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: Update on ISW and GDE monitoring and perspectives from outside of Napa County
RECOMMENDATION
title
Receive a presentation on the status of the Interconnected Surface Water and Groundwater Dependent Ecosystems Workplan implementation with a focus on applying the California Environmental Flows Framework in the Napa Valley Subbasin and describing the process for developing ecological management goals.
body
Procedure
Staff introduces.
Questions and answers with the TAG.
Public comments.
BACKGROUND AND DISCUSSION
As part of the implementation of the Interconnected Surface Water (ISW) and Groundwater Dependent Ecosystems (GDEs) Workplan: Napa Valley Subbasin, the Technical Team is using the California Environmental Flows Framework (CEFF) to characterize aquatic and terrestrial GDEs and assess environmental flows in the Subbasin. The goal is to complete the science-based sections of CEFF (Sections A and B) by the end of 2025 to inform updates to the Sustainable Management Criteria for the Periodic Evaluation. A key component of CEFF is to identify overarching ecological management goals, including streamflows to maintain ecosystem health. These goals are a function of the species and lifestages present, their ecological needs, the physical system (e.g., water year type, temperature, water year trends), and the degree to which the ecological needs can be met (i.e., whether flows would be sufficient given the constraints of the physical system). Flow constraints under variable conditions, including climate extremes and ISW conditions with and without groundwater pumping will be characterized and assessed using the Napa Valley Integrated Hydrologic Model (NVIHM). At the February TAG meeting, we will present preliminary ecological man...
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