The Santa Rosa Plain Groundwater Sustainability Agency is currently looking at a variety of fee structures that would allow them to better achieve the goals of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. Considered to be a historic piece of legislation, the Act was enacted to prevent the over-pumping and subsequent over-drafting of our groundwater aquifers so that our finite water resources are protected for future generations to use. Though the timescales ultimately adopted remain multiple years out, necessary changes will take time to implement. Adopting a fee structure is one of those first necessary changes.
To date, groundwater users across the state have had essentially free and unrestricted use of any groundwater that they can drill down to and pump. This has unfortunately resulted in significant groundwater aquifer depletions, land subsidence, water quality degradation, loss of available storage, depletions of interconnected surface waters, and saltwater intrusion problems throughout the State. With no real limits or oversight, a few mega users have been allowed to pump relentlessly to the detriment of many small domestic well users and our environment.
Here in the Russian River watershed, we are currently battling water quality degradation, depletion of interconnected surface waters, and significant groundwater aquifer depletions. These concerns are especially concerning now that climate change is causing significant reductions in available surface waters, and we will likely become even more reliant on groundwater resources. Imposing a use-based fee structure would not only help curb these harms by restricting use, but by also providing necessary funding for long-term restoration projects. A use-based fee structure also helps ensure the smallest users are not being forced to subsidize the biggest users that are perpetuating the most negative impacts to our groundwaters.
Further, a use-based fee structure would allow groundwater pumpers to have some control over how much they will ultimately be paying for that use as opposed to a flat fee. By having some control over water cost, individuals and businesses alike will be incentivized to look for additional ways to reduce costs through improved conservation measures and technological advancements. This then equates to less water being pumped from our basin and/or the opening up of new uses for those conserved waters.
Lastly, imposition of a tax or benefit-based assessment is just not acceptable. In addition to the extensive time and costs necessary to educate voters on the options, the larger community would essentially be subsidizing private, for-profit companies that are already having disproportionately large impacts on local water supplies. In effect, domestic well users and municipal users that do not make a profit off of their water use would be helping for-profit business users continue to benefit economically. Further, it is these for-profit businesses that are responsible for pumping the largest quantities of water from our aquifers, and thus, are a significant contributor to groundwater depletion and domestic wells drying up. There would also be little room for incentives to be incorporated into a program like this.
The Santa Rosa Plain Groundwater Sustainability Agency must also look at how a use-based fee structure can be improved upon to address undesirable impacts, while incentivizing actions like real-time metering and groundwater recharge projects.
Incorporating incentive programs into any fee structure is important because it allows for a variety of mutually beneficial situations. For instance, incentive and fee credit programs can be used to help close existing knowledge gaps, encourage implementation of real-time metering and reporting, help expand groundwater recharge projects, and also help reduce the costs borne by users. Though the Groundwater Sustainability Agency has the power to do each of these actions on its own, providing incentives to do so would help make such projects much less acrimonious and ensure necessary actions are taken on a much quicker timescale.
Neither this use of incentives nor the imposition of use-based fees are new ideas, as other, more critically drafted regions have been exploring these concepts for several years now. Establishing a strong basis for future Agency programs to grow from is important to ensuring the goals of Sustainable Groundwater Management Act and the Groundwater Sustainability Agency are met.