If you are interested in obtaining some grant money for water projects in your area, some new information has just been made available this week. The California Natural Resources Agency released a draft schedule of the benchmarks for the first year of the ten year spending period for Proposition 1, the Water Quality, Supply, and Infrastructure Improvement Act of 2014 (Water Bond). 

The draft schedule and other information regarding the Water Bond grant guideline process are available on the Bond Accountability website. The Water Bond requires each state agency that administers a competitive grant or loan program to develop and adopt project solicitation and evaluation guidelines prior to issuing grants or loans. 

At least three public meetings will be scheduled to consider public comments prior to finalizing the guidelines. The draft solicitation and evaluation guidelines are required to be posted on the website of the issuing state entity at least 30 days before the public meetings.

Other useful information that was released this week concerning the Water Bond’s implementation include: the Legislative Analyst’s Office new publication:The 2015-16 Budget: Effectively Implementing the 2014 Water Bond and a background_paper prepared by the Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee for their January 10 Proposition 1 oversight hearing.

Regarding the 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), CSAC, along with the Rural County Representatives of California (RCRC), the Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA) and the California Water Foundation (CWF), co-sponsored three very well attended educational forums over the past few weeks that focused on approaches to forming a Groundwater Sustainability Agency. 

Workshops were held in Willows on Jan. 26, 2015; in Tulare on Feb. 4, 2015; and in Modesto on Feb. 5, 2015. The materials from the workshops, including the agendas, PowerPoint presentations and the Water Education Foundations’ SGMA Handbook are available on the CSAC website at: groundwater_workshop_materials.

Lastly, the Department of Water Resources (DWR) has developed a web-based application to assist local agencies in water management planning efforts. According to DWR, the Water Management Planning Tool is an interactive map application that allows users to overlay numerous Geographic Information Systems (GIS) layers onto a map of California, and allows for those GIS layers to be toggled on and off while varying each layer’s transparency. 

The Water Management Planning Tool is intended to assist local agencies with their responsibilities related to the California Water Plan, Integrated Regional Water Management, and the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act and as an informational tool for all interested parties. The interactive map may be accessed via the DWR webpage at: http://www.water.ca.gov/groundwater/boundaries.cfm.