Approximately 5,400 rural well owners in Sonoma County received a survey designed to elicit their concerns and ideas about local groundwater conditions in December 2020. Thank you to the more than 1,000 people – 22% — who returned surveys!

The purpose of the survey was to raise awareness about local groundwater management and to solicit feedback from well owners regarding any concerns they may have about groundwater in the basin. The survey results are now being analyzed and will be used as the basis for focus groups that will provide an opportunity for more in-depth discussions of issues and ideas for improving groundwater conditions.

This joint project of the county’s three Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSAs) is the first step in an engagement project designed to educate and receive feedback from well owners in the Petaluma Valley, Santa Rosa Plain and Sonoma Valley groundwater basins. Survey results were shared with the GSA Board at its February  2021 meeting.

Read the full press release here.

The three Sonoma County GSAs received funding from California Department of Water Resources through the California Drought, Water, Parks, Climate, Coastal Protection, and Outdoor Access for All Act of 2018 (Proposition 68) to facilitate four work groups comprised of technical subject experts. The work groups were formed to help with the development of the Groundwater Sustainability Plans in four areas:

• Rural residential population projections;
• Agricultural water demand projections;
• Groundwater-dependent ecosystems; and
• Interconnected surface water depletion.

The work groups began meeting in summer 2020 and the GSAs anticipate that all work will be complete in February 2021. The meetings are facilitated by a neutral facilitator from the Consensus and Collaboration Program with CSU Sacramento. The work group products were shared with the Board  and Advisory Committees of the GSAs, and will be used to develop the water budgets and Sustainable Management Criteria for Interconnected Surface Water.

Meeting materials are below:

Agricultural Water Demands:

• Ag Working Group Meeting slides (overview), Summer 2020
• Land-Use Surveys, Fall 2020
• Summary Report, 1-4-21
• Agricultural Expansion and Contraction Model, 1-20-21

Rural Residential Changes:

• Summary Report

Interconnected Surface Water:

• Draft Meeting Summary, 10-7-2020
• Presentation, Meeting 1
• Draft Meeting Summary, 12-11-2020
• Presentation, Meeting 2
• Presentation, Meeting 3
• Surface Water Depletion Modeling presentation
• Santa Rosa Plain data, monitoring wells near streams
  • Part 1
  • Part 2
• Draft Meeting Summary, 3-22-21

Groundwater Dependent Ecosystems:

• Draft Meeting Summary, 7-7-2020
• Presentation, Meeting 1
• Draft Meeting Summary, 11-19-2020
• Presentation, Meeting 3

Meeting topics included:

• • Overview of the basin and concerns
  • The groundwater budget: How much water is coming into the basin and how much water is going out — now and into the future
  • Defining sustainability locally
  • Measuring sustainability

Presentation

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