Groundwater Management
The State Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), passed in 2014, requires local governments and water agencies that overlie high and medium priority basins form Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSAs) for the purpose of sustainably managing the groundwater basins. SGMA calls for GSAs to work with groundwater users in their basin to develop and implement groundwater sustainability plans (GSPs) that achieve groundwater reliability within 20 years. A link to the State’s web site explaining the plan process may be found here.
Paso Basin
The Paso Basin Groundwater Sustainability Agencies must comply with SGMA. See Paso Robles Groundwater Basin on the County of San Luis Obispo website.
The Paso Basin Groundwater Sustainability Agencies submitted the Paso Robles Subbasin Groundwater Sustainability Plan to the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) in January 2020. The Plan was reviewed by DWR in January 2022 and determined to be incomplete. An updated Plan was submitted on June 13, 2022.
The League provided comments on the revised Plan to California Department of Water Resources, voicing concerns that it fails to meet the objectives of a sustainability plan because it accepts basin depletion without mitigation and does not address activities that have impacted the basin (such as the proliferation of vineyards). See comment letter here.
Separately, on December 6, 2022 the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors adopted a Planting Ordinance that required water neutral ministerial planting permits for production agriculture irrigated from groundwater, but granted a 25 acre feet per year exemption per site. On February 7, 2023, the BOS rescinded the Planting Ordinance, reenacted and extended until 2028 the Agricultural Offset Requirements, and directed staff to bring back for Board discussion opportunities to amend the Agricultural Offset Requirements to account for off-site offsets and voluntary fallowing. Information is available for review or downloading on the Department of Planning & Building’s website here
Action: The Natural Resources Committee will continue to monitor this project for the League.
SLO Basin
During a normal year, nearly 40 percent of California’s agricultural and urban water demand is met by the use of groundwater. For the Southern Central Coast Region where the San Luis Obispo Valley Groundwater Basin (SLO Basin) is located, approximately 80 percent of the total water supply is met by groundwater. This has resulted in conditions of critical overdraft with rapidly declining groundwater levels in some groundwater basins. Groundwater use also increases during drought conditions.
The SLO Basin was designated by the State as a high-priority basin, which means the basin’s management agencies are required to develop a groundwater sustainability plan. The County of San Luis Obispo and the City of San Luis Obispo formed GSAs within their respective jurisdictions to cover the entire SLO Basin.
The Plan describes and assesses the groundwater condition of the SLO Basin, develops quantifiable management objectives that account for the interests of the SLO Basin’s beneficial groundwater uses and users, and identifies a group of projects and management actions that will allow the SLO Basin to achieve and maintain sustainability in the future. The Plan was approved by the Board of Supervisors and the City of San Luis Obispo in December 2021 and submitted to the Department of Water Resources.
To view the Plan and for more information, go to this LINK or see the San Luis Obispo Valley Groundwater Basin on the County of San Luis Obispo website.
Action: The Natural Resources Committee will continue to monitor this project for the League.