The Redding City Council talked groundwater last night – particularly how to move ahead with sustainable management of the region’s aquifer.
In 2014 Governor Jerry Brown mandated that the State Water Resources Control Board require agencies that sit over groundwater basins come up with a plan to ensure the sustainability of each aquifer.
Tuesday night, Public Works Director Brian Crane told the Redding City Council that currently there is no one overseeing the management of the state’s aquifers, especially in big agricultural areas to the south of Redding. He said in that part of the state, they’re seeing water quality issues due to big wells being put in and aquifers reaching very low levels.
“We don’t have those issues up here, but in other parts of the state it’s pretty dramatic,” Crane said.
Whether or not those issues are present in Redding, local water agencies are still expected to come up with a sustainable water management plan. There are currently six agencies who are served by the Redding-area groundwater basin and they will be involved in figuring out how to form the new groundwater managing body called a Groundwater Sustainability Agency. Crane said the plan needs to be put together by the end of the year otherwise the state could put together its own plan. If the state did that, he said it could also charge the local agencies a fee for doing so.
As of now, Redding’s plan is still in the making with local districts trying to figure out how much control they will retain.