[0:00] Question of a Water Supply and Recharge Project with possible recommendation information of an ad hoc committee.

[0:10] Yes. Okay. Good afternoon, Christina Buck, Assistant Director with Beauty County.

[0:14] And it's my pleasure to introduce this topic.

[0:17] So I am serving as you just heard from Dylan. She described all the different grant projects and this is one of them.

[0:24] So the Water Supply and Recharge Project is being funded by the Sigma Grant through the Vine at GSA.

[0:29] and the county is implementing that on their behalf.

[0:32] So I'm the project manager on our side and the county is contracted with GEO Centek and Joe Turner is here sitting behind me.

[0:40] And then Jenny's share and Maddie from water and land solutions as well,

[0:45] are part of a consultant team on this project.

[0:48] So we, back in April, I gave you an overview of those couple of county projects including this one

[0:54] and kind of where we saw this going.

[0:56] So this is kind of our first project specific conversation around this particular project.

[1:03] Just to remind you, as Dylan said, it has two kind of key pieces that are related, but distinct.

[1:10] The first is related to water supply, so identifying two most promising water supply projects and completing a feasibility analysis for those two projects.

[1:18] And then the second part is identifying potential recharge opportunities and doing some pilot recharge work, hopefully over the next two winters during while we have this great money.

[1:30] So those are the pieces. Today we're going to be focusing on the first piece, really the water supply side. We'll come back with more information and discussion on the recharge side. So just so you know kind of the scope of what we're going to cover today.

[1:43] And then really just to also zoom out a little bit, you know, when we think about vina and we see those groundwater condition maps,

[1:50] it's, it's vina, right, that is part of that 40% where things are below normal still in most cases.

[1:56] And so, there's really a four-prong approach to addressing that there, water supplies part of it, recharges part of it,

[2:03] but also reducing demand is part of it, and so that's where that extent orchard replacement, the following,

[2:08] Project and irrigation efficiency pieces come into play and then also just through management actions policy and if necessary regulatory actions

[2:16] So those are kind of in the realm of the GSA and mean while we hope to implement things like this that help get us there

[2:24] through

[2:25] Other means so

[2:27] With that I'm gonna turn it over

[2:30] Introduced and turn it over to Jenny share who is with land and water. Sorry water and landslations

[2:35] And she'll take it from here and guide you through a discussion.

[2:39] We sent you some information this morning.

[2:41] It's likely that you maybe didn't see it yet or have time.

[2:44] So this is the time that we can really begin to get your input.

[2:47] This is the beginning of the process and look forward to having it unfold.

[2:52] Jenny's going to tell you more about that.

[2:54] Okay.

[2:55] Great.

[2:55] Thank you.

[2:57] Yeah.

[2:57] So the water supply project that we're working on just to take us back and introduce myself

[3:02] First, Jenny Sheer, I'm a resident of Chico,

[3:05] Buchananative, group in Richvale, with a big high school.

[3:09] So really excited to be, thank you.

[3:11] Yeah, shout out to Big Size, high school.

[3:13] Thanks, Donning.

[3:13] Yeah.

[3:14] A lot of esteemed professionals have come out of big high school.

[3:19] Yeah, so just excited to be working in the Binance of Basin

[3:22] and on this project in particular, we've been working on

[3:24] groundwater issues since Sigma really started.

[3:27] And the best thing for groundwater is using surface water.

[3:30] If we don't want to reduce the print of agricultural production, if we want to keep our economy strong,

[3:36] then the way that we can do that is, you know, the easiest way in the North State where we do have the surface water supplies that we have

[3:42] is to transition folks to surface water supplies. There are a lot of instances across the North State back to surface water.

[3:49] So that's what this project is looking at. It's where their water sources that are underutilized

[3:55] have maybe, like, fallen by the way side, or there's just been a lot of times a cropping transition that leads people to use groundwater instead, so that's kind of what we're looking at.

[4:05] We started with the outline here of the project timeline, just so that you could know, in your role as water commissioners, when we'll be coming to you, getting input, what we're hoping today is to just get some direction from you about where we should be going, where we should be focusing on.

[4:23] We have our list of projects, which we'll get into in a minute, but we want your perspectives

[4:28] about, you know, make sure you spend time on this.

[4:31] I see this part of it being kind of shaky, like that kind of background information will

[4:35] be helpful.

[4:36] That's what we're doing today, but we'll also check back in with you a number of times throughout

[4:40] the process.

[4:41] So the idea is that in this first few months, we're building our project list.

[4:47] There are only so many water bodies, you know, we might kind of have what those are coming

[4:50] to the forefront of our minds anyway, but just to make sure that we haven't missed any

[4:54] opportunities that folks might be aware of, there have been some other ones that have kind

[4:58] of come up that work.

[5:01] So, that's what we're doing first and foremost here is what potential projects should we be looking at when we're looking at getting irrigators tied into surface water rather than using groundwater, where should we be looking? What's like the university possibilities?

[5:16] And then the next step will be that we narrow those down, so we do what we're calling a fatal flaw analysis.

[5:21] So, you know, this one is going to be $40 million or this one's going to have huge environmental permitting or the partner involved in that one is not interested in that.

[5:32] All of these projects do involve partners that, you know, beauty county, I think is in the unique position compared to a lot of sub basins where they actually have a water right.

[5:42] That's very uncommon. Usually it has to go through a water district.

[5:45] But there's still conveyance and things like that that almost I think probably every project relies on partners to some extent

[5:52] So making sure partners are willing to be involved just looking at the regulatory frame works or

[5:59] agencies, you know if the

[6:01] Department of Water Resources or Bureau of Reclamation is involved so we'll be kind of going through all of those and then we'll narrow it down to a shorter list of projects

[6:09] And we'll come back and we'll chat with you about that and we'd say we'll say you know

[6:13] We're going to really dig into these few projects.

[6:16] We're going to do fatal flow analysis on them.

[6:18] From there, we'd like to move forward with these two.

[6:21] Do you agree with these two?

[6:23] Did we miss something?

[6:24] Should we prioritize the different one?

[6:26] And then we'll take those two projects and we'll do

[6:29] Like a full feasibility analysis.

[6:31] The goal with that is to get some packages kind of lined out

[6:35] Where we've looked more in depth at all these issues.

[6:38] We've had deeper discussions with partners.

[6:41] We've dug into potentially thorny issues that have come up if there's like some, you know, I'd say like light engineering and kind of thing that needs to be done.

[6:52] We could do some of that and the idea is to really get it ready for a grant proposal.

[6:56] That's one thing that will be kind of oriented toward and just kind of scoping out all the different facets of it and taking it from.

[7:04] It's an idea that somebody has some work has been done on and we know there's been conversations about it but really making it more concrete.

[7:10] and saying, these are the steps that we'll need to be done.

[7:13] This is what that project entails.

[7:15] And with that feasibility study, we'll also get to a dollar

[7:18] per acre foot kind of cost where folks can really

[7:22] understand what the investment might look like.

[7:26] And so that will come back to you, too.

[7:29] You'll guide us on which two projects we should do that on,

[7:32] and then we'll come back to you and present those results

[7:34] and that'll kind of wrap up the project.

[7:36] So this is a really a planning project.

[7:38] We won't build anything, we're planning on working with any existing water rights.

[7:43] The plan isn't to apply for a water-right, the projects that get proposed could be construction

[7:48] projects, but we won't be constructing anything in this timeframe.

[7:51] This is really just, you know, doing that planning phase.

[7:54] Mr. Tennis.

[7:55] Thank you for that.

[7:57] Where did you get that dollar per acre-foot thing?

[7:59] How would that factor in?

[8:01] We'll be developing it through the project just so that folks can understand how the projects

[8:05] compare to each other. And then also, you know, if there was like, let's see, something that

[8:10] it also water district, now we know what they're wheeling charge is going to be. And we know

[8:15] what the water cost is going to be. So then we could say, okay, it's going to be $60 an acre foot,

[8:20] how does that look compared to the cost of pumping ground water? You know, so that you can kind of

[8:24] you didn't identify a dollar per acre foot in the going, you're talking about what the dollar per acre

[8:29] Okay, okay, okay, okay, all right okay.

[8:33] Yeah, so that's that project outline.

[8:37] Uh-huh.

[8:38] Uh-huh.

[8:39] And then shall I continue or do I-

[8:41] No, let's take a little break.

[8:43] I-I-I see.

[8:46] Commissioner Washington over there sort of maybe wanting to talk, I don't know.

[8:50] No.

[8:50] Ah-ah.

[8:52] I'm intrigued.

[8:53] Basically, um.

[8:53] By what you're saying, so basically,

[8:56] bulletpoint number one in terms of what your mission is right now.

[8:59] you've been working on for how long has she been under contract with us well really just

[9:05] getting started so it's been a couple months but we've all been getting kind of up to speed okay all right

[9:10] is your in a brainstorming phase like let's get everything out there that might result in

[9:16] net gains for our water portfolio here in buke county from the standpoint of us complying with

[9:21] sigma yes that that's kind of a the vines sub basins overdraft you could kind of

[9:27] As with any sub-accent, there's probably multiple numbers you could point to, but the number I hear most often that I think seems realistic is 20,000 acre feet is, I should just call that over-deft.

[9:36] I do not want to phrase that as over-deft. That's kind of the goal. Let's try to reduce groundwater pumping by that amount to really put ourselves in a sustainable place moving forward.

[9:45] So if you try to take all that 20,000 feet through regulatory actions alone or through recharge projects alone or through water supply, you know, getting your getters to use surface water projects alone, that's a big.

[10:00] But lift, it'll be spread across those, but this is one of those important pieces. So, like Christina said, it's kind of a four-pronged approach. How do we bite into that 20,000 acre feed and bring that down to where we're really looking sustainable and minus that?

[10:13] So, I think what you said is kind of consistent with the idea that, hey, if we've got surface water lying around, you know, let's make use of that, you know, because it's, we think that in general terms, you know,

[10:27] You've got surface water already out of the ground available, you know, may as well throw it

[10:32] into the portfolio, right?

[10:37] And I would just say that, you know, an action like that, or recharge, in particular, both of

[10:42] those are, I think, of a sort of supply side rather than demand side, so rather than trying

[10:46] to reduce demand, you're trying to increase supply, and that has a very different, less

[10:52] harmful economic.

[10:53] It's kind of like a low-hanging fruit supply side solution, you know?

[10:57] If it's already there and you've got it ready, okay, this might be getting off into the weeds and so if it is let me know, say this is a dumb idea and you're the perfect person for me to look at when I say that too, too, because

[11:09] your dad who was a very highly respected guy who went around telling people how to run an orchard, right, he worked for the UC Cooperative Extension that was his whole job to do that.

[11:20] He told people for what I understand and you defend his honor if I'm out of line here,

[11:27] but don't use surface water for orchards, use ground water instead because of the kind of

[11:34] or something. I mean, I mean, so that's because that's something like, gosh,

[11:39] what if they just use some surface water in the areas where you could do that?

[11:43] You know, that'd be kind of cool. But then I remembered what Joe Connell had had apparently said,

[11:48] And then I got Freddie Montgomery sitting next to me and her knee Washington both experts in their own right.

[11:54] So, let's just story on that.

[11:55] How come we can't just use surface water?

[11:57] I can't see it as a different her father's son or she's like,

[11:59] Kristina please defend his honor.

[12:01] Yeah, I don't know exactly what he said when.

[12:03] He said a lot of things over many, many years, but...

[12:06] So, just that aside,

[12:10] we do know that surface water is, I think,

[12:13] one flood irrigation with surface water is a different situation

[12:16] than now what we are mostly talking about is during the spring, so I think that's changed the landscape a bit.

[12:24] And this question was addressed in part in that 2018 report, that looked at kind of this idea of doing dual sources, surface water and groundwater on tree crops.

[12:35] And so they identified it as an issue that people would be concerned about because of that

[12:42] history of what you're saying exactly, it has that bad rap and concern.

[12:49] The problem is associated with the concern of risk there, but we know now too that there

[12:56] is surface water used on tree crops in the vine-lessed basin, and so I think that we will need

[13:02] to address that concern head-on because there are many that remember that and I don't think

[13:10] it has the same level of concern but maybe you can speak to that piece.

[13:13] Yeah, we've seen a real transition in other sub basins of real mindset change among irrigators

[13:19] of orchard crops in particular toward surface water where before they prefer to have very

[13:25] strong preference for groundwater and sigma is changing that there's just other motivations

[13:30] that are really important.

[13:30] Now, if you were using flood irrigation or solid-spits, sprinklers, that's quite a bit different

[13:35] than drip, especially, but even microes, where it's just not coming in contact with the trunk

[13:41] of the tree in the same way and the likelihood of spread is much slower according to agronomists

[13:47] and my background, but yeah.

[13:49] I've got some recognized commissioner, Ernie Washington.

[13:53] Well, historically, some perspective, we talked about this back, you know, in the 2018

[14:01] It's like, David, when David Skinner was chairman, he always was pretty

[14:06] adamant that he'd been told that if you use surface water, it would cause

[14:10] fire trough, there were a lot of other problems, and we all get a little bit about it,

[14:16] because we all know they use it down the sandwalking valley, when they use whatever water

[14:19] they can get.

[14:22] He went and talked to one of the guys that are in pump about it extensively, and the way he

[14:29] responded to me was quite a bit of an economic and just kind of incanted issue up here.

[14:38] It's nice to have a pump out in the middle of your orchard and have the efficiencies

[14:43] of pumping it out.

[14:44] Especially when you got solid set and stuff, but now that we've got grip irrigation, there's

[14:48] the added expense, so you've got to have filtration system and things like that, but it's

[14:54] And you know, to marry a economics,

[14:58] and I don't know what Fred thinks.

[15:01] That's kind of my understanding of it.

[15:07] I'm embarrassed to say that this is the first time I've heard that you shouldn't use surface water on an orchard.

[15:13] Perfect. You were changing the mindset already?

[15:16] And I knew your father well when he was still involved with the UC, and he spent a lot of time with my dad and I had our ranch and anyway,

[15:24] Right.

[15:25] I don't know that we ever had that discussion with Mr. Connell, but where we are located

[15:36] geographically, my family's business in particular, I don't have access to surface water,

[15:43] probably the closest thing to us would be but I'm not very close to but I'm not very close

[15:49] to but I'm not very close to but I'm very close to but I'm very close to you.

[15:51] So, for us, the ground water is what we have.

[15:57] That's what we use, that's what we've always used.

[16:00] But ground water is not a perfect science, either.

[16:03] They're certainly, you know, there's wells that we have that are high in calcium,

[16:09] and we've addressed that by injecting sulfuric acid into the water,

[16:14] as we irrigate to try and try and balance out the pH of the water.

[16:17] So, I guess I'm open to looking at solutions also that, as Matt said, if we've got low-hanging

[16:26] fruit surface water somewhere that we can get a hold of in this county to move either

[16:31] into City Chico or into agriculture, wherever it's needed to reduce the groundwater pumping,

[16:38] we need to look at it.

[16:40] So, I don't know if that answered your question, no need, but just my take.

[16:44] And the other thing is there are a lot of a lot of orchard have been planted in the districts now, and they would have that option if they chose to, I don't know how many, how many acres of the district orchards were, well, that's an amance of been planted out there again, but surface water, I think they're mostly ground water, but.

[17:07] When you say planted in the districts, you mean within surface water districts?

[17:11] Yeah, okay.

[17:12] And then Western canal and at least, you know,

[17:15] you drive out of August for you, or handle them.

[17:19] You see a lot of it.

[17:20] A lot of it used to be rice.

[17:22] Is that an engine that I don't know there?

[17:24] Hi, have you guys talked about this?

[17:27] So, people plant an orchards and use in groundwater

[17:29] and not district water?

[17:35] Okay, thank you.

[17:39] Plong dual.

[17:39] Dual, sorry.

[17:40] Yeah.

[17:41] Okay, thank you, Anjana.

[17:43] So, I just want to follow too.

[17:44] And I think a lot of this study will find, you know, yes, you have the low hanging fruit of surface water, but it's, it's conveyance.

[17:51] It's going to be the biggest part of your guys' study that I see, representing a surface water district.

[17:58] I would encourage you guys these more surface water in those areas.

[18:02] We actually got a grant part of the signal grant that we're working on in Southern County on looking at the feasibility of dual systems and bringing those, those orchards back on.

[18:12] And that's a huge part of my five and a half million dollar grant that we're working on as well.

[18:18] So, and farmers are open to it, but you're right, it comes on economics.

[18:22] I think there's big acreage of well, and that's over next to the Cherokee strip.

[18:27] They're all they're getting, we've found water that, well, in western canal.

[18:33] That's a good, you know, maybe, sphere of influence, conversation, right, the old sphere of influence.

[18:40] Yeah, and this is in vina sub basin too.

[18:43] So, I think Western is completely imbued, right?

[18:46] Yeah, so any land within Western Canal,

[18:48] Orchard or not, is imbued sub basin,

[18:50] and it's not part of this project,

[18:52] because it's just for a bite of sub basin.

[18:55] So, this really has been tailored to find a sub basin,

[18:58] and other places where we're working,

[19:00] it's all about what Donnie's talking about.

[19:01] You've got an orchard in a water district

[19:03] that's got an outlet on its property

[19:06] that they're not using at all,

[19:07] and how do we get them tied back in with boots or palms and filters?

[19:10] That's not the case as much in buying a sub basin because there aren't as many districts so it's more about

[19:17] You know mutual water companies

[19:19] The using existing commands involving districts, but there's it's not as easy to just like plug people back in to the system

[19:27] That's already there. Convance is absolutely a

[19:31] Big part of what we're looking at yeah, okay. I'm ready to stop distracting from the agenda. Go ahead. I guess I I was

[19:37] Especially for the vine area was

[19:40] more and using of the excess flows coming down during the winter months and flooding.

[19:49] So I guess I distinguish irrigating with surface waters versus using opportunity to

[19:54] to circulate as well as maybe an inspiration from as I understand.

[20:00] And in Texas, when they grow rice, they have to have retention ponds and hold the water that they're going to use over their seasons. And then provide, then they pump that into their rice-growing area. So that, in fact, just have temporary storage and when their retention ponds is empty, they're, you know, they're done for the season. So is there opportunity? I know we looked up at Sam Creek that Sam Creek didn't circulate, which might be, you know, cool. And think of, I guess I think of it as, like,

[20:29] Ag, you know, the livestock watering holes, and have just a series of wetlands up there that

[20:40] are retaining water excess water so that it can get down to the orchards in the January

[20:46] February kind of time frames and do floodmark type of well work with the conveying the

[20:52] doing to do, you know, figure out where do you go put it, to have, you know, to be the most useful.

[21:00] So one is staging it, to hold it, and then to putting it in a place where it can do the most work on it.

[21:09] So let's, she's actually got chunk more of her presentation, so.

[21:14] Yes, so that, the recharge part of it is also, it's one of those four problems that's an important part of it.

[21:18] talking today about in lieu recharge or people using surface water instead of groundwater.

[21:25] So if Sand Creek was built and they were able to let that water out slowly for irrigation

[21:30] water in the summer months, that could be an alternative but we're not talking about recharge

[21:34] today. Joe is working on that. There's absolutely a lot of overlap and we're coordinating on that

[21:39] extensively but that's not the task today. So water sources that we are talking about,

[21:44] time to thank you. This is kind of the short list. These have bullet points beneath them,

[21:50] you know, so Lake Orville, Table A, that's kind of the feather river too. There's been the

[21:56] Paradise Options Studies and some things could come out of that. Myocene, the Sacramento River

[22:01] could be Reparian Divisions. There could be kind of a trade of Table A water for Divisions on the

[22:07] Sacramento River, including a new, potentially new way to take water out of this Sacramento River.

[22:12] for the feather I talked about as I was thinking that was part of Lake Orville.

[22:17] But you create, so that's a, we think there's good potential there that there's some unused supply,

[22:22] there's existing water rights that are underutilized where we think there is demand to you.

[22:27] So that's one that seems like it could be a good option and then recycled water too.

[22:33] So from the Chico treatment plant, that's, you know, there's potential there for multiple uses.

[22:39] there could be purple-pied back-to-cheek-go for air-getting ballfields and things like that,

[22:44] but we're kind of looking at it more from the irrigation perspective and aggregation in that area.

[22:50] So that's the short list.

[22:51] Like I said, there's more on each of those and the next slide just kind of shows what those projects are.

[22:57] And this is really where we want to spend time with you.

[22:59] We absolutely want you to be informed on the project as a whole and what's going on and buying a sub basin.

[23:04] But in terms of receiving feedback from you, we've got some questions about, you know,

[23:09] What should we be thinking about when we go through these?

[23:11] I think you have the projects in front of you.

[23:13] You may have seen this before.

[23:14] I was in the retarj action plan.

[23:16] So I won't kind of the labor of that table.

[23:19] But it's a lot of those just kind of bullet points

[23:21] from that prior slide of those water sources

[23:24] that we're considering.

[23:26] So what we'd like to hear from you today

[23:28] is really what are your priorities?

[23:30] So you have different backgrounds as growers,

[23:33] as water district folks, as just members of the community,

[23:37] to have had a lot of conversations with people. There's been discussions about this over the

[23:42] years, especially in the last 10. I'd say it was Sigma, but really prior to that, you know,

[23:46] some of these ideas are decades old. So, you know, as you look at that list of projects,

[23:52] kind of what stands out to you, are there things that you're like, that's a waste of time. I'm telling

[23:57] you, people have like kicked that stone and turned it over a bunch of different ways, and I just,

[24:03] I don't see that one happening.

[24:04] Can you go back to the list, please?

[24:05] Yes.

[24:06] Are there things that you look at that?

[24:08] And you say, oh, well, such and such isn't on the list.

[24:11] You're wasting your time if you don't think about this.

[24:15] Are there things that you think, I really want to see a project in this area.

[24:21] It's got to be in Durham.

[24:22] It's got to be in North Chico.

[24:23] We really need some support there.

[24:25] See what you can turn up in that area.

[24:28] Just those kinds of questions.

[24:29] Just like whatever your gut reaction is.

[24:31] And if you don't have loads of feedback,

[24:32] You know, that's fine, too. We're not trying to, you know,

[24:34] illicit feedback if there isn't any, but we want to give you a chance

[24:37] to kind of shape our work before we really get too far down that road.

[24:42] I guess I would, as a system's engineer, and if the nut is 20,000 acre

[24:49] feet, I guess one of the ways is take 5,000 acres out of service and create a

[24:58] you know, and

[25:00] What you would pay to buy out that acreage may be what the prices of any of these potential projects,

[25:08] plus the ongoing maintenance may I did the back of the envelope for building a pipe up midway,

[25:15] you know, from to up into the vina district. And it didn't cancel out very good when you just went

[25:24] for a brute force, take it out of service or cap, you know, cap the number.

[25:34] So I guess I would challenge you not that there's the solution set somewhere in here,

[25:39] but the solution set might be outside of it.

[25:43] If the nut to crack is, how do we resolve 20,000 acre feet of over usage?

[25:49] I mean, Commissioner Raymond, I think the essence of what you're saying is let's just

[25:53] not farm that amount of water consumption, is that I'd fair to say that it boils down

[25:59] to that.

[26:00] Or you're a rotate, yes, that you're, or you are, again, demand reduction.

[26:05] So if you reduce the, you can grow using less water than more area comes in, but basically

[26:14] you cap the capacity, the carrying capacity, and you do a budget, and you say you get X number

[26:21] of acre feet in the area to do it, how you divvy it up, be it whatever sort of allocations.

[26:31] I'm going to wrestle it. Honestly, I think that this option that you're articulating well is

[26:38] ever before us. The idea that by hook or by crook, people are just compelled to farm less,

[26:45] either in rotation or as an individual, just retire their operation or their acreage.

[26:52] Sometimes market forces might play a role in bringing that about, might even be happening right now.

[26:58] I mean, commodity prices are down. I'm guessing that's translating into less pressure on the

[27:08] Um, I'm not one who believes that, you know, the market is some sort of, you know, in visible

[27:12] hand panacea that solves all of life's problems, but, but if that's happening, we should be aware

[27:17] of that and have that in mind.

[27:19] Then you send the proper report.

[27:21] You've got the, the net trees have gone through sort of feast and famine.

[27:24] The price goes up and then you see the, you know, the acreage in that particular crop

[27:29] goes way up and then, you know, it goes down.

[27:32] So, maybe a streamlining for the, from the farmer side,

[27:37] standardizing and get the age of the orchards kind of smoothed out, which I think started

[27:43] happening with the following.

[27:45] I mean, for the most part, I think that members of this body, not that I'm in a position

[27:50] to speak for, and I see Commissioner Montgomery wants to say something I think, but we need

[27:58] to have a mind toward the economy and the financial health of the county and so on and so

[28:04] So while this is an option that's on the table you know we need to look at the other options as well

[28:10] I'm just saying bookend it just you know that that's the story of extreme you get a solution and you're

[28:16] You know you're done, but it has a lot of pain associated with it and this very counter to what our

[28:25] Reason for being you know and what we want to be doing and I know we're not the only people in the state crap

[28:32] with this too. And the idea of following acreage is a very real, it is a reality for people

[28:37] for theirself. Commissioner Washington, I'm sorry not Washington, Montgomery, sorry.

[28:42] I just wanted to comment that taking 5,000 acres out of production to caution against that,

[28:49] because if you have, if you have 5,000 acres that are currently irrigated and farmed,

[28:56] not only is that adding to the economy, but you take those out.

[29:00] And now you've got 5,000 acres that aren't providing recharge, because irrigated agriculture

[29:05] also doesn't use every single drop of water, it provides recharge.

[29:12] So that's true, that's the caution that I would offer up against.

[29:16] And I believe we're looking at a supply side solution here, not a demand.

[29:21] So I think we take out the, you know, places that where we have crops that are being

[29:27] to figure out their water consumption and are not yielding well so that they're not, they're

[29:34] water efficiency is not as great. So might also be, can I jump in here? Yeah, well, I think,

[29:42] we framed up that there is this four-prong approach and the demand side is part of that. We

[29:46] really want to hear, this project is happening, right? We're going to look at two feasibility studies.

[29:51] We'd really like to hear from each of you or you as a group on what your priorities for a water supply project are.

[30:00] Would help this project kind of hone in on direction? Let's go back to that slide, please.

[30:06] Can I say some? Yeah. You know, I see bead Creek three times on here on the list of potential projects.

[30:15] We have a client in the auditorium place.

[30:20] I see bead Creek three times here on the list.

[30:22] And to me, it's always been kind of a no brainer that you get the ecological benefit to the creek and the salmon and stuff if you run water down bead creek.

[30:29] And then you've got the water, then you've got the surface of water to use either here, or

[30:35] or hopefully not sell it elsewhere, depending on the price and the economics of it.

[30:45] And logical benefit is in having water in view creep, not taking it out.

[30:48] Having water in it for a stretch of it, then you take it out, and you get it down.

[30:53] And, and there's all kinds of people who love that idea, and I spoke to

[30:59] Game and Terrorism, what retired Game Warden, there's been real active in

[31:03] A few quick stuff and support the salmon, and he is saying

[31:10] Potentially there's a lot of

[31:13] Potentially money, even probably beside your potential money, available for infrastructure

[31:17] to use either table A water and carry console I know that that we've got a contract and

[31:26] but contract with the States can inspire sometimes with 30s I think and then you have

[31:33] to contract with Pondale and everything but everybody covers table A and we've been trying

[31:38] to figure out for years how to use it and they potentially have access to money for infrastructure

[31:47] to make use of that or in any way you get water in real quick but I think it's a good idea

[31:53] that it should be one of the projects. So you think that in the table A water table A is where that would

[31:58] come from in your mind. It could come from table A, it could come from Paradise, it could come from

[32:03] a, I don't know,

[32:07] other sources. In the table A would get there, can you tell me real quick where that would come from exactly?

[32:15] any one of you I'm sure probably could. It depends on where they would pull it off of the feather

[32:20] river and there is, so as many of you may know, water, some water in the creek is moved from the

[32:27] feather river watershed over via the Hendrix Canal to the creek. There are some limitations,

[32:33] so the Hendrix Canal in terms of capacity at different times of the year, but it is something

[32:39] that could be looked at. For sure. All right. Well that seems like a very promising possibility.

[32:45] Yeah, and I just spoke in with Gayland about it. So yeah, thank you.

[32:48] Which is that I've spoken with Gayland about it. Yeah. And Alan Hauser on it,

[32:52] Friends of Beauty Creek. Yes, we'll follow up on that. They are very excited about that.

[32:56] I would also be interested in the SAC River. That farmland has, I want to say about 12,000

[33:03] acre feet that they could have a utilize surface water in the family that owned that ranch before

[33:12] they converted it. And all of that pumping and conveyance stuff is still there. They've

[33:17] just chosen to do groundwater servicing. And so that, I think, would be a possible easy

[33:26] 777,000 acre feet, or utilize those channels to get further into the vine area if they don't want

[33:34] to use it on their orchard. I don't think you can do that, legally, take repair and water,

[33:40] and it has to be used on the beef. It can take you as feet. It can have to be some kind of a swap.

[33:44] Yeah, yeah. But they still have the water right for it, and they have the acreage right there

[33:50] to farm with it?

[33:53] Well, are you,

[33:57] who can be looser, who is an expert in all things water,

[33:59] or than California?

[34:01] Is this off the table?

[34:02] Is there a result of some kind of water law?

[34:05] With regard to pulling Sacramento River water off?

[34:08] Yeah, these are going to take that out of there and wheel it.

[34:12] It depends on the water right that is available.

[34:15] So if it's riparian right, it is supposed to be continuous.

[34:18] I would say that farmland reserve would probably have to dig deeper and analyze their historic water right on

[34:28] those properties that are adjacent to the Sacramento River.

[34:31] But it is whether it's their land or others along the Sacramento River, it is something that

[34:36] could be looked into.

[34:40] If you want to remind, once you are not using your microphone, if you could turn it off, it prevents

[34:45] feedback.

[34:45] Okay, I know. Thank you.

[34:48] We'll go ahead.

[34:49] Commissioner Staniske.

[34:50] This is probably not the answer.

[34:51] You guys want to hear Dr.

[34:53] But you look at these.

[34:54] And I don't think there's any of that here that is going to argue with any one of those potential options.

[34:58] I think the best.

[35:00] The step is after your feasibility study coming back to us and saying, here's what we found out. Here's the top three or four.

[35:08] You throw ten ideas at us. We're going to throw ten different things back.

[35:14] There's not one of those, and I agree with Commissioner Washington. The view creek one has been a low hanging fruit for many, many years that is there to be able to use.

[35:21] But if you're looking for guidance and advice, take the feasibility study, bring it back, narrow it down to two or three, and we'll, or four, you know,

[35:29] or something like that, but really there's not that if I like to see any one of us is going

[35:34] to say.

[35:35] Yeah, not that.

[35:35] I mean, all those are very, and it had been talked about many, many times.

[35:43] I think we're all doing it.

[35:44] I think the people working on the feasibility study are going to do it.

[35:48] You're going to do it.

[35:49] You're going to listen to what we say.

[35:50] We're going to do it.

[35:51] I mean, this is the place, okay?

[35:54] If you want to hear people banter about where we ought to be doing with our water, you came

[35:59] to the right place.

[36:00] You know, I mean, I think the table A thing is a moral imperative, right?

[36:06] I mean, what is that water doing sitting over there in Lake Ouroville when it ought

[36:11] to be the places in the county where we need it, right?

[36:14] I mean, so any feasibility study or effort on our part here that doesn't consider the real

[36:21] possibility to get in that table A water over to the vine at area, you know, and Chico

[36:27] is not worth the paper that it's printed on in my opinion, you know, because that is just a

[36:34] in today's modern world with all of our mind boggling infrastructure related to water and a

[36:39] canal that runs from the north part of the state all the way to the south part of the state,

[36:43] I mean a number of them actually, you know, I mean we ought to be able to pull this off somehow, right?

[36:50] And we know my feelings on the PID situation, you know, and I want to apologize to PID if you're here in the room that I have not personally gone and sat with them and gotten to know them and come alongside of them to hear how they see the world.

[37:09] But, you know, the fact that we're building that sewage line right now, and there's

[37:16] the possibility that we could, you know, create a scenario that would benefit that community

[37:21] paradise for generations, because my understanding, my belief, I guess I should say, is that

[37:28] that that community is a very water-rich, not in a way that I think they, you know, they

[37:35] to be taxed in some way, but I think that as a person, myself who understands the dynamics

[37:42] of how water is sometimes leased, bought, sold, people benefit who are in areas where

[37:50] this water originates, and the community of paradise, I think, could benefit from a relationship

[37:56] with Cal Water, with the city of Chico, and with the county as a whole, because there's

[38:03] There's really no reason why we ought to be able to take table A water or available supplies

[38:09] that are associated with PG&E, which has a vast water infrastructure, and many clients,

[38:16] suppliers, and buyers just in and out of that PG&E network that would give basically Chico and

[38:25] people in the Vina area access to all of that.

[38:29] and so seems like a very intuitive solution for me.

[38:33] So I think that that should be on the table.

[38:38] I saw a hand over here.

[38:40] Yeah, on table, you're talking about like

[38:42] the physical, gallonage versus selling it

[38:47] at premium at really nice prices

[38:49] and taking the money and doing something else with it.

[38:51] You're talking about physically consuming

[38:56] the gallons of table.

[38:58] Because there's the option to sell it as a premium product and then you take the money and do something else.

[39:06] Or possibly a combination if I could break in?

[39:08] Well, you're saying yes.

[39:10] Well, in the table A-Kridge, I'm sorry, A-Kridge is that volume is greater than what we're talking about.

[39:17] I think for the foreign-pronged approach, we're not hoping to get that amount of volume out of the surface water supply project.

[39:23] So there would still be excess to sell, so you wouldn't be offsetting, you wouldn't be losing all that revenue stream.

[39:30] So to your point, sure, let's just trade the table a water for apples to apples,

[39:38] or even at a profit to our region with available resources that are up here.

[39:43] That sounds great.

[39:45] Yeah, it was sort of like, if we can take the water out of the sack and then dump, you know, water later, you know, up at, up in vina, and then return it to the sack, you know, since the,

[40:00] The bill to pool is where the bookkeeping happens and don't, don't bother water.

[40:05] The point is that we don't have the surface water where we need it.

[40:09] So table a water is surface water, not too far away from where we need it.

[40:14] That's the point.

[40:18] Dave and our vote.

[40:19] The, um, I know there's another PG&E canal that PG&E's been trying to get rid of and I don't see it up there.

[40:27] the one that comes down centerville. I forget which plume that is, but I know that's one also

[40:32] the PG&E would like to not service anymore that we could think about.

[40:38] I mean that upper centerville, right,

[40:47] are intent to decommission that in the future. But that's

[40:50] not water that would easily get to, what could get to be, but I think the Hendrix Canal is the

[40:58] primary method in which water can come from the feather river over.

[41:04] I want to make an announcement that we'll be taking public comments at an appropriate time when is she here as is at a breaking point or when she has concluded her presentation.

[41:15] Okay, let's go ahead and put a pause on any commissioner discussions right now and go ahead and take some public comment. I have seen one hand.

[41:24] Please go come to the microphone please.

[41:26] Now you come on up to the microphone because we want to hear it on on the record.

[41:34] I just got to stay your name and then we're happy to address your questions.

[41:39] I was sitting here about my boss because I am here to represent for the flooding that occurs out in

[41:48] Plairmo every year and there's literally hundreds of thousands of gallons of flooding that occurs there every winter.

[41:58] So, I was here to see if this was going to be addressing any part of the flooding issue.

[42:05] Specifically, no.

[42:08] However, when we talk about flood control and capturing water for purposes of circulation,

[42:14] which has been raised here, so that would be a sum over lap.

[42:20] That is the only reason I'm here, but it's also an idea.

[42:25] Because there's flood water that comes up to literally mid-side that occurs out there every year.

[42:35] Yeah, I mean, this is very in sync with the floodmar strategy that we have and we talk about.

[42:43] But basically, if you can afford infrastructure to capture water like that and hold it out of the way of houses and

[42:52] to add land and earn things that need to have clear then then you've got an ability to capture

[42:58] some water and metal percolate.

[43:00] There's a ability out there and it was unused canals, miles and miles and miles of it.

[43:07] But I thank you for your time.

[43:09] Don't leave, though, as chair tennis I can add to that a little bit.

[43:13] So in the community of Palermo we have a number of projects, one being the Palermo Clean

[43:17] Water Consolidation Project, but we also have the Palermo drainage

[43:21] a master plan study that is happening right now evaluating the localized flooding that does happen

[43:28] in Palermo and identifying ways to minimize and reduce that flooding with infrastructure. There

[43:35] are miles of canals within the Palermo community. They kind of don't go anywhere. They just go

[43:40] around the block so it's not actually conveying water outside of the community. In addition,

[43:45] and the YN. Creek GSA does have a project about increasing surface water supplies within the YN. Creek subbasin and looking specifically at kind of self-feather water empowers excess surface water that they have as well as their facilities, some of which do flow through the Palermo community and moving some of that water through through the Palermo community and or further south within that subbasin and the Bangor community.

[44:15] community. And so combining some of the issues with flood long term along with the drainage

[44:21] plan and some of the JSA projects, sigma projects, we will hopefully be able to address

[44:30] some of those flood issues within the Plairmer community. So we're on it and recognizing

[44:35] too that we are at this, that we're in a great space now where we're kind of looking at water

[44:40] from a multi-benefit, approach flood water, surface water, ground water, and combining these

[44:48] projects.

[44:49] And I think that's where the county really plays a role in our facing with the GSAs to address

[44:54] some of our local hazards that we have with regard to flood and drought and then with drainage.

[45:00] And infrastructure there. I have spent lots of hours talking with ranchers and farmers out there that are more than willing to let that water comes through their unused canals to be diverted for its needed. Mr. Wheeler's one of them, and Mr. Harvey, and there was quite a few out there that's willing to tell who's your employer, can I ask? Who's your employer?

[45:30] Yes, it's Rajah's liquor like he's food and gas, all of that out there and every

[45:37] every year we are inundated with water, it takes out freezers and our stores and our gas

[45:44] pumps and our septic tanks, it's a huge issue out there.

[45:49] On the press with his investment and interest in water in this issue that he would have you come

[45:57] here and represent him.

[45:57] So I thank you so much for your time. Please please be sure to sign up to and then also to follow up on that the wine dot creek GSA will be having

[46:07] some public outreach for that's that surface water supply project and so Mr Wheeler actually and the people she just mentioned are on that list

[46:17] Sorry, are

[46:23] there any other public comments at this time?

[46:28] Okay, any other commissioner comments?

[46:31] So just on the agenda I'm also mentioned something about an ad hoc, I don't know if the thank you.

[46:39] Thank you.

[46:41] Ms. Loser in your mind, what would be the purpose of this ad hoc committee at this time?

[46:46] Thank you.

[46:47] I'm going to defer to Christina since she's managing these projects.

[46:51] Yeah, so I think if you choose to form an ad hoc, we will, I think the next stage may be,

[46:58] We're going to do some other similar conversations with other folks like the shack and other public settings but also with the partners that would be involved in any of these potential projects and then we made pull together kind of a recharge working group that has representatives from the water commission from the technical advisory committee from ag folks environmental community to dive deeper into that smaller list of projects and really try to help identify the different pieces of those.

[47:27] So, if you form an ad hoc, those people, we would make sure that they were on the invite list

[47:33] to any of these more kind of deeper dive side conversations.

[47:37] And I would expect there to only be probably a couple of them over the next year and a half.

[47:43] So, that's kind of the level of commitment.

[47:44] But two meetings over the next year and a half.

[47:46] I think so.

[47:47] That's not about right yet.

[47:48] Maybe two meetings over the next year and a half with some homework and thinking to do along with them.

[47:56] The scope of work for this ad hoc committee would not be, I want to be clear, just because

[48:00] the nature of it would not be binding, meaning it would be on its own authority, it would

[48:07] be making recommendations to the rest of the commission on what to do, would be like a working

[48:15] group.

[48:15] They'd be like a working group, yeah.

[48:17] Raffed and so forth.

[48:18] Yeah.

[48:18] To give.

[48:20] And I will say I will add, so you met Jenny, and her role, I'm the project manager.

[48:28] Another partner of this project is AGBC, so Groundwater Users, a Beauty County, and Toby Gees

[48:34] and Tanner, who also sits on the commission, but was sick today and couldn't be here.

[48:38] Is also providing some technical assistance and project input.

[48:41] So just keep that in mind too, as far as ad hoc committee members, he's kind of already plugged in with that.

[48:47] So he might have a conflict or something like that.

[48:50] Yeah.

[48:50] Well, yeah, just a number of people for one thing and that he's

[48:56] already involved in that way.

[49:01] Does anyone here have strong opinions as to whether we should

[49:05] have an ad hoc committee for this that might meet a couple of times

[49:08] over the next year and a half?

[49:18] I personally think of a good idea given the breadth of our knowledge

[49:26] space to help you know help director what's possible or brainstorm and make

[49:33] connections so I would advocate for it much like yeah right in the you know

[49:39] our recharge action plan I think we can make help move things along anyone

[49:52] I also have an opinion they'd like to share.

[49:55] I'm about it.

[50:01] Or is this a staff recommendation that we put together at Hawke Committee? Or you don't really care one way or another?

[50:07] Yeah, I think it would be useful to have an ad hoc to have a couple of you. If you want to identify yourself as an ad hoc, that's one option. Or as staff, we can just keep you all informed of these conversations and you can choose to come.

[50:21] Or not, that gets a little too gear. I mean, probably not five of you will come, so, but it could be more selective and natural along the way if you don't want to form an official ad hoc.

[50:34] I'm parcel to that personally.

[50:40] I won't go into why. I just want to look at our participation this meeting has turned out great, but we did cancel our last meeting for non-participation.

[50:54] And so to throw another meeting out there for people to have to participate in is something that gives me a little bit of pause.

[51:00] When I sort of feel like we have pretty good discussions up here on the DIS.

[51:08] That said, I would not be opposed to forming an at-home committee if we had people who wanted to participate.

[51:16] Just again understanding though that it was a purely advisory, you know.

[51:23] So is anyone else kind of putting their hand out there like that they might want to participate in an Agahawk Committee on this?

[51:35] I'm going to move that we table the discussion of an Agahawk Committee at this time.

[51:44] Is there a second?

[51:48] Clerk Coloural.

[51:49] We have a motion by Chair Tennis and a second by Dave and Arvones.

[51:54] Sure.

[51:54] Yeah, like the purpose of if we have three or four a willing participants that want to participate on that

[52:04] Want to participate on this ad hoc?

[52:06] Why delay this another two months?

[52:08] I just want to be clear

[52:11] Because ad hoc committees have an outside and unofficial influence on shaping county policy

[52:19] because

[52:21] They just do I mean

[52:25] Because I'm in favor of having the ad hoc committee, I was going to refuse myself because I see an agency that I represent is one of those people that you'd be out reaching out to.

[52:34] But if I see two, three, four willing people,

[52:39] I don't see the issue. I served on the ad hoc committee, and I thought it was very valuable.

[52:44] So that's okay.

[52:49] I would like to add that we really can only have about three volunteers in addition to Toby Geese

[52:57] and Tanner, so otherwise we'll have a quorum and then it's just a water commission.

[53:01] Good point.

[53:02] So if we can whittle it down the three if you choose to form an ad hoc.

[53:09] I myself would probably not want to be part of the ad hoc committee.

[53:13] I am part of the AGUBC as a Toby Geese and Tanner and he's kind of represents.

[53:17] It sounds like he's representing that organization at these meetings.

[53:21] So I can probably recuse myself as well if there's an ad hoc form.

[53:30] All right.

[53:32] Well, um.

[53:33] See the motion in a second.

[53:34] Yeah.

[53:34] There's a motion in a second.

[53:37] So the motion or the the motion is to table the creation, the issue of creating an ad hoc committee at this time.

[53:51] Commissioner.

[53:54] Commissioner.

[53:58] Commissioner.

[53:59] Mr. McMurray?

[54:03] Ms. Dean.

[54:06] Mr. Rayman?

[54:07] No.

[54:09] Mr. Senate?

[54:10] No.

[54:11] Mr. Nutenous?

[54:12] Aye.

[54:13] Mr. Washington?

[54:14] No.

[54:15] Motion does not pass.

[54:18] Did I like to make a motion that we nominate Mr. Washington,

[54:21] and Mr. Arrovin, and Mrs. Rayman,

[54:26] to form an adult committee to move forward

[54:29] with working with Dr. Buck in Mrs. Shear.

[54:36] I'll second that motion.

[54:43] This is totally terrible.

[54:46] Sorry, did you read the last one?

[54:47] That said you would do that.

[54:48] That's why I'm of the first three.

[54:50] Not, not leaving you out there.

[54:57] Commissioner Arvonan.

[54:58] I have.

[54:59] Mr. Bales.

[55:00] Aye. Mr. Montgomery? Aye.

[55:05] Mr. Raymond? Aye.

[55:07] Mr. Senate? Aye.

[55:09] Mr. Tennis? Aye.

[55:11] Mr. Washington?

[55:12] Motion passes?

[55:15] Okay.

[55:20] Presentation of SB 552 at the drought resilience plan.

[55:26] Okay, thank you, Chair Tennis.

[55:29] Camila Sir Director of Water and Resource Conservation, let me get my presentation up here and started.

[55:44] All right, so here we go, from like water supplies, abundance of water floods to, let's talk about drought.

[55:52] So I guess that's what they mean by, like, what is it, whether whiplash or something like that.

[55:56] So I wanted to give an update on SB552, give a little background on SB552, and then

[56:08] just a status update and talk about the activities that are happening.

[56:12] We haven't talked about this for a while.

[56:16] I think probably back when SB552 first passed.

[56:20] So what FSP-552 is is the drought planning for small water suppliers and rural communities.

[56:30] And it was passed back in, actually going back to the, like 2012, 2016 when we had some

[56:36] drought years.

[56:38] There was AB 16, 68, which was a working group that identified some of the issues for

[56:45] small community water systems in rural communities with regard to risk and vulnerability

[56:50] to particularly dry wells.

[56:53] And if you think about all the things that are happening in the Sam walking basin or South

[56:59] Central Valley, there are many issues with drought and domestic wells in small community

[57:05] water systems where disadvantaged communities don't have water.

[57:09] So that kind of led to some recommendations for water shortage contingency plans for

[57:15] or different water providers and or domestic wells.

[57:21] And then the recommendations from that working group process

[57:24] were put into SB 5552, which was adopted

[57:30] by ensigned by Governor Newsome back in September of 2021.

[57:36] And what that did was created some new requirements

[57:40] for small water suppliers, small community water systems

[57:45] I'm not going to go into that in much detail.

[57:48] It also gave some requirements for counties and then the state had to do some things.

[57:55] So really focusing on what the counties have to do to comply with SB552, which is create

[58:05] a standing drought and water shortage task force for state small, focusing on state

[58:10] small water systems and domestic wells and state small systems are just those under 3,000 that

[58:18] serve under 3,000 and then we also focus on those that have 5 to 25 connections. And then also

[58:25] develop a county drought plan for state small and domestic wells in the county and just it's really

[58:31] the focus is to facilitate drought and water shortage preparedness. So you might recall we actually

[58:38] Do you have a drought task force already and we have utilized the drought task force especially in the last few years when we were in droughts and

[58:47] And we have periodically met over the last couple of years. So we

[58:51] We're already in compliance with one of the requirements the other thing that we already have is a drought

[58:59] Preparedness plan, but it does not focus on

[59:02] on small community water systems and domestic well users.

[59:07] So there needs to be some updates there.

[59:11] And that is why this is kind of coming before you.

[59:14] So what is required in what they're calling the drought resilience plan

[59:20] is the inclusion of drought and water shortage risk.

[59:25] So risk assessment and then mitigation

[59:28] or essentially interim and long-term solutions

[59:31] for state small water systems and domestic wells in the county. Other things that it can

[59:36] consider are consolidations with existing systems similar to what we're doing in the

[59:41] Palermo community, which we're doing a water consolidation with South Feather Water Empower

[59:49] and we're connecting domestic well users to the South Feather system. It also identifying some

[59:57] education programs for domestic wealth.

[1:00:00] We have gone dry, and then also emergency and interim drinking water solutions like our temporary water storage tank and water hauling program that we did run during the drought and still have, we have gotten some additional funding for that, so we'll continue to provide water hauling to those that continue to have dry wells and as Kelly said, we have dry wells within the county.

[1:00:25] And then talking about steps to implement the plan and additional funding sources for implementing the drought resilience plan.

[1:00:36] So, like I said, in our existing plan, so I keep calling this drought plan and update to our existing plan.

[1:00:42] There are many things in our existing plan that are out of date and I'll kind of go through that plan just quickly.

[1:00:48] But in our existing plan and with our existing drought task force, there are, I think, there's 13, I forgot to count.

[1:00:58] Departments that are involved in the drought task force, including this department of water and resource conservation.

[1:01:08] The chair of the water commission has served on the drought task force. I don't think we've had a drought task force meeting since chair tennis has been chair but

[1:01:18] So, maybe you're the reason why we haven't had a drought and need to have the drought

[1:01:24] task force meet.

[1:01:24] And then also there's administration participates the Office of Emergency Management,

[1:01:31] the Ag Commissioner, and then some other entities like UC Cooperative Extension, NRCS,

[1:01:38] and such.

[1:01:39] So we do have this existing drought task force.

[1:01:44] The county's existing plan does talk about drought monitoring some of the information that

[1:01:50] Kelly presents every year in the annual groundwater status report update is one method of

[1:01:56] how we monitor and what's happening with wells. We do have drought response and mitigation

[1:02:02] identified in there. It talks about water transfers during drought. It pretty much just refers to

[1:02:08] chapter 33, ordinance about water transfers, groundwater transfers, and then it has some policy

[1:02:14] recommendations.

[1:02:19] The drought, so going back to that for a moment, so these things that are in

[1:02:24] the plan are a little outdated. It refers to some of our BMOs chapter that we used to have. It does

[1:02:33] not anywhere really specifically address small community water systems or domestic well. So there

[1:02:39] this need for an update. In addition, how we actually, the county has responded to drought,

[1:02:47] a drought emergency is not really identified in the plant. So I think with this process of going

[1:02:54] through and updating the plan and preparing a drought resilience plan, we'll actually be able to

[1:03:01] talk about how we do respond to drought with temporary storage tanks, water hauling system, providing

[1:03:09] water in other ways, water filling stations, as well as what kind of outreach we have and different

[1:03:16] things like that.

[1:03:17] So I think it is important that we kind of update that plan.

[1:03:21] It was adopted 20 years ago, and we've had several droughts since then, and also the funding

[1:03:28] that becomes available during drought is different and we've been able to utilize funds from

[1:03:36] the state.

[1:03:36] So, I think that the drought plan really should reflect how we respond to drought and kind of lessons learned and how we want to adjust drought in the future.

[1:03:47] So, the drought resilience plan where it's actually been kicked off. So, back in a few months ago, I think in February, the department went to the Board of Supervisors and we were directed that we could apply for drought technical assistance through

[1:04:05] to DWR, so there was a grant to opportunity where we could apply for funds to prepare the

[1:04:12] plan or sell higher consultant and prepare the plan or DWR how drought technical assistance

[1:04:18] where they have a consultant to onboard who leads the effort to help counties prepare their

[1:04:25] drought resilience plan. They got a good response for drought, DWR got a good response for

[1:04:30] technical assistance. I think their consultant team is helping I think 35 out of the 53 counties

[1:04:39] in the state to prepare their drought resilience plan, which I think is good because it's very

[1:04:43] streamlined. They'll be able to give us the information that we need and to to address drought locally

[1:04:52] And it will also comply with SB552.

[1:04:58] So, we have...

[1:05:00] Like I said, we applied, we've been accepted. We have what they call a county service plan for this drought technical assistance and we've initiated working with the WR's consultants, a stand-tek.

[1:05:13] And so what we look to do in the future is we'll have some drought task force meetings. We have a subcommittee of the drought task force, which is made up of this department's environmental health administration and the office of emergency management.

[1:05:29] and the planning director kind of coordinating the activities and guiding the

[1:05:37] drought resilience plan update and we'll be bringing things to the drought

[1:05:41] task force and then from there it'll come to the water commission and then go

[1:05:45] to the Board of Supervisors. I think that's how we have it planned. So again

[1:05:52] what we'll be doing is focusing on activities that will bring us into compliance

[1:05:56] with SB552 where we take the drought task force in the subcommittee will be initiating the

[1:06:05] preparation of the plan, engage in an outreach and communication framework and getting the

[1:06:12] public involved as appropriate. We will anticipate having a drought task force kick off meeting

[1:06:19] in September and the subcommittee will meet before and after that reviewing draft documents and

[1:06:28] things. Also as part of this initial kick off for the plan is risk assessment and that's one

[1:06:36] of the requirements in SB552 which is to look at a baseline risk assessment for the potential

[1:06:44] of dry wells and small community water systems being impacted in a future drought.

[1:06:52] And you probably saw, if you recall, at our drought impact analysis study that we did that

[1:06:58] first year that I was here, there was a risk assessment tool in that document, it utilizes

[1:07:04] DWR's information that they have online to identify the risk to wells that are very

[1:07:12] steps within the county and the region, and then that will once we have that risk assessment tool then there will be potential mitigation to address risk to domestic wells and state small systems.

[1:07:30] This is an outline of the plan. There will be an introduction. It will talk about the task force.

[1:07:36] It'll have the risk assessment short-term response actions, maybe depending on, you know,

[1:07:43] drought can be one year, two years, multiple years, and so long-term mitigation strategies, as well,

[1:07:50] and then just other implementation considerations as part of that plan.

[1:07:57] So, we anticipate that the full version, the draft version will be done in March of 2025,

[1:08:04] And this is kind of the draft schedule that the CWR's consultant stand-tick has pulled together for us.

[1:08:14] Again, we anticipate.

[1:08:16] We've received some draft chapters of the first couple of chapters like the introduction.

[1:08:25] And we will be kicking off again in September with the drought task force.

[1:08:29] and then meeting a few times throughout the rest

[1:08:34] over the course of the next year for adoption of the full plan.

[1:08:41] And with that, it's just an overview.

[1:08:44] Keep it up to speed so I don't come back in a few months

[1:08:46] and you say, what are we doing?

[1:08:48] I heard we're doing a drought plan.

[1:08:50] So if you have any questions?

[1:09:00] Commissioner.

[1:09:05] Thank you, Director Lose her for that summary.

[1:09:07] I

[1:09:10] don't know if there's any comments from this or any public comment on SB552 and the

[1:09:17] drought resilience plan.

[1:09:21] Okay, that will move us on to our updates and we'll start off with the

[1:09:28] sub-basin and county of beauty, GSA.

[1:09:33] All right, thank you, Chair Tennis.

[1:09:35] So just an update on the activities happening within the beauty sub-basin.

[1:09:40] So just as a reminder that we do have the three sub basins within View County, but the Department

[1:09:47] of Water and Research Conservation manages the county of GSA, and so we are involved

[1:09:53] continue to be involved in the activities that are happening in the View sub basins.

[1:10:00] We did have a cost share agreement that was approved by the Board of Supervisors and the other 10 GSAs on how we're going to share in costs of GSP implementation and be able to address some of the comments that we received from DWR on the GSP, as you know, all three GSPs within the beauty county and the three sub basins were approved by DWR, but there were recommended corrective actions.

[1:10:30] So the cost share agreements between the GSA's will allow there to be funds for us to be able

[1:10:37] to retain a consultant to help us do the periodic evaluation update, which is due in

[1:10:44] 2027, and then address the recommended corrective actions.

[1:10:48] The county of BUD GSA and this department will serve as the funded administrator so we'll be collecting

[1:10:54] funds from each of the GSAs and kind of managing that money and working with the management

[1:11:00] committee of the sub basin GSA managers as well as the advisory board.

[1:11:09] Did I forget anything?

[1:11:11] So we're in the process of one, hopefully autumn will be sending out those invoices soon

[1:11:16] once everybody, since we have the cusher agreement in place, and then developing a work plan

[1:11:22] moving forward on the first initial steps of looking at the GSP and what activities need to be done

[1:11:30] in the course of the next couple of years.

[1:11:34] Okay, super. Any questions for Ms. Loseur or comments on that? Okay, any questions from the public?

[1:11:44] All right, moving on, Tuscan water district.

[1:11:48] All right, so we have been attending Tuscan water districts, board meetings just to stay a price of their activities and what they're focusing on.

[1:12:01] Particularly because there will be some agreements and MOUs that need to be in place that they have to do with the county with the GSA.

[1:12:11] so we're tracking that. If you recall as part of their resolution for formation from the local agency

[1:12:19] formation commission, there are a number of things that they have to do and achieve the first

[1:12:24] year once they have been formed. So agreements with other entities are one of those things as well as

[1:12:33] they have to conduct their own funding mechanism usually in the form of a prop to 18 so that they actually

[1:12:40] have many to operate and then they also have to establish some electoral divisions pretty much

[1:12:48] based on acreage so they'll be divided into nine divisions and in the future they'll probably

[1:12:54] have staggered elections and for their board and each board member will need to represent one of

[1:13:00] those electoral divisions but right now all nine board members within their district are at large

[1:13:08] And then they also have to do municipal services review.

[1:13:12] I don't think it has to be adopted in the first year, but it just talks about,

[1:13:16] it's all the requirements for LASCO for a special district.

[1:13:20] So they are busy.

[1:13:23] And so we just continue to monitor their activities and participate.

[1:13:32] Great. Thank you for that.

[1:13:33] Comments from Commissioners.

[1:13:36] Do they meet monthly?

[1:13:37] Yes. They do meet monthly.

[1:13:39] It's the third Wednesday of the month and their new location is at the university farm in the portables.

[1:13:48] At nine o'clock on the third Wednesday of the month.

[1:13:56] There's a few people.

[1:14:00] Yeah, there's a few people.

[1:14:01] Yeah, there's been a couple and I think it also depends on, you know, the topic that they're discussing.

[1:14:08] So, but we've participated mostly because, well, I should say the Viner GSA has participated

[1:14:15] because they're doing their fee study updates and is trying to reach out to stakeholders

[1:14:23] like Tuscan Water District, AGUBC, Rangeland, Owners and the Environmental Community, so they're

[1:14:31] just reaching out to those organizations as well.

[1:14:35] So they've participated as well.

[1:14:39] That was the third Monday of the month.

[1:14:41] Third Wednesday.

[1:14:42] Wednesday.

[1:14:43] At 9 a.m.

[1:14:45] Oh, the members notified.

[1:14:47] I'm seeing anything on it.

[1:14:49] Oh, you know, they do have their website,

[1:14:52] TuscanWaterDistrict.org.

[1:14:54] Yes.

[1:14:56] And that will have their meeting dates and agendas.

[1:15:00] Thank you.

[1:15:04] Any questions or comments from the public regarding the Tuscan Water District?

[1:15:10] Okay. Integrated Regional Water Management, IRWM, Christine Dr. Christina Buck. Yes, I'm going to cover this one. So there was a board meeting of the Northern Sacramento Valley IRWM in June. Unfortunately, they did not have a quorum, but they still received some updates on groundwater conditions throughout the region.

[1:15:30] And that we have continued to do kind of staff updates on Sigma groundwater activities from each of the four counties, or six county areas.

[1:15:41] So that's a great central place to get kind of an update on what GSA is doing throughout the Northern Sacramento Valley.

[1:15:47] They were not able to adopt their meeting calendar for the year because they didn't have a quorum, but we tentatively have a scheduled technical advisory committee of the IRWM on August 21.

[1:15:59] And then I believe the board will be meeting in September, but their website also should be up-to-date as meetings are scheduled and agendas are posted.

[1:16:09] And for the sake of the uninitiated Dr. Buck, could you give a brief summary of what the IRWM, the Integrated Regional Water Management Organization, is and does?

[1:16:19] Yeah, so there's statewide organizations of integrated regional water management program.

[1:16:25] It's through the Department of Water Resources and a back when Vicki Nulin was here.

[1:16:30] She was really integral in forming kind of the governance for the Northern Sacramento Valley region.

[1:16:37] Before I added to him was a thing.

[1:16:40] There was a four county kind of memorandum of understanding between what Glenn,

[1:16:46] inclusive, but in the Hema, probably, of wanting to communicate on water issues and then

[1:16:53] IRWM came around and that was expanded to six counties, which is Shasta and Sutter,

[1:16:58] is part of that group.

[1:17:00] Practically, it's a funding source.

[1:17:03] So occasionally during when there's propositions, right, Prop 1, had a portion of that bond

[1:17:10] was set aside for IRWM programs.

[1:17:13] So it's a funding came through IRWM regions.

[1:17:17] And so we are actually Buch County's managing some projects

[1:17:21] that are being funded by IRWM funds that came through

[1:17:25] kind of that board recommends which projects to be funded

[1:17:29] and then those applications are made and DWR awards those funds.

[1:17:33] So one of the projects, as an example,

[1:17:35] that's just about to finish up is the sewage commission

[1:17:38] or Bill region was expanding their kind of treatment

[1:17:42] capacity or a pump portion of there. I don't know exactly what part of their system and so that was

[1:17:51] IRWM funds. So we're managing some of those projects on behalf of entities in the county.

[1:17:55] We kind of serve as the middle man grant pass through for some of those projects.

[1:18:03] Any questions or comments regarding IRWM from commissioners?

[1:18:10] Chris, you know, why are they getting a quorum?

[1:18:14] Do they lack members or people just no show?

[1:18:17] Yeah, it's difficult. It's a large board.

[1:18:19] There's 14 members, I think, to at least from each of those counties.

[1:18:26] So, distance, you know, it takes a bit to get there.

[1:18:29] But I think at times when there isn't as much action really required of them right now,

[1:18:35] there isn't grant funding that's kind of coming through that program.

[1:18:37] So it's really at this point largely information sharing and update kind of forum. I think it's just tough for people to get there sometimes

[1:18:46] But

[1:18:47] Every time there's not a quorum we remind ourselves of stuff that we can reach out to our board members and and

[1:18:52] See whether or not they're gonna be able to be there and encourage it to this and it was June. It was June. Yeah

[1:18:59] That explains it all. I don't know. Yeah, September might not be better with harvest depending on who you are and what you're doing. But yeah, it can be tough

[1:19:07] Okay, questions are comments from the public on this topic, IRWM, no.

[1:19:14] Okay, other business.

[1:19:16] Our next meeting as I understand it is October 2nd, 2024,

[1:19:21] at 1.30 p.m. right here.

[1:19:25] Anybody have anything to say about that?

[1:19:27] Okay.

[1:19:29] All right, so I'll see you there.

[1:19:29] I don't think I need to take any public comment on that one.

[1:19:32] Request of the water commission for future agenda topics.

[1:19:36] I don't know whether it's mood or not, and be the ad hoc committee, but I

[1:19:40] had spoken to Mr. Taylor, who I was talking about, table A, and

[1:19:45] and be a quick, and he said he would be willing to come make a presentation,

[1:19:49] at least that's the impression I got.

[1:19:52] If there's a consensus, it'd be interesting.

[1:19:55] Who's Mr. Taylor?

[1:19:55] He's a retired game warden who's been real active and

[1:20:00] In Preservation of Beard Creek, in the salmon run, and good golfer.

[1:20:05] That'd be interesting.

[1:20:06] That'd be interesting. I'd like to hear that. I'd like to hear from a retired game warden.

[1:20:12] We were going to maybe get a presentation regarding the PID, or not the PID, the City of Paradise sewer line.

[1:20:21] Nothing huge, but what's the status on that?

[1:20:24] I had talked to the town engineer, and Mr. Maddox is willing to provide an update on that on the wastewater treatment plant.

[1:20:35] We didn't do it this month, just because obviously we had a lot of topics to catch up on, so if you'd like, I can reach out to him again and schedule that for October.

[1:20:44] Yeah, yeah, that's right in the middle of the

[1:20:48] the Alan with the Friends of Beauty Creek was at a stakeholder meeting that

[1:20:54] Christina and company had at the Chico Library about a week ago. He mentioned that

[1:21:01] they had gotten about a 2 million plus grant to clean up the channel in Beauty Creek

[1:21:08] for salmon flow and fix all of the tailings and stuff and they were being

[1:21:13] I mean by, I guess, permitting was what he was struggling with if there was, so I didn't

[1:21:22] know if there was anything we could do to help on that or where that might be stuck.

[1:21:30] I can reach out to Alan.

[1:21:32] Alan and Galen both are probably representing the Friends of View Creek, so with Galen Taylor

[1:21:39] providing a presentation on what they're doing on View Creek, we'll cover that, but I can reach

[1:21:44] to Alan. Unfortunately, many of what they're proposing to do in their kind of restoration project

[1:21:51] does require significant regulatory permitting from state and federal agencies.

[1:21:57] If I could make state and federal agencies with the regulatory permitting process,

[1:22:05] move in any particular way, I probably would still do my old job, but it's not a fantastic

[1:22:12] but I can speak with Alan about that, but I think they are moving forward. I mean, it's a

[1:22:19] state-funded project, so hopefully it just takes a long time to get this grants or to get

[1:22:24] this grant.

[1:22:25] We pass a resolution telling him what we think they should do. You know, you get idea.

[1:22:32] Former Nat Hawke committee to talk about it and write up a resolution. It's a great idea.

[1:22:37] Will add to that the department has talked for probably several months about having a webinar

[1:22:47] about the creek in the projects along the creek. I know the resource conservation district

[1:22:53] has some projects higher up in the watershed of the creek. And so we thought about having just one

[1:23:01] our lunchtime webinar for each of the organizations that do have projects along

[1:23:06] but you create to kind of share with their projects are.

[1:23:10] So we'll look into doing that because as you saw today in the work

[1:23:16] that Christina and Jenny and everyone are doing that but you create is a key

[1:23:22] as a key drainage and waterway for potential water supply within the county.

[1:23:27] So, we'll probably work on scheduling that, too.

[1:23:35] Okay, I think that just about concludes our business for the day.

[1:23:39] Yes, sir.

[1:23:41] Before we adjourn to we end a adjourn in the honor of your father.

[1:23:46] Who was a water commissioner here in many, many times.

[1:23:49] And I'd also like to keep everybody involved in the park fire.

[1:23:54] And the firefighters and the servicemen that are helping fight that atrocity of a fire is just crazy.

[1:24:00] So I'd like to adjourn in those those people's honor today. Okay. I'll consider that maybe a motion to adjourn under those terms.

[1:24:10] I'm all over this. Yes. Okay.

[1:24:15] And in that same spirit, is there anyone who would like to second bat?

[1:24:20] Commissioner Washington. Thank you for your kind words about my father and and for remembering the the men and women who are

[1:24:27] providing public safety right now and I think the motion pass is probably unantimously

[1:24:37] but anyone opposed to that any high okay all right see you in October

Water Commission Meeting In-Person or online as view only

Agenda

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