Ground Water Bills Gaining Steam
Two measures that both seek to regulate ground water pumping are getting a lot of attention in these final days of the legislative session. The bills, AB 1739 by Assembly Member Roger Dickinson and SB 1168 by Senator Fran Pavley would establish a comprehensive statutory groundwater management framework aimed at achieving sustainable groundwater management across the state.
CSAC has been actively engaged in a stakeholder process that has brought together local governments, agriculture, water districts and other water users. And throughout the year we have kept counties apprised of the status of these measures via webinars, conference calls, meetings and written communications.
Essentially, the measures call for creating groundwater sustainability agencies in medium and high priority basins throughout the state and for the preparation of groundwater sustainability plans.
In representing county interests on the two measures, we have generally focused on governance and preserving county land use authority (i.e. local control). Early versions of AB 1739 and SB 1168 placed counties in a secondary role to water districts and failed to recognize county police power over groundwater and land use. So up until this week, CSAC had taken an “oppose unless amended” position.
Recent amendments have allowed us, and the Rural County Representatives of California (RCRC) to drop our opposition and go neutral on the bills. The authors agreed to several changes:
- Allow a county to be a groundwater sustainability agency;
- Require groundwater sustainability plans to consider applicable general plans;
- Require groundwater sustainability agencies to review and consider comments from cities and counties regarding a groundwater sustainability plan;
- Prohibit groundwater sustainability agencies from issuing permits for the construction, modification, or abandonment of groundwater wells, except as authorized by a county with authority to issue those permits; and
- Provide assurances that groundwater transfers are subject to applicable city and county ordinances.
The California Farm Bureau Federation and other agricultural interests continue to oppose AB 1739 and SB 1168 for a wide range of reasons outside the scope of local governance and local government land use authority.
While CSAC is very pleased with the willingness of the authors and the Administration to address many of our concerns there are other components of the bills that are of concern to individual counties and their constituents. We have communicated this to the Administration and authors and received assurances that we will continue to have a seat at the table for any future discussions on ground water management and in particular any potential clean-up legislation.