摘要：California water law has traditionally treated groundwater and surface water as separate resources.
The 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act(SGMA) broke with this tradition by requiring
groundwater managers to avoid significant and unreasonable adverse impacts to beneficial uses of
surface water. This paper considers the trajectory of this partial integration of science, law, and
resource management policy. Drawing on legal analysis and participatory workshops with subject area
experts, we describe the challenges of reconciling the separate legal systems that grew out of an
artificial legal distinction between different aspects of the same resource. Our analysis offers two main
contributions. First, it demonstrates that laws that subdivide an interconnected resource can have
legacy effects that linger long after lawmakers begin dismantling the artificial divides. Using SGMA as a
case study, the article illustrates the complexities of reconciling law with science, showing that
reconciliation is a process that does not end with updating statutes, or with any other single
intervention. Second, we introduce a framework for evaluating the elements of an effort to reconcile
law with scientific understanding, whether that reform effort involves groundwater or some other
resource. Applying that framework helps reveal where lingering legacy effects still need to be
addressed. More generally, it reveals the need for literature addressing science-policy interactions to
devote more attention to the multifaceted nature of law and policy reform. Much of that literature
describes policy-making in broad and undifferentiated terms, often referring simply to ‘the sciencepolicy
interface.’ But as the SGMA case study illustrates, the complex and multi-layered nature of
policy-making means that a successful reform effort may need to address many science-policy
interfaces.
关键词：groundwater; surface water; science-policy interfaces; SGMA; California
