GRASS VALLEY, Calif. March 8, 2017 – NID Directors and members of the public present at the board meeting were able to watch a presentation by Placer County Principal Management Analyst Brett Story on the West Placer Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA.)
The GSA will be formed to conform with the Sustainability Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) adopted by the California legislature in 2015. Placer County, the cities of Roseville and Lincoln, Placer County Water Agency and in participation with the California American Water Company, will manage portions of the North American groundwater basin and implement activities that preserve and enhance the current state of the resource for towns, communities, agriculture and the environment. A groundwater sustainability plan is due for the area by January 2022. Monitoring of wells only applies to wells using more than two acre-feet of water per year. (An average family of four uses less than one acre-ft per year.)
NID’s service area overlaps a small portion of the North American Subbasin of the Sacramento Ground Water Basin. However, as a surface water agency, NID does not withdraw any water from the basin and is exempt from SGMA regulations. NID has a vested and increasing interest in SGMA due to the proximity of the District canals that provide irrigation to lands within the recognized basin, according to staff’s background information.
The board directed staff to continue talks with Placer County and to bring additional information to the board for a possible future action.
The full presentation can be seen below or downloaded as a pdf file here: WPGSA.