SR0084717_SSNL - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Eastern San Joaquin Groundwater Basin Groundwater Management Plan Northeastern San Joaquin County Executive Summary Groundwater Banking Authority 18 The San Joaquin Groundwater Export Ordinance (Export Ordinance) is purposefully and notoriously stringent in order to protect local groundwater users from groundwater exports. San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors has continually stated that they are willing to amend the Export Ordinance should a project be proposed that can demonstrate local benefits with minimal risk to losing local control of the Basin. Banking partnerships could provide the Authority with capital to fund portions of Integrated Conjunctive Use Program envisioned above. Conceptually, the Authority could employ various arrangements for the ranging from water storage agreements, surface water transfers/groundwater substitution, and a ‘two for one’ storage/extraction concept. Potential partners that have shown interest are EBMUD, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, DWR, CALFED Environmental Water Account, and the City of Tracy. Entities have purchased raw water from other groundwater banks throughout the State at rates upwards of $420/af. ES-14 Plan Implementation The Authority is committed to adopting a Plan implementation strategy that is adaptive and incentive driven. This Plan is the first step in the development of a regional document that details how the groundwater basin will be managed and initiates the process that will ultimately define the guidelines and conditions that water districts and others will follow to achieve basin management objectives. Following the adoption of this Plan, the Authority and its members will work to implement the management objectives. The objectives coupled with regular groundwater monitoring and the development of basin operations criteria will establish a framework and the foundational information for future groundwater banking and recharge project operations in the Basin. To encourage the continued implementation of the Plan, the Authority will complete a periodic assessment of the progress, direction and recommendations regarding Plan objectives. Basin conditions are currently measured by groundwater level and quality monitoring on a semi- annual basis. This assessment activity will be coupled with the annual review of Plan implementation activities and project development in the basin. To ensure that the Authority is constantly striving to better manage groundwater resources, the following actions will be undertaken: 1. An annual report by March 1st of each year that outlines the accomplishments of the previous year’s groundwater management efforts and report the current state of the Basin, 2. A review of the political, institutional, social, or economic factors affecting groundwater management, and 3. Based on the information gained in the above actions, recommendations for any required amendments to the Plan. ES-15 Future Activities The adoption of the Plan is merely the beginning of a series of actions the Authority will undertake to help meet future basin demands. As such, many of the identified actions will likely evolve as the Authority takes a more active approach to manage the Basin and meet the outlined objectives. Many additional actions will also be identified in the annual summary report