TO: Technical Advisory Group for the Napa County Groundwater Sustainability Agency
FROM: Brian D. Bordona, Director of Planning, Building and Environmental Services
REPORT BY: Jamison Crosby, Natural Resources Conservation Manager
SUBJECT: Comments from the TAG on the ISW/GDEs Workplan
RECOMMENDATION
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Provide information to the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) on comments to the Public Draft of the Interconnected Surface Water (ISW) and Groundwater Dependent Ecosystems (GDEs) Workplan for the Napa Valley Subbasin by TAG members.
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Stillwater Sciences will summarize comments to the Public Draft of the ISW and GDEs Workplan for the Napa Valley Subbasin by TAG members. The Public Draft of the Workplan was released on October 31, 2023. Comments from the Public are due on January 30, 2024 and have not been fully processed to date. TAG members submitted their comments prior to the deadline and they are included here. TAG comments to the Public Draft of the ISW and GDE Workplan included editorial comments, technical comments, and Workplan implementation comments.
Procedure
Staff introduces the item
Questions and answers with the TAG
Public comments
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
ENVIRONMENTAL DETERMINATION: The proposed action is not a project as defined by 14 California Code of Regulations 15378 (State CEQA Guidelines) and therefore CEQA is not applicable.
BACKGROUND AND DISCUSSION
The Public Draft of the ISW and GDEs Workplan for the Napa Valley Subbasin by was released on October 31, 2023 and comments are due January 30 2024. The Technical Advisory Group (TAG) approved the ISW and GDEs Workplan Outline in November 2022 and provided comments to presentations of ISW and GDEs Workplan elements during 4 meetings from February-October 2023. The ISW and GDEs Workplan was also presented at three public meetings: on December 11, 2023 in Yountville, December 12, 2023 over Zoom, and January 9, 2024 in Napa. Because the February TAG meeting is occurring soon after public comments are due, the TAG meeting will focus on comments from the TAG members themselves.
TAG comments were categorized into editorial comments, technical comments, and comments regarding ISW and GDEs Workplan implementation (Chapter 6). The editorial comments included suggested edits to the text and figures to correct typos or figure components that were difficult to read or missing. Technical comments from the TAG included requests for clarification of technical details, additional supporting information, and additional details in figures particularly for Workplan Chapters 1-5. TAG implementation comments also included requested changes to the monitoring schedule and a comment regarding the California Environmental Flows Framework.
Table 1, provided as an attachment to this staff report, includes example TAG comments. One TAG comment requests input on the minimum length of connectivity surveys within study reaches and asks if the lengths will vary. Additional topics raised during the initial public comments include intensive survey site selection (mainstem versus tributaries), including dissolved oxygen measurement at intensive sites, and including fall pulse flows in CEFF analysis. Based on comments received on the Public Draft, it is recommended that the Napa at Napa site be replaced by one of three tributary sites (Bale Slough, York Creek, and Redwood Creek), with TAG input used to select the replacement site. The location of the monitoring sites may be adjusted in the future based on the results of the surveys.