Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, Merced, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, and Tulare counties URGE YOUR NO VOTE ON AB 2201 (Bennet).
AB 2201 would prohibit groundwater extraction in a basin subject to critical overdraft conditions, as designated by the Department of Water Resources, without a valid groundwater extraction permit issued by the local groundwater sustainability agency (GSA). The GSA would be required to establish the new permitting and regulatory process and begin charging a fee for issuing well permits.
Currently, water well applications are reviewed and permitted by the County Department of Environmental Resources (DER). DER's function is to ensure that new well permit applications protect groundwater and water quality and protect the basin from overdraft. AB 2201 is particularly notable in its implications for groundwater users statewide and the expanded role of well permitting to GSAs. ln 2014, the legislature adopted the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) as a framework to ensure that groundwater use would be sustainably managed at the local level.
The new rules proposed in AB 2201 mandate a statewide approach without regard to whether the basin in question is being managed sustainably and will necessarily make the process of obtaining a well permit, even a replacement well permit, more complicated and more expensive. Additionally, the well-permitting responsibility and discretion thrust upon the GSAs will likely subject their decisions to litigation.
AB 2201 presages significant new statewide regulation of water users in the future, seemingly in conflict with the stated purpose of SGMA. Furthermore, the well permitting and groundwater extraction policies outlined in AB 2201 establish permanent rules that will outlast the end of the current drought crisis, create yet another unfunded state mandate, and apply a one-size-fits-all policy approach that adds additional levels of bureaucracy and may ultimately be deemed unnecessary as precipitation patterns shift and water availability improves.
For these reasons, Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, Merced, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, and Tulare counties VOTE NO ON AB 2201 (Bennett).
cc: Chair & Members, Senate Natural Resources & Water Committee