State and local government continue to play dangerous game with groundwater
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An “Interbasin Coordination Group” (ICG) consisting of Northern Sacramento Valley agency staff and consultants has been meeting since May 2020.[1] But the public was not aware of the meetings until a consultant mentioned the Group in November 2020.[2] We were told that Interbasin Coordination Group meetings provided an opportunity for “informal” exchange of information and collaboration between staff and consultants working on Groundwater Sustainability Plans in subbasins throughout the region. Consultants facilitate both the non-public inter-basin coordination as well as public Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) committee meetings, so to exclude interested advisory committee members who represent the public is outrageous. The excuse that technical content is a barrier to public participation in IGC meetings is a smokescreen.
Butte County staff and regional SGMA consultants did not publish ICG summaries until November, when I asked about the undisclosed meetings. Staff and consultants assured me that public outreach would be extended to include participation in future ICG meetings. However, the December 1, 2020 summary illustrated that there was no opportunity for public participation. The meeting summary did indicate that there were discrepancies in the groundwater modeling of groundwater flow between the subbasins but failed to give examples. The reason: “It will be important to complete discussions as suggested and attempt to resolve or at least understand causes of substantial differences before distributing this information broadly.”
Added to the local secrecy regarding groundwater interactions across county boundaries is Governor Gavin Newsom’s 2020 Water Resiliency plan. The Governor’s plan seeks so-called Voluntary Agreements to create flexibility for groundwater sustainability agencies to trade/sell water from “regions of surplus” (targeting the Northern Sacramento Valley) to critically overdrafted basins (the San Joaquin Valley and Tulare basins). The Governor’s plan would enable and provide incentives for groundwater marketing and substantially reduce approval time for water transfers. Citizens, businesses (including groundwater dependent agriculture), and ecosystems that exist in the area of so-called surplus are vulnerable to short and long-term impacts to their water needs when streamlined review of water sales/trades by willing sellers with senior water rights are allowed.
AquAlliance represents you to protect local and regional groundwater and streams. Sign up for AquAlliance’s Blog, The Water Dig, to stay tuned (http://www.aqualliance.net/water-blog).
Acronyms
CBI – Consensus Building Institute
SGMA – Sustainable Groundwater Management Act passed by the state legislature in 2014.
ICG – Interbasin Coordination Group
– J.R. Brobeck
[1] https://www.buttecounty.net/waterresourceconservation/Sustainable-Groundwater-Management-Act/Inter-basin-Coordination
[2] Corning Sub-basin Groundwater Sustainability Agency Committee meeting
