State Tentatively Denies Napa Co. Groundwater Sustainability Plan

Napa County: Napa County has received a tentative decision from the State of California Department of Water Resources (DWR) to deny approval of the County’s Groundwater Sustainability Plan that was submitted on December 16, 2016. The County’s alternative plan was based on significant and publically available data that demonstrated that groundwater from the Napa Valley Subbasin was managed sustainably for decades.

The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) allowed local agencies to submit an “alternative plan in-lieu of a groundwater sustainability plan” for basin management, which the County did in 2016. Basins without an approved alternative plan must form a groundwater sustainability agency, and submit certain reports by January 31, 2022.

The tentative decision, received July 17, 2019, is accompanied by a 28-page report from DWR staff. The letter from DWR specifically states, “The Staff Report did not consider and does not conclude that the Napa Valley Subbasin is, or has been managed unsustainably. The staff recommendation centers on the evaluation that the County did not establish and operate the subbasin to thresholds or objective management criteria for a period of at least 10 years prior to the adoption of the SGMA and, because of that, nothing constrains the definition of “sustainable yield” for the subbasin.”

Further, the report acknowledges, “Documentation submitted to DWR makes it clear that water managers in the County have undertaken considerable efforts to improve understanding of groundwater in recent years, including the formation of the Groundwater Resources Advisory Committee and the Watershed Information & Conservation Council, development of several studies of groundwater conditions, and installation of monitoring wells in 2014 to better understand interactions between groundwater and surface water.”

Of the other six alternative plans submitted under the same code section by other agencies, four were also not approved. County staff is currently reviewing the DWR staff report and will submit a response to the tentative decision within the 30 days allowed by law.