As temperatures soar across the state and the drought stretches on, Gov. Jerry Brown took steps this week to regulate groundwater that is increasingly being used in the wake of dwindling surface water supplies.
The state has not regulated groundwater usage in the past, giving landowners discretion to pump water from underground sources, even if they remove water before the aquifer can naturally replenish it.
Tom Fayram, Santa Barbara County’s deputy public works director, said groundwater plays a “very substantial” part of consumption in the county.
More people are asking to tap into groundwater this year than in years past.
The county has seen the average amount of well permit applications almost triple — 146 in the last fiscal year running from July to the end of June — compared with an average of 50 a year previously, according to David Brummond, supervising environmental health specialist for the county.
Brown signed several bills Tuesday that attempt to regulate groundwater usage, including Senate Bill 1168, which asks local bodies to create groundwater management plans.
Brown maintains that groundwater resources are more effectively managed at the local or regional level.
He also approved AB 1739, which would allow the state to intervene if local agencies aren’t regulating usage, and SB 1319, which would delay the plan in places where surface water has been impacted by groundwater pumping.
The regional State Water Resources Control Board, based in San Luis Obispo, will be the primary driver of the new regulations.
Brummond said the South County relies on Lake Cachuma and state water, so as both of those sources dwindle, more wells may have to be activated to support demand.
Passing the bill at the state level means the “work is only halfway done,” he said, as the state now has to figure out the details of the bill.
The details of the regulations are still unclear, such as the target rate for conservation.
“What’s the target? It says sustainable levels, but what does that mean?” Fayram said.
Users of groundwater in the county are primarily using that water for agricultural use, even though certain districts like the Goleta Water District and Carpinteria Valley Water Districts also have agricultural users that use significant amounts of water from their districts.
The new law would not apply to adjudicated districts, in which a previous lawsuit has already dictated where water can go. Adjudicated districts in the county include the Goleta and Santa Maria Valley groundwater basins.
There are also districts in the county that use only groundwater, including Orcutt, Casmalia and Cuyama, Fayram said.
Because of a reduction of state water deliveries, other entities are using more groundwater and the aquifers around the county are in various states of health.
Cuyama, for example, is in a state of significant overdraft, while Santa Maria and Goleta have more of a managed aquifer system, Fayram said.
Santa Barbara County Supervisors received a report on the Cuyama-area groundwater issues several weeks ago.
Groundwater basins naturally decline during a drought and recover during the wet years, and Fayram said that other aquifers may be in flux that the county may not have a full picture on.
On Oct. 14, the supervisors will hear an update from the Drought Task Force about the drought and groundwater issues will be a part of that.
— Noozhawk staff writer Lara Cooper can be reached at lcooper@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
