LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday voted to move forward with forming the Big Valley Groundwater Sustainability Agency, a move county leadership said is necessary to keep local control of the watershed.
The unanimous vote to adopt a resolution to form the new agency – in accordance with the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, which went into effect as part of California Water Code in January 2015 – followed a brief public hearing Tuesday morning.
Public Works Director Scott De Leon – who has been serving as interim Water Resources Department director and was appointed by the board to permanently oversee the department later in the meeting – took the agency formation to the supervisors, who were sitting jointly as the Lake County Watershed Protection District Board of Directors.
The state has listed the Big Valley Watershed as a medium priority basin. As such, the 2014 Groundwater Sustainability Act requires the county to develop a groundwater sustainability plan or an alternative groundwater sustainability plan “in an effort to ensure that groundwater basins reach sustainability within 20 years of implementing a groundwater basin sustainability plan,” according to De Leon’s written report to the board.
De Leon’s report said the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act “provides local agencies a framework for managing groundwater basins in a sustainable manner and recognizes groundwater is most effectively managed at the local level.”
The Lake County Watershed Protection District submitted an alternative groundwater sustainability plan for the Big Valley groundwater basin to the state in December 2016, De Leon said. Because the county submitted the alternative plan, it also is required to submit annual reports, which it has done for 2017 and 2018.
In July, the California Department of Water Resources notified the Lake County Watershed Protection District that the Big Valley Groundwater Basin Alternative Sustainability Plan had not been accepted, as Lake County News has reported.
In the state’s notification letter to De Leon, it said the alternative plan wasn’t recommended for acceptance because it lacked sufficient information and data to assess if it would result in sustainable groundwater management as defined in state water code.
“In order to maintain local and sustainable management of the Big Valley groundwater basin, it is in the best interest for the County that the Board of Directors of the Lake County Watershed Protection District approve the resolution authorizing the District to form the Big Valley Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA). The formation of a GSA complies with State regulations and is necessary to obtain funding for the development of a Big Valley Groundwater Sustainability Plan,” De Leon wrote in his report.
In his report, De Leon suggested that the advisory group for the new agency include representation from the county, tribal governments, municipal water supplies, the Chi Council for the Clear Lake Hitch, domestic well owners and agricultural users.
At its Aug. 13 meeting, the board first considered forming the agency. Afterward, De Leon said the board reached consensus to move forward and over the past two weeks county staff did the required public noticing.
Supervisor Bruno Sabatier asked De Leon for clarification on the condition of the watershed, noting that at the meeting earlier this month there had been a lot of discussion about the basin having a plentiful supply at this time.
De Leon said the county has been monitoring the basin for 50 years at least. “The basin shows that it recovers.”
As the agricultural practices have changed in the basin from pears to other products, they are seeing a definite change in the availability and use of groundwater. “The basin is healthy,” De Leon said.
He added, “This really is an effort to maintain local control over the basin, as opposed to having the state come in and take it over, which I think we all agree is a good thing.”
De Leon said the county is working with constituents and stakeholders to submit more information to the state to reduce the basin from medium to low priority status. That, he added, is a parallel process to the required groundwater sustainability agency formation.
During the meeting De Leon also noted that the state mandates areas to have groundwater sustainability agencies in place in order to be eligible for different funding options.
During the brief public comment, Lake County Farm Bureau Executive Director Brenna Sullivan said the organization supported the resolution, and that it has submitted comments to the California Department of Water Resources to update agriculture-specific information that was wrong in the state’s files about the watershed.
She said the Farm Bureau similarly had given the state updated information about groundwater in Upper Lake that reduced that watershed to low priority.
Sullivan said they also wanted a strong agricultural voice on whatever advisory board is formed.
The final resolution the board approved unanimously included a seven-member advisory panel with two seats set aside for agriculture.
De Leon said that upon acceptance of the resolution, the county Water Resources Department will move forward in applying to the state to form the Big Valley Groundwater Sustainability Agency.
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