TO: Technical Advisory Group for the Napa County Groundwater Sustainability Agency
FROM: Brian Bordona - Director of Planning, Building and Environmental Services
REPORT BY: Jamison Crosby, Natural Resources Conservation Manager
SUBJECT: Debrief from and continuation of the discussion held at the Joint meeting of the NCGSA and TAG on August 22, 2023
RECOMMENDATION
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TAG will receive a debrief from the Joint meeting of the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) and Napa County Groundwater Sustainability Agency (NCGSA) on August 22, 2023, including direction received from the NCGSA summarized within this report. TAG will then continue the discussion and consider additional management questions it would like to define and work on during the next six-months to one-year period.
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The NCGSA formed the TAG to advise the NCGSA and aid in the implementation of the Napa Valley Subbasin Groundwater Sustainability Plan (GSP), including responding to changing groundwater conditions. The five-member TAG was first convened on August 11, 2022. During the TAG’s monthly meetings, staff posed Framing Questions to the TAG which they considered and responded to, bringing their individual expertise to bear on topics related to groundwater conditions, GSP implementation, and development of four workplans. A summary of Framing Questions considered by the TAG during October through December 2022 was provided to the NCGSA at the NCGSA’s March 28, 2023 meeting.
From January through July 2023, the TAG continued to consider and provide feedback related to Framing Questions presented in monthly TAG meetings. A compilation of the Framing Questions and a summary of the TAG’s 2023 input and recommendations were presented at the Joint NCGSA/TAG meeting on August 22, 2023. All five TAG members attended the meeting.
The purpose of the Joint NCGSA/TAG meeting was to provide an opportunity for the NCGSA to receive, discuss, and question the TAG about their findings and provide direction on topics and questions they would like the TAG to consider during the next 6-months to 1-year period related to ongoing GSP implementation and achieving groundwater sustainability. Key topics discussed with the TAG included:
A. Interconnected Surface Water and Groundwater Dependent Ecosystems Workplan;
B. Napa County Water Conservation and Groundwater Pumping Reduction Workplans; and
C. Adaptive Management Response Actions, Climate Adaptation and Building Resiliency;
The purpose of today’s agenda item is for the TAG to continue the discussion and consider additional management questions it would like to define and work on during the next six-months to one-year period.
Procedure
Staff introduces 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 purpose of today’s agenda item is for the TAG to continue the discussion from the Joint NCGSA/TAG meeting and consider additional management questions it would like to define and work on during the next six-months to one-year period.
Key discussion topics and considerations during the Joint NCGSA/TAG meeting on August 22, 2023 included:
• Management actions implemented to achieve groundwater sustainability prior to 2024. The GSP provides sustainable management criteria and an adaptive management approach to manage groundwater resources to avoid undesirable results.
o Two workplans currently under development (Water Conservation Workplan and Groundwater Pumping Reduction Workplan) are expected to provide the framework for responding to conditions to avoid or correct undesirable results.
o Protecting interconnected surface water from effects of groundwater pumping, and the additional stresses and lack of recharge that have occurred during hotter drier water years, is a key objective. The NCGSA desires to identify the data and efforts needed to avoid undesirable results and invest in climate resilience and groundwater sustainability.
o The NCGSA and TAG understand the adoption of water conservation practices in the Subbasin range from early adopters of conservation practices to others who may not have implemented water conservation practices until more recently. Suggestions are sought from the agricultural community and others for ways to highlight and acknowledge early adopters of water conservation practices, including those who are currently implementing and sharing innovative water conservation strategies.
o The NCGSA and TAG recognize that some individuals and organizations are implementing practices with benefits that extend beyond parcel-specific benefits; however, there is a need to incentivize more people and businesses to communicate the benefits and value of data sharing, modernization of conservation practices, and evolving sustainability strategies.
o NCGSA would like the TAG to consider the issue of drying reaches of the Napa River and its tributaries, determine potential causes and identify solutions and actions reduce impacts.
• Partnerships to strengthen outreach, community engagement, and education.
o SGMA is a complex new mandate that involves new processes, some of which are still being developed. Climate change creates new challenges, which necessitate integration of programs (e.g., GSP, Integrated Water Resources Management, Climate Action Plan, Napa Valley Drought Contingency Program, Drought Resilience Implementation Plan), increased data synthesis, and utilization of modern technologies during development of regional strategies to mitigate climate effects.
o The NCGSA seeks meaningful partnerships that promote working together as a community to achieve sustainability.
o GSP implementation includes utilization of the adaptive management process described in the GSP, including measures needed to track and assess progress.
o The Subbasin’s most sensitive sustainability indicator is interconnected surface water. The NCGSA and TAG support development of additional educational materials pertaining to surface water and groundwater interactions and to continue educating the public about the close interconnectivity between these resources, effectively being “one water.”
o The NCGSA and TAG promote outreach and education pertaining to “water conservation as a way of life” and measures to increase water savings and thereby reduce groundwater pumping.
o NCGSA would like TAG to investigate what can we learn from other GSAs and jurisdictions.
o NCGSA would like the TAG to investigate: 1) how to recognize and potentially reward the entities who have already invested significant resources in conservation and 2) what would users, industry in particular, consider a meaningful incentive(s) to conserve.
o NCGSA would like the TAG to consider the question, “What can the County offer?” in recognition of a desire to have a true partnership with groundwater users. Examples provided included inspection and maintenance of wells, tracking usage for well owners, and providing year over year reports.
• Advancing data collection and exchange.
o Diverse types of monitoring networks exist in the Subbasin, including nine GSP monitoring networks along with monitoring programs developed for other purposes including the Napa County Resource Conservation District’s Stream Watch and fish monitoring programs. The NCGSA and TAG understand the integral relationship between measuring and managing natural resources. Stakeholders collect and utilize data to manage their operations and, where applicable, also for regulatory compliance. The NCGSA’s and TAG’s mutual objective is achieving and maintaining groundwater sustainability in the Subbasin. An ongoing question is: “What other data or information do we need to help us achieve sustainability?” The NCGSA/TAG would like to know from stakeholders what incentives might motivate data collection, and data sharing where data of interest are already being collected, to engage the Napa County community more broadly in efforts to achieve sustainability objectives.
o The NCGSA and TAG advocate measures to assess the effectiveness of voluntary water conservation practices, including whether and to what extent such practices are achieving the intended water savings and groundwater pumping reduction effect(s).
o With respect to the voluntary 10% pumping reduction, NCGSA would like to understand “How do you know if the voluntary program is being effective?”
• Planning ahead and leveraging climate resilience and groundwater replenishment opportunities.
o The NCGSA and TAG support increased opportunities to provide for and use recycled water as a source of supply.
o Extreme weather events are unpredictable. The NCGSA and TAG commented that additional infrastructure could have been beneficial during the water year 2023 rain events to capture excess stormwater and surplus surface water flows for enhancing groundwater recharge. The Subbasin’s characteristics, as a natural alluvial river valley aquifer system, offers significant natural infrastructure and potential opportunities to infiltrate surplus precipitation and surface water infiltration to replenish groundwater. Optimizing the use of surplus stormwater can be challenging because of the timing of storm events and the ability of the landscape to retain surplus water to allow infiltration. Consideration also needs to be given to the interconnectivity between groundwater and the Napa River system; brief time intervals between recharge and discharge may occur depending on hydrogeologic characteristics and recharge locations. However, historical stormwater management and drainage infrastructure (e.g., on-farm ponds, canals, and tile drains) could be examined, potentially leveraged, and reimagined to better utilize stormwater and surplus surface water flows when available.
o The NCGSA supports partnerships with businesses, urban interests, the agricultural community, and other stakeholders to brainstorm ways to achieve and invest in strategies to replenish groundwater and improve interconnected surface water and ecosystem habitats. In light of recent amendments to SEC. 23, Section 71154 of the Public Resources Code, strategies are encouraged to consider historical (human-constructed) and natural infrastructure coupled with resource sustainability practices such as regenerative agriculture and healthy soils to “slow the flow” on the landscape and increase recharge. Per the new amendments, “natural infrastructure” means using natural ecological systems or processes to reduce vulnerability to climate change related hazards, or other related climate change effects, while increasing the long-term adaptive capacity of coastal and inland areas by perpetuating or restoring ecosystem services. This includes, but is not limited to, the conservation, preservation, or sustainable management of any form of aquatic or terrestrial vegetated open space (which include aquifers).
o NCGSA would like the TAG to investigate the opportunities for recharge.
Issues and Information - Six-Months to One-Year Look Ahead
The NCGSA desires input from the TAG and stakeholders on how the NCGSA can support the GSP implementation process and facilitate community engagement, public education, broad stakeholder participation in reducing vulnerability to climate change, and measures to preserve ecosystem function and achieve groundwater sustainability. Accordingly, in addition to the key issues recapped above, the TAG will consider and discuss preliminary topics and questions it wishes to receive information on and address during the next six-month to one-year period. This is expected to be a dynamically evolving conversation as new data are compiled and synthesized, the Napa Valley Integrated Hydrologic Model is updated, and the workplans in progress are completed and implemented.
SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS
A. Napa County Technical Advisory Group Framing Question Summary, October through December 2022
B. Napa County Technical Advisory Group Framing Question Summary, January through July 2023
C. Staff Report presented to the Joint meeting of the NCGSA/TAG on August 22, 2023.