republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20152016/ab-939.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Groundwater sustainability agencies."
description: "Existing law requires the Department of Water Resources to identify the extent of monitoring of groundwater elevations that is being undertaken within each groundwater basin or subbasin and to prioritize basins or subbasins as high, medium, low, or very low priority, and requires the initial priority for each basin to be established no later than January 31, 2015. Existing law, the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, requires all groundwater basins designated as high- or medium-priority basins by the department that are designated as basins subject to critical conditions of overdraft to be managed under a groundwater sustainability plan or coordinated groundwater sustainability plans by January 31, 2020, and requires all other groundwater basins designated as high- or medium-priority basins to be managed under a groundwater sustainability plan or coordinated groundwater sustainability plans by January 31, 2022, except as specified. The act requires a local agency, any time the department changes these basin priorities and elevates a basin to a medium- or high-priority basin after January 31, 2015, to either establish a groundwater sustainability agency within 2 years of reprioritization and adopt a groundwater sustainability plan within 5 years of reprioritization, or to submit an alternative to the department that the local agency believes satisfies the objectives of these provisions within 2 years of reprioritization."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20152016"
identifier: "AB 939"
citation: "California AB 939 (20152016)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Groundwater sustainability agencies."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Salas"]
version_count: 5
action_count: 20
vote_count: 5
first_action: "2015-02-26"
last_action: "2015-10-09"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/1f873e8a-ae31-480c-8678-e4bdd661e99f"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB939"
source_hash: "e2ed42f5c3b09ba3397f6065d395e7e5bdcc1a0ad1d2ea85b7855bb29f02878d"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ca"]
---

# California AB 939 (20152016) — Groundwater sustainability agencies.

Existing law requires the Department of Water Resources to identify the extent of monitoring of groundwater elevations that is being undertaken within each groundwater basin or subbasin and to prioritize basins or subbasins as high, medium, low, or very low priority, and requires the initial priority for each basin to be established no later than January 31, 2015. Existing law, the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, requires all groundwater basins designated as high- or medium-priority basins by the department that are designated as basins subject to critical conditions of overdraft to be managed under a groundwater sustainability plan or coordinated groundwater sustainability plans by January 31, 2020, and requires all other groundwater basins designated as high- or medium-priority basins to be managed under a groundwater sustainability plan or coordinated groundwater sustainability plans by January 31, 2022, except as specified. The act requires a local agency, any time the department changes these basin priorities and elevates a basin to a medium- or high-priority basin after January 31, 2015, to either establish a groundwater sustainability agency within 2 years of reprioritization and adopt a groundwater sustainability plan within 5 years of reprioritization, or to submit an alternative to the department that the local agency believes satisfies the objectives of these provisions within 2 years of reprioritization.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **02/26/15 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB939&version=20150AB93999INT)
2. **07/08/15 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB939&version=20150AB93998AMD)
3. **10/09/15 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB939&version=20150AB93996CHP)
4. **AB939** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB939)
5. **09/03/15 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB939&version=20150AB93997ENR)

## Votes

- Special Consent #8 — **40–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass — **9–0** (pass) · upper
- AB 939 SALAS Consent Calendar Second Day — **80–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass. To Consent Calendar. — **15–0** (pass) · lower
- AB 939 SALAS Concurrence in Senate Amendments — **79–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Salas — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2015-02-26** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2015-02-27** From printer. May be heard in committee March 29.
- **2015-03-16** Referred to Com. on W., P., & W. `referral-committee`
- **2015-04-14** From committee: Do pass. To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 15. Noes 0.) (April 14). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2015-04-15** Read second time. Ordered to consent calendar. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2015-04-20** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 80. Noes 0. Page 1016.) `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2015-04-20** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2015-05-07** Referred to Com. on N.R. & W. `referral-committee`
- **2015-06-15** In committee: Set, first hearing. Hearing canceled at the request of author.
- **2015-07-08** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on N.R. & W. `referral-committee, reading-2, amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-1`
- **2015-07-15** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 9. Noes 0.) (July 14). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2015-07-16** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2015-08-26** Ordered to special consent calendar.
- **2015-08-31** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 40. Noes 0. Page 2310.). `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2015-08-31** In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending. May be considered on or after September 2 pursuant to Assembly Rule 77.
- **2015-09-01** Assembly Rule 77 suspended. (Page 2729.)
- **2015-09-01** Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 79. Noes 0. Page 2748.). `committee-passage-favorable, amendment-passage`
- **2015-09-10** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 4 p.m.
- **2015-10-09** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2015-10-09** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 667, Statutes of 2015.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/1f873e8a-ae31-480c-8678-e4bdd661e99f`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).