Panel discusses land use issues, including well permitting, land fallowing, general plans and SGMA, and more …
Groundwater is intimately connected with the landscape and land use that it underlies. How land is developed above can change both water demand and how much water can be recharged, and inappropriate land use and poor land management can cause chronic groundwater quality problems.
At the Second Annual Groundwater Sustainability Agency Summit, hosted by the Groundwater Resources Association in June of 2019, a panel shared their perspectives and experiences with the interplay of land use planning and Groundwater Sustainability Plan development.
Seated on the panel:
- Julianne Phillips, Kings County Division of Water and Natural Resources
- Sierra Ryan, County of Santa Cruz Environmental Health
- Lisa Hunter, Glenn County Department of Agriculture
- Tony Morgan, Consultant with Daniel B. Stephens & Associates
The panel was moderated by Marcus Trotta with Sonoma Water.
“Land use planning and well permitting go hand in hand and really drive the water use in all of our basins and the decisions related to that,” began Marcus Trotta. “Like many aspects of SGMA, there’s general guidance provided in SGMA in the GSP regulations, mostly related to notification and consideration, consultation requirements, and it’s really up to the local GSAs to figure out what exactly that looks like and how they are going to be addressing those requirements in their GSPs and during the implementation phase.”
“We’re fortunate to have a panel of four experts and practitioners throughout the state to share their perspectives and information on their experiences in things like well permitting, how that relates to GSP development, metering considerations, general plan and other types of planning documents and how those get integrated with their GSPs, managing stakeholder expectations and perspectives, and then some unique issues that have come up in some of these basins, like exempt lands that are in their basins.”