The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act aimed to ensure that groundwater use would be better managed locally and regionally to preserve its availability for the future. However, farmers say that the Act comes with a cost, and it is causing land values to sink.
The California Assembly passed a three-bill legislative package in 2014 that formed the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. Here is background on the Act from the California Department of Water Resources.
RELATED: James Gallagher, a top Republican legislator in California and sixth-generation farmer, would have preferred that his state prioritize voluntary water use changes rather than mandatory. Gallagher’s family farm dealt with disappointing walnut prices and relied on their rice harvest to make up for that.
He told American Farmland Owner in November 2023 the concerns that he had about the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act’s requirement on farmland owners.
The Santa Cruz Sentinel detailed the story of Nick Sahota’s farm in Terra Bella. He once had plentiful water, which provided what he needed for his pistachio trees and table grapes.
He said that pumping restrictions, due to the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, have caused his water costs to soar. That has left him anxious about whether he will be able to make payments on outstanding loans of more than $15 million for the family operation.
Sahota said that his orchards have lost three-quarters of their value in just four years.
In Minnesota, landowners may not be seeing record prices, according to Jared Augustine, a real estate salesperson for Hertz Farm Management, Inc. in Mankato. But he thinks the overall market has endured.
“The farmland sales market has remained stable in most regions,” Augustine wrote for FarmProgress, “…although, some weak sales have been reported.”
Augustine tracked sales in 12 counties and noticed that farms with some “detracting features,” aren’t attracting as much interest.
The southern part of Minnesota will find a buyer – the state of Iowa – if a legislator has his way. State Senator Mike Bousselot, who represents a Des Moines suburb, proposed the land deal.
Bousselot has not publicly suggested a purchase price. But he thinks the farmland owners and other residents in the southern Minnesota counties that border Iowa, who tend to vote Republican, would feel more connected to Iowa’s more conservative government compared to their current state.
WATCH: State Senator Mike Bousselot of Iowa explains to KTIV-TV in Sioux City, Iowa, why Minnesotans should want their government to sell their southern counties to their southern neighboring state.
Land values in Iowa have slowed from their previous multi-year surge. The Land Value Survey released by Iowa State Extension found that 24 of Iowa’s 99 counties saw an increase in land value from 2023 to 2024, meaning three-quarters of the state’s counties experienced flat or declining values.
