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: Groundwater Pumping Reduction Workplan - Update
RECOMMENDATION
title
Provide an update to the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) on progress for the Groundwater Pumping Reduction Workplan (GPR Workplan) and Water Conservation Workplan (WC Workplan). This will focus on discussions of a benchmarking conceptualization, incentivizing participation in certification programs, and next steps. Framing questions are included to receive feedback and direction from the TAG.
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Staff and the technical team are continuing work on the GPR Workplan and WC Workplan. An initial presentation was given at the February TAG and updates were provided at the March, April, May, and July TAG meetings. TAG feedback at each prior meeting has been incorporated into the draft analysis being completed for the Workplans. It is anticipated that work will result in draft Workplans that will be presented to the TAG in Fall 2023. This is the sixth of several updates to the TAG. Information based on feedback and preliminary analysis completed by the technical team is being presented at this meeting, and this will be updated as the technical team completes its work and continues to receive feedback from the TAG.
Procedure
Staff introduces.
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
Napa County GSA Staff and the technical team are continuing to work on the GPR Workplan and WC Workplan. This is the sixth update to the TAG. Information and updates since the last TAG meeting are being presented (see Supporting Document A), and this will be updated as the technical team completes its work and receives feedback from the TAG.
The Groundwater Pumping Reduction Workplan (GPR Workplan) is being prepared to provide a roadmap for implementing measures to reduce groundwater pumping in the Napa Valley Subbasin. This Workplan is a companion document to the related document, the Napa County Water Conservation Workplan, A Guide for Vineyards, Wineries and Other Sectors (WC Workplan), a stakeholder-facing tool to learn about, consider, and implement voluntary water conservation practices.
The GPR Workplan will describe voluntary measures to conserve water, including reducing groundwater pumping. The GPR Workplan will include processes for improving the understanding of groundwater use in the Subbasin and evaluating the effectiveness of measures implemented to reduce groundwater pumping in relation to observed benefits to groundwater conditions and sustainability. The GPR Workplan will also include adaptive management and a process to invoke mandatory measures if voluntary measures are insufficient to achieve groundwater sustainability (i.e., an implementation plan). The Workplan also includes a summary of cost sharing opportunities and summary of data gaps that will need to be addressed to support program implementation.
The GPR Workplan will focus on voluntary actions that achieve groundwater benefits for the Subbasin, assess the costs and benefits of alternative actions and focus on those that are most cost-effective, leverage existing programs and opportunities to generate value to participants, and include an adaptive management process to adjust the program as data and sustainable management criteria evolve.
Voluntary water conservation actions should provide a benefit to the Subbasin and to individuals that adopt them. The TAG has reviewed certification programs (Feb 2023), benchmarking programs (Apr 2023), and broader best management practices for incentivizing adoption of water savings technologies and practices, including behavioral nudges and educational workshops and programming (Feb, Mar, Apr 2023). The project team continues to conduct outreach to support analysis of existing and potential water conservation practices, including outreach to certification programs as well as other industry organizations and experts.
• Certification programs are one way to realize value from voluntary actions. Existing certifications for winegrapes have been reviewed to identify the potential for certifying specific water management practices, and what value these types of labels may generate. A preliminary update was presented at the March 2023 TAG meeting. Certification programs that have been reviewed include the California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance, Napa Green, SIP Certified, Fish Friendly Farming, and Napa Resource Conservation District (RCD) LandSmart. The motivation for utilizing different certification programs ranges from regulatory compliance to intrinsic value for practices that producers are already utilizing. Many program participants increase adoption of newer technologies for certifications and as part of best management practices. It appears there are opportunities to expand certification of specific practices (and/or emphasize adoption of current, certified practices) that would support groundwater sustainability in the Subbasin.
• “Benchmarking” is an approach to encourage changes in practices by showing how an individual compares to an (anonymous) group of their peers. Benchmarking programs have proven to be successful in utilities, both for energy and residential water use. Benchmarking provides a framework to encourage voluntary changes in water use, for water users to confidentially evaluate their own performance relative to the Subbasin at large, identify room for improvement, and save both resource use and related costs. At the April 2023 TAG meeting, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star program was presented as a case study for a benchmarking program. The case study provided an opportunity to explore how a benchmarking program for water use in vineyards and wineries (and potentially other sectors) may similarly be developed in Napa to help reduce groundwater pumping and maintain sustainability under the GSP. A key issue identified by the TAG is the variability in water use across different growers, crops, and microclimates. A benchmarking program in which a grower could track across their own portfolio over space and time may overcome some of these challenges, as well as identifying appropriate “peer groups” on factors affecting the variability.
The GPR Workplan will include a summary of each water conservation practice. This summary will include costs and benefits for existing and potential practices, including vineyard-specific adoption costs and potential water savings that benefit the Subbasin. To organize and summarize findings in a concise format, a matrix concept was developed whereby practices are ranked by criteria including estimated costs, private benefits, water savings benefits, implementation timeline, overall feasibility, and other required studies. The concept was presented to the TAG in March for feedback and discussion, and the draft findings were presented at the May meeting. This included a proposal to focus on the practices that show the potential for the highest impact. These will be ranked in the Workplan for overall cost-effectiveness and feasibility, highlighting those that could be top-priority practices for adoption. Feedback included minor revisions and analyzing the potential for cost-share programs to further lower costs of adoption for applicable practices and technologies.
The GPR Workplan will also include an implementation plan, which will cover voluntary practices, education, and benchmarking, assessing the effectiveness of the voluntary program, and an adaptive management process with potential mandatory measures if the voluntary program is ineffective. The implementation plan will also define when and how different actions could be triggered as the Subbasin is adaptively managed over time. An overview of some of the components of implementation were covered at the May meeting: namely, incentives for participation, funding, education/outreach, defining metrics for success, and developing the adaptive management process if voluntary efforts are unsuccessful. The July meeting presented a phased implementation plan for the TAG discussion and feedback, as well as other Workplan progress, including to the water practices matrix and a summary of existing cost-share programs. Options for implementation were covered, including a portfolio of options for a phased approach that relies on voluntary and incentivized conservation actions. Adaptive management would be incorporated throughout the phases in order to refine baseline data, monitor indicators, and improve programs for better impact in the Subbasin. The implementation plan would need to align with GSP requirements, such as the triggers, thresholds, and timeline for other GSP processes.
At the September meeting, the focus will be on a discussion of benchmarking and incentives for participation in certification programs. Next steps and the timeline for preparing the Workplans for public review will also be highlighted.
FRAMING QUESTIONS FOR TAG DELIBERATIONS
The following framing questions have been prepared for the TAG in consideration of groundwater pumping reductions to achieve overarching GSP objectives for the Napa Valley Subbasin:
The GPR Workplan includes an example pilot benchmarking program. The pilot program could leverage open-source data for agricultural water uses, OpenET, and so would necessarily focus on agricultural users. While ET is an imperfect proxy for applied water and cannot distinguish between sources of water, it represents a starting point for evaluating water use performance in the absence of other data. To capture some of the variability of vineyard ET, a number of potential controls were evaluated for their ability to be a promising “peer group”, or subset for an individual to be compared against. Observable vineyard characteristics that were analyzed include soil drainage, slope, elevation, precipitation, temperature, grape variety (red or white), and GSP model Water Balance Areas. An example concept is shown for elevation and variety to represent peer groups for ET, though analysis is ongoing to determine the appropriate number and size of peer groups. While there are still important differences that exist across vineyards, an initial pilot program can be an important starting point for evaluating irrigation performance. Benchmarking has the potential to create behavioral changes among participants, including encouraging improving water use efficiency, being an on-ramp to identify, diagnose, and address high water use, and for the GSA to monitor system-wide improvements over time.
Question: What other pros, cons, and constraints do you think are important for the development of a pilot benchmarking program?
The GPR Workplan is intended to include incentives for participating in voluntary water conservation practices. Certification programs have proven to be effective in scaling adoption of water conservation practices while generating value to the certified party. The GPR could consider incentives to participate in certification programs by offering a cost-share reimbursement for participating in certifications that address water quantity goals. The cost-share program could be certification agnostic, but it would set minimum water management criteria that the certification program must meet for their members to be eligible for the incentive payment. The selection of the water management criteria would be based on the results of the Water Practices Matrix analysis. For example, an eligible vineyard certification program would include metering and reporting water use, distribution uniformity testing every 3-5 years, and adoption of some form of irrigation scheduling tools (plant water or soil moisture monitoring).
Question: How could we design this incentive program for high impact?
SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS
A. ERA Economics Powerpoint Presentation: Napa Valley Subbasin, Groundwater Pumping Reduction Workplan, September 2023