WATER SUPPLY PLANNING COMMITTEE

ITEM:		DISCUSSION ITEM
6.	UPDATE ON SEASIDE BASIN BOUNDARY MODIFICATION APPLICATION FOR SUSTAINABLE GROUNDWATER MANAGEMENT ACT (SGMA)
Meeting Date:			April 5, 2016	Budgeted:	N/A
From:			David J. Stoldt	Program/
			General Manager	Line Item No.: N/A
Prepared By:			David J. Stoldt	Cost Estimate:	N/A
General Counsel Approval: N/A
Committee Recommendation:
CEQA Compliance: N/A

SUMMARY: The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) established a process for local agencies to request that the Department of Water Resources (DWR) revise the boundaries of existing groundwater basins or subbasins, including the establishment of a new subbasin. The Basin Boundary Emergency Regulation was developed through an extensive stakeholder outreach process and was adopted on October 21, 2015. The provisions of the emergency regulation go into effect on November 16, 2015.

On November 19, 2015 District staff met with representatives of the Seaside Basin Watermaster, California American Water Company, Marina Coast Water District, and Monterey County Water Resources Agency to discuss a proposal for boundary modification. Then on December 14, 2015 the District’s Water Resources Division Manager sent out the proposal for comment from the same agencies.

The District submitted a formal Initial Notification to DWR on February 12, 2016 – notification intended to be preliminary to signal that a modification request may occur.  It served to notify other local agencies, public, and the department.

The proposal can be summarized as follows: The Bulletin 118 boundary is shown in the first attachment (Exhibit 6-A) and is labeled “Salinas Valley Seaside Area”.  The modification that the group achieved consensus on is shown in the second attachment (Exhibit 6-B).  This modification inserts the adjudicated Seaside Basin boundary and removes the remainder area in the southwest portion of the DWR boundary, as this area is not hydrogeologically linked to the aquifer system in the Seaside Basin.  The remainder area to the north of the Seaside Basin has been renamed “Salinas Valley Marina Area”, consistent with our discussion.  The DWR’s basin modification application requests that a map be provided to show the proposed basin boundary modification, which is depicted in Figure 1 (Exhibit 6-B).  Note that the subbasin names are abbreviated on this map, but will be described with their full names per Bulletin 118 as part of the application.  In addition, the DWR’s application requests that a map showing all local agency boundaries in the affected area of the boundary modification also be provided.  Accordingly, we have prepared the map as depicted in Figure 2 (Exhibit 6-C).  Figure 1 and Figure 2 were again distributed to the group of interested stakeholders for comment on March 15, 2016.

The District submitted the Basin Boundary Modification Request March 31, 2016. It will be deemed “SUBMITTED” signifying the submission is believed to be complete and the requesting agency is officially submitting the package to DWR for a completeness review. It will be deemed “COMPLETE” once DWR has reviewed the submission package for substantial compliance with the requirements and the 30-day Public Input Period begins. Public input must be made in compliance with the requirements of §343.12 of the regulation and submitted to the Basin Boundary Modification System as a "Comment" to the "Complete" modification request submission. All submitted information will be public accessible through DWR web site.

EXHIBITS

6-A Bulletin 118 Boundary

6-B Consensus Proposed Modification

6-C Local Agency Boundaries

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