By June 2017, Sonoma County will have the framework in place to start measuring and regulating its groundwater supplies, in compliance with new legislation signed by Governor Jerry Brown last September. At its Oct. 13 meeting, the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors voiced unanimous support for a three-agency, three-plan structure that will govern the groundwater related activities in the areas three largest water basins: Petaluma, Santa Rosa Plain, and Sonoma Valley. The Sonoma County Water Agency (SCWA) will be involved in all three of these agencies. This mirrors the way our groundwater basins are currently managed, with SCWA acting as the lead agency to local advisory groups.
Other options included creating one Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA) for the entire county, or multiple agencies per basin.
Jay Jasperse, director of Groundwater Management at the SCWA, laid out a basic skeletal structure of these three new GSAs, and timeline for action.
Under the Governors Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), GSAs must be formed by 2017. Each GSA made up of the 11 eligible agencies in the County that supply or manage water or control land use will then be responsible for developing and completing a sustainability plan by the start of 2022. After the plans are adopted, the agencies have 20 years to achieve sustainability within the basin they manage.
![SGMA basin boundary map]()
The new GSAs will have the authority to do things like conduct groundwater studies, set well spacing requirements, require an inventory of wells and well pumping, and regulate pumping. They may also implement capital projects to sustain or improve groundwater, for example, and assess fees to cover those costs.
At a local level, all recommendations made by the state are optional, but the GSAs need to reach sustainability by the deadline or the state will step in, said Jasperse. What sustainability means will be defined once the GSAs create their plans.
The new regulations will affect rural well owners, agriculture, and commercial properties. How these parties and interests will be represented within the GSAs has yet to be decided.
Two gray areas to consider going forward are that the SGMA does not affect existing surface water rights but does affect existing groundwater rights, and the two are obviously environmentally linked. It remains to be seen how surface water rights will mesh with SGMA legislation, said Jasperse. Also, authority over land use decisions remains with counties and cities, but SGMA asks them to consider groundwater sustainability in their land use planning and general plan amendments. There is supposed to be coordination between the cities and counties and GSAs, but it remains to be seen how this will play out.
The three GSAs will also be expected to coordinate with each other on things like data collection, funding and public outreach. The three GSAs are free to develop their own structures, but those decisions have not been made at this point, either.
The eligible agencies in Sonoma Valley that could make up a larger GSA are the SCWA, the City of Sonoma, the Valley of the Moon Water District, the North Bay Water District and the County of Sonoma. The Valley of the Moon Water District, which serves 23,000 people in a 12-square-mile area in Sonoma Valley, includes approximately 539 customers in Glen Ellen.
The North Bay Water District, formed by special election in 1963, doesnt have facilities or provide a service, but covers about 27,000 acres of unincorporated agricultural land in the southern part of Sonoma County. According to Tito Sasaki, chair of the Sonoma County Farm Bureaus Water Committee, the board of the North Bay Water District has agreed to participate in the GSA formation process with the intent of representing the agricultural interests in the Sonoma Valley and Petaluma basins. The District is currently studying which agricultural parcels may join the District as new members in due course, said Sasaki.
It is important to note that Kenwood lies outside the Sonoma Valley Groundwater Sub-basin boundaries, as currently defined by the State, and therefore would not be under the jurisdiction of a GSA. However, Jasperse said new developments indicate that its possible part of Kenwood will be included once basin boundary issues are ironed out at the end of 2015.
Based on a recent SCWA and USGS study of local water demands, the total amount of groundwater used in Sonoma Valley for 2012 was estimated to be approximately 10,500 acre-feet and represents nearly 60 percent of total water use.
The majority of groundwater produced in Sonoma Valley is estimated to be used for agricultural irrigation (52 percent) and rural residential demands (29 percent). Other uses of groundwater in Sonoma Valley include golf course and park irrigation (seven percent), and municipal, commercial businesses, and mutual/private water systems for small communities and subdivisions (ranging from three to five percent each).
Sonoma Valleys existing voluntary Groundwater Management Plan, adopted by the Water Agencys Board of Directors in 2007, will remain in effect for now, continuing to address current notable groundwater declines in the southern part of the valley.
Outreach to the public begins this month, with a public workshop on SGMA and GSA formation in Sonoma Valley scheduled for Nov. 12, 6 to 8 p.m., at the Veterans Hall in Sonoma. A formal public hearing is expected next summer, with the final structure in place for the three GSAs by Fall 2016. The community can stay updated on new developments by visiting SonomaCountyGroundwater.org.
Other options included creating one Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA) for the entire county, or multiple agencies per basin.
Jay Jasperse, director of Groundwater Management at the SCWA, laid out a basic skeletal structure of these three new GSAs, and timeline for action.
Under the Governors Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), GSAs must be formed by 2017. Each GSA made up of the 11 eligible agencies in the County that supply or manage water or control land use will then be responsible for developing and completing a sustainability plan by the start of 2022. After the plans are adopted, the agencies have 20 years to achieve sustainability within the basin they manage.
Under SGMA, Sonoma Countys three largest groundwater basins Santa Rosa Plain, Petaluma Valley and Sonoma Valley will be managed by Groundwater Sustainability Agencies. Its important to note that the Sonoma Valley basin boundaries, as defined by the State Department of Water Resources, are much smaller than the management area as defined by Sonoma Valleys current Groundwater Management Program, adopted in 2007. Source: Sonoma County Water Agency.
The new GSAs will have the authority to do things like conduct groundwater studies, set well spacing requirements, require an inventory of wells and well pumping, and regulate pumping. They may also implement capital projects to sustain or improve groundwater, for example, and assess fees to cover those costs.
At a local level, all recommendations made by the state are optional, but the GSAs need to reach sustainability by the deadline or the state will step in, said Jasperse. What sustainability means will be defined once the GSAs create their plans.
The new regulations will affect rural well owners, agriculture, and commercial properties. How these parties and interests will be represented within the GSAs has yet to be decided.
Two gray areas to consider going forward are that the SGMA does not affect existing surface water rights but does affect existing groundwater rights, and the two are obviously environmentally linked. It remains to be seen how surface water rights will mesh with SGMA legislation, said Jasperse. Also, authority over land use decisions remains with counties and cities, but SGMA asks them to consider groundwater sustainability in their land use planning and general plan amendments. There is supposed to be coordination between the cities and counties and GSAs, but it remains to be seen how this will play out.
The three GSAs will also be expected to coordinate with each other on things like data collection, funding and public outreach. The three GSAs are free to develop their own structures, but those decisions have not been made at this point, either.
The eligible agencies in Sonoma Valley that could make up a larger GSA are the SCWA, the City of Sonoma, the Valley of the Moon Water District, the North Bay Water District and the County of Sonoma. The Valley of the Moon Water District, which serves 23,000 people in a 12-square-mile area in Sonoma Valley, includes approximately 539 customers in Glen Ellen.
The North Bay Water District, formed by special election in 1963, doesnt have facilities or provide a service, but covers about 27,000 acres of unincorporated agricultural land in the southern part of Sonoma County. According to Tito Sasaki, chair of the Sonoma County Farm Bureaus Water Committee, the board of the North Bay Water District has agreed to participate in the GSA formation process with the intent of representing the agricultural interests in the Sonoma Valley and Petaluma basins. The District is currently studying which agricultural parcels may join the District as new members in due course, said Sasaki.
It is important to note that Kenwood lies outside the Sonoma Valley Groundwater Sub-basin boundaries, as currently defined by the State, and therefore would not be under the jurisdiction of a GSA. However, Jasperse said new developments indicate that its possible part of Kenwood will be included once basin boundary issues are ironed out at the end of 2015.
Based on a recent SCWA and USGS study of local water demands, the total amount of groundwater used in Sonoma Valley for 2012 was estimated to be approximately 10,500 acre-feet and represents nearly 60 percent of total water use.
The majority of groundwater produced in Sonoma Valley is estimated to be used for agricultural irrigation (52 percent) and rural residential demands (29 percent). Other uses of groundwater in Sonoma Valley include golf course and park irrigation (seven percent), and municipal, commercial businesses, and mutual/private water systems for small communities and subdivisions (ranging from three to five percent each).
Sonoma Valleys existing voluntary Groundwater Management Plan, adopted by the Water Agencys Board of Directors in 2007, will remain in effect for now, continuing to address current notable groundwater declines in the southern part of the valley.
Outreach to the public begins this month, with a public workshop on SGMA and GSA formation in Sonoma Valley scheduled for Nov. 12, 6 to 8 p.m., at the Veterans Hall in Sonoma. A formal public hearing is expected next summer, with the final structure in place for the three GSAs by Fall 2016. The community can stay updated on new developments by visiting SonomaCountyGroundwater.org.