North Coast Stream Flow Coalition
The Coalition is strongly in favor of regulation for California Groundwater Resources. Groundwater and surface waters constitute a single resource (see: Thomas C. Winter, Judson W. Harvey, O. Lehn Franke, and William M. Alley, Groundwater and Surface Water: A Single Resource, U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1139, 2006). This means that all groundwater is interconnected with surface flows. Groundwater extraction – and in particular the large amounts extracted for irrigation – negatively impact streamflow in many of the state’s river basins, including several North Coast watersheds. Groundwater is an important Public Trust Resource; its management by the State of California is long overdue.
Groundwater management must be transparent, public and fall within CEQA. The public should have easy on-line access to all groundwater extraction information collected by the state, regional management entities and local management entities. Because all groundwater is connected to surface flows, all commercial and industrial groundwater extraction should be subject to permitting.
The Coalition has concerns about state reliance on “local and regional entities” to manage groundwater. Some of those entities are hostile to regulation of groundwater extraction and are likely to do all they can to delay and frustrate attempts to achieve meaningful regulation of extraction by local entities, especially local agricultural interests. Relying on local and regional entities also creates the possibility that different parts of the state will adopt different approaches to groundwater regulation, and different time-lines, thereby creating a confusing and ineffective regulatory landscape.
The members of our Coalition believe groundwater can be most effectively and efficiently managed and regulated directly by the State Water Resources Control Board and we urge the governor and legislature to take that course. If, however, state leaders are intent on moving forward in partnership with local and regional entities, the state should assure that:
- Steps necessary to achieve appropriate and effective groundwater regulation are clearly defined and include direction for CEQA review.
- Appropriate standards for groundwater regulation are established and enforced state-wide. including standards for public participation.
- Appropriate deadlines for local/regional action on groundwater regulation are established and enforced.
- The State will take over if local or regional entities fail to comply with standards or to meet deadlines.
The Coalition is concerned that the state is placing too much emphasis on groundwater basins which are already in overdraft and not enough emphasis on groundwater basins where groundwater extraction is negatively impacting streamflow – including negatively impacting surface water right holders. Areas and basins where there is evidence that groundwater extraction is negatively impacting surface flows should be a top state priority. In keeping with the California Water Action Plan’s goal to “protect and restore important ecosystems,” state work toward groundwater management should prioritize North Coast watersheds in which depletion of Public Trust flows is an important factor in the decline and endangerment of salmon and steelhead species and stocks. Absent dealing with flow needs – including the impact of groundwater extraction on flows – attempts to restore aquatic ecosystems will surely fail.
In-stream flow needs must be known in order to properly establish sustainable rates of groundwater extraction. The California Water Action Plan calls for timely completion of flow studies already underway for certain watersheds. In-stream flow assessment should not stop there, however, but rather should be subsequently extended to other basins and streams until the flow needs of every California stream is assessed and quantified using the best available science.
California’s groundwater problems have been exacerbated by federal Farm Bill and Emergency Drought Assistance programs which provide funding for agricultural operators to drill wells and extract groundwater regardless of whether the groundwater to be exploited is already over-drafted or whether extraction is negatively impacting streamflow. The state should insist that federal assistance not exacerbate California groundwater problems. A ban on well drilling and extraction of groundwater for irrigation and/or sale should be implemented in areas where overdraft conditions exist and/or where groundwater pumping is negatively impacting surface flows.
Legislation is needed to facilitate timely and effective groundwater regulation in all California river basins and to address the concerns raised above. We endorse legislative recommendations contained in Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) testimony and recommendations for “Improving Management of the State’s Groundwater Resources” presented to the Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee and Assembly Budget Subcommittee No. 3, dated March 11, 2014. In particular, we support inclusion of the the following LAO recommendations in legislation:
- Require local water districts to submit standardized extraction data from all groundwater wells.
- Require the extraction data be integrated into the California Water Plan, thereby facilitating water supply planning and management.
- Require that the SWRCB establish Active Management Areas (AMAs). This is the approach taken in most other Western States.
- Bring law in line with modern science by removing the legal distinction between percolating groundwater and so-called “subterranean streams.”
- Establish statewide groundwater use permitting.
- Transfer drinking water activities from the Department of Public Health to the SWRCB, as proposed by the Governor.
- Require DWR to apply eligibility requirement established by the legislature when awarding future water planning and groundwater regulation funds.
In addition, we recommend that groundwater management legislation:
- Direct the SWRCB to develop, adopt and enforce:
- Standards and essential steps to be followed in order to achieve appropriate and effective groundwater regulation.
- Performance criteria designed to assure proper groundwater management using the best available information. For example, the SWRCB should require that local/regional management entities establish and adopt by date certain “sustainable thresholds for water level drawdown and water quality.”
- Establish deadlines for local/regional implementation of groundwater regulation.
- Direct the SWRCB to assume groundwater management in areas where local or regional entities fail to comply with standards and performance criteria or fail to meet deadlines.
- Direct the SWRCB to identify by date certain and to prioritize for groundwater regulation:
- Those basins where there is clear and convincing evidence that groundwater extraction is negatively impacting surface flows, and
- Watersheds in which depletion of Public Trust flows is an important factor in the decline and endangerment of salmon and steelhead species and stocks.
- Direct the SWRCB and DFW to engage in a multi-year effort to assess and determine in-stream flows needed to adequately protect Public Trust Resources in all of the state’s watersheds and to use the best available science when assessing flows needed to adequately protect the Public Trust.
- Establish a moratorium on well drilling and extraction of groundwater for irrigation and/or sale where overdraft conditions exist and/or where groundwater pumping is negatively impacting surface flows. The moratorium should remain in effect until a regulatory system is in place which the State of California determines and certifies is adequate to prevent overdraft of groundwater and to prevent negative impacts of groundwater pumping on surface water right holders and/or on the in-stream flows needed to adequately protect and conserve Public Trust Resources.
- Establish and provide funding for a well buyback program targeted to areas where groundwater pumping is already known to be impacting stream flow in a manner that impairs beneficial uses, as well as in areas where groundwater pumping is negatively impacting surface water right holders or recharge, where nuisance levels of land subsidence is occurring and/or where groundwater levels are declining over time.
Conclusion:
Groundwater regulation in California is long overdue. There is a pressing need to establish appropriate and effective groundwater regulation in order to prevent and recover from overdraft conditions, prevent further land subsidence, protect and restore groundwater quality, provide in-stream flows protective of the Public Trust, as well as to prevent and redress negative impacts of groundwater pumping on surface water right holders.
Regulation of groundwater in California should be based on the best available scientific and technical information and should take into account lessons learned in other states. The legislature, the governor and state agencies each have responsibilities and roles to play in assuring that groundwater regulation in California is efficient and effective. In order to achieve efficient, effective and timely groundwater regulation the legislature must establish and the governor and state agencies must enforce appropriate standards, performance criteria and deadlines.
A beginning has been made. Whether the objective is achieved is not, however, guaranteed. We believe the recommendations outlined above are necessary to assure appropriate, effective, efficient and timely groundwater management in California. Therefore, we urge Governor Brown, the SWRCB, the Department of Fish and Wildlife and the California Legislature to adopt and implement these recommendations. \
What steps before we kill a stream:
Moratorium on well drilling and extraction for irrigation and for selling the groundwater where ground pumping negatively effects groundwater.
Sandy Sawyer, WB clarifying regulatory by not permitting authority
USGS Circular 1376 groundwater nexus established