TO: 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: Comment letter on the State Water Resources Control Board's Water Supply and Demand Assessment for the Napa River Watershed
RECOMMENDATION
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Authorize submittal of a comment letter authored by the NCGSA's Groundwater Technical Advisory Group (TAG) to the State Water Board expressing concerns related to the State Water Resources Control Board's Supply and Demand Assessment Unit and Paradigm Environmental, Inc.'s project to model surface water supply and demand in the Napa River Watershed. (No Fiscal Impact)
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BACKGROUND
The State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board) first introduced NCGSA staff to a project of their Supply and Demand Assessment Unit (SDA) at a virtual meeting on November 14, 2023. State Water Board staff described a new initiative wherein the Napa River Watershed was selected as a Pilot Watershed for a modeling project with the State Water Board and their consultants, Paradigm Environmental, Inc., entitled "Modeling Water Supply and Demand in the Napa River Watershed". The State Water Board is responsible for allocating surface water through California's water rights priority system. The presentation provided an overview of the modeling effort proposed in the Napa River Watershed, which is to develop a water supply (hydrologic) model that assesses surface water availability where low flows and drought conditions may threaten water supplies, impair critical habitat, and/or create uncertainty for water users. The State Water Board's stated objective is to better allocate surface water through California's water rights priority system during critical drought periods to maintain water supplies in the Napa River critical for habitat and species. The model simplifies the important interactions between groundwater and surface...
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