County Board of Supervisors Prepares to Protect Local Groundwater

By Scott Steward

It will take a 4/5ths vote by the County Board of Supervisors this Tuesday, August 26th, to implement a much-needed well moratorium for the north and west Yolo regions, where ground water replacement rates are declining, are not well understood, and where previously unirrigated land is being converted to year-round water demand: grape vines, olive, and nut trees

The County Staff report, supporting the 45-day moratorium, provides the following excerpt: 

" To summarize, groundwater is a vital resource essential to the health, safety and welfare of the many communities and agricultural areas in the County. Therefore, it is necessary to better understand the impacts of land use changes on groundwater supplies and gather additional information to better inform better YSGA and County evaluation of proposed new agricultural wells with an eye towards protecting the sustainability of groundwater resources.  Further study of the impacts of the planting of perennial crops on previously non-irrigated lands is critical to determine if further regulations should be implemented with respect to such land use changes to protect against unsustainable groundwater impacts."

Communications with the two Supervisors in District 2 and District 4 (Lucas Frerichs and Sheila Allen), who represent large numbers of Davis residents, indicate strong support for the 45-day moratorium.

Mary Sandy (District 3) is chair, and she and Lucas Frerichs were the Board representatives who took part in preparing the well moratorium item 37 Agricultural Well Permitting Update on the August 26th agenda.

Angel Barajas (Supervisor for District 5) has a lot of Dunnigan Hills (a part of the Focus Areas experiencing lower water tables and subsidence) in north Yolo. He has been asking county staff to give him an option to pass something that would allow the County to act.

Oscar Villegas (Supervisor District 1), much of West Sacramento, with Clarksburg being the biggest population center south, often sees the opposite problem with water soil saturation levels so high that tree planting is not suitable (root rot).

The group Concerned Citizens, farmers and residents in west Yolo's Focus Areas, are hoping, that Supervisor Villegas joins the other four likely favorable votes, for a unanimous vote to implement a 45 day moratorium and, further, that the Board requests the County's staff to provide the language for a 10 month extension to allow further examination of the options to protect sustainable use of groundwater.

Yolo residents interested in supporting the 45-day Moratorium can send comments before the end of Monday (August 25th) to the County Clerk and April Meneghetti (Director, Department of Environmental Health).  

Here is the link to the agenda item 37:  https://destinyhosted.com/agenda_publish.cfm?id=96561&mt=bos&vl=true&get_month=8&get_year=2025&dsp=agm&seq=15055&rev=0&ag=3843&ln=135012&nseq=&nrev=&pseq=&prev=&vl=true#ReturnTo135012

Further details:

The 45-day Moratorium is needed, as is the 10-month extension and an additional 12-month extension to get the endangered Focus Areas to 2027.  It takes some reading, but if you ply through the County website and read Att. A. Interim Urgency Moratorium Ordinance, you will find that the county and the Yolo Subbasin Groundwater Agency have some work to do to comply with the 2014 State Sustainable Groundwater Management Act.

And it looks like most everyone at the decision-making table wants to implement a sustainable water plan.  While being careful not to get too far ahead of this coming Tuesday's County Board meeting, it looks to be the case that the Board, County Staff, and the YSGA are very prepared to correct the course of actions that led to the need for the long process and an Appeal to deny suspect commercial well approvals this past April. 

The Concerned Citizens, Yolo Subbasin Groundwater Agency, and the County recognize that time is needed to fill substantial information gaps before what was once a lofty goal of water budgeting regional groundwater supply can be put into practice.   Protecting legacy use of groundwater, particularly for growing local food, can and should take priority.

Here are some of the main gaps, named in staff's Attachment A, that need time to be discerned.  

• Currently, there are limitations in the County’s Zoning Regulations with respect to crop conversions on agriculturally zoned lands (conversions from non-irrigated to fully irrigated high water demand perennial crops). In the 2025 Annual Yolo Subbasin Report, YSGA noted with respect to the accuracy of water use estimates that the “largest source of uncertainty is land use data and irrigation applications.”
• The YSGA is also working on land use model enhancements that are slated for future GSP updates that won't be completed until 2027. Currently, the Yolo Subbasin Groundwater Sustainability Plan does not include land use change forecasts, but holds the 2016 land use patterns constant into the future when modeling groundwater impact.  The YSGA is very aware of the need for an update.
• The Hungry Hollow water budget development and associated White Paper are not expected to be completed until April 2026. 

Years in the making, this 45-day Focus Area well moratorium is an essential and necessary additional step toward a reliable groundwater sustainability policy for our region.