertake additional studies to determine the state’s future water needs. Previously, the Plan had to include discussions related to “the development of new water storage facilities, water conservation, water recycling, desalination, conjunctive use, and water transfers that may be pursued in order to meet the future water needs of the state.” SB 72 added discussions of groundwater recharge programs, water conveyance projects, stormwater capture, and demand management activities. Significantly, the Plan, and all subsequent five-year updates, must also include a range of water supply targets that consider future scenarios with a 50-year planning horizon at a watershed scale. Establishing targets with a broader outlook will improve progress assessments, state-level accountability, and help inform future water policy making.
DWR must also conduct studies to determine the amount of water needed to meet California’s environmental, urban, and agricultural water needs on a regional basis; consider estimated costs, benefits, and impacts of any DWR-recommended project types or actions that could help achieve water supply targets; and report on the development of regional and local water projects within each hydrologic region of the state undertaken to improve local water supplies and reduce the need for importing water. DWR must update the California Water Plan to implement these changes on or before December 31, 2028.
Furthermore, SB 72 increases transparency and inclusion for California’s long-term water planning. It requires DWR to issue a preliminary draft of its assumptions and estimates for every Plan update and conduct accessible public workshops to allow interested parties an opportunity to comment on the Plan. SB 72 also mandates DWR’s advisory committee include tribes, labor, and environmental justice interests. Finally, DWR must report the amendments, supplements, and additions included in the updates of the Plan, together with a summary of the department’s conclusions and recommendations, to the California Legislature.
SB 72 is intended to strengthen the California Water Plan, increase collaboration and cooperation among agencies, utilities, and stakeholders, and ensure that water planning efforts are more proactive, rather than reactive, to climate variability. Future updates to the Plan should include more information that will be useful to agricultural, urban, and industrial water users. The bill was widely popular, boasting broad support from water, agricultural, and environmental groups alike, and will hopefully lead to long-term water supply stability and greater development project feasibility.
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