Plans Continued from Page 1
Cruz County and 180/400 Foot Aquifer Subbasin inMonterey County. The department said it has notified two other groundwater agencies that their plans lack specific details and are not yet approved: the Cuyama Valley Basin, which serves par ts of Kern, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, and the Paso Robles Subbasin in San Luis Obispo County. DWR said it will request consultation meetings with the local agencies to discuss actions necessary to improve the plans. DWR said it intends to release plan as- sessments as they are completed, rather thanwaiting until the end of the two-year review period in January 2022, so it may provide “early feedback and guidance that can inform other GSAs as they de- velop their plans.” Craig Altare, manager of the DWR re- view program for groundwater plans,
said the reviews can have three poten- tial results: approved plans that comply with the law and demonstrate a clear path to sustainabi l i ty; incomplete plans that need more information and where agencies have up to 180 days to address deficiencies; and inadequate plans, which may be referred to the State Water Resources Control Board for intervention. Specific to the drought, Springhorn cit- edGov. GavinNewsom’s April 21 drought executive order that assignedDWR to de- velop groundwater management princi- ples and strategies related to analyzing, monitoring and minimizing impacts to drinking water wells. “DWR in coordination with the state water board will be launching this effort to develop these principles and strategies with the input fromthegroundwater com- munity, interestedparties and thepublic,” Springhornsaid. “It is important that these principles and strategies provide tools for
addressing the real challenges we face when it comes to safeguarding drinking water for all Californians.” At the same time, he said, DWR recog- nizes the need tomanage water resourc- es strategically in average and wet years when excess surface water is available, “to maximize recharge and take advan- tage of the significant storage capacity of our groundwater basins for long-term and future use.” DWR has scheduled a webinar for June 24 to discuss the first round of groundwater sustainability plan as- sessments. Registration for the ses- sion and additional information about SGMA may be found at water.ca.gov/ Programs/Groundwater-Management/ SGMA-Groundwater-Management/ Groundwater-Sustainability-Plans. (Chr i s t ine Souza i s an ass i s tant editor of Ag Alert. Shemay be contacted at csouza@cfbf.com.)
This first round of assessments pertains to agencies overseeing critically over- drafted basins and that were required to submit plans by Jan. 31. DWR reported that more than 260 groundwater sustainability agencies have formed. Almost 50 plans have been de- veloped and are being implemented for the critically overdrafted basins. Local agencies of medium- and high-priority basins are working on an- other 70 to 90 plans, due to the agency for review by Jan. 1. The law aims to achieve groundwater sustainability within 20 years. “We’ve got years of work ahead of us in basins across the state that have vary- ing states of sustainability, so we look forward to getting sustainable ground- water management in place across California in a way that is the most successful and has the least impact- ful outcome to California agriculture,” California FarmBureau Senior Counsel Chris Scheuring said. Steven Spr inghorn, DWR act ing deputy director of statewide ground- water management, said the first four assessments were released ahead of schedule. He called the release of the initial assessments by DWR “a major milestone in our collective work im- plementing SGMA.” DWR said it had approvedplans for the Santa Cruz Mid-County Basin in Santa
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board. “We encountered this problem last year, and I expect to encounter it again.” Little’sadvice toemployers inthemean- time: “Start stockpiling N95 respirators.” The revised guidelines will take effect by June 15, pending review by the Office of Administrative Law.
FELS will host a webinar June 11 at 11 a.m. to discuss the regulation and what it requires of agricultural employers. For more information, see www.fels.net and choose the FELSWebinars link. (Kevin Hecteman i s an ass i stant editor of Ag Alert. He can be contacted at khecteman@cfbf.com.)
pirators—mi l l ions and mi l l ions of respirators—that will be unavailable to outdoor employers to be in compli- ance with the wildfire-smoke regula- tion as we’re coming up on what many have forecast might be a very severe wildfire-smoke season,” Little told the
CIMIS REPORT | www.cimis.water.ca.gov
CALIFORNIA IRRIGATION MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM
For the week May 27 - June 2, 2021 ETO (INCHES/WEEK)
YEAR
3.0
THIS YEAR
2.5
LAST YEAR AVERAGE YEAR
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
0.0
MACDOEL II (236)
BIGGS (244)
DAVIS (06)
MANTECA (70)
FRESNO (80)
SALINAS-SOUTH (214)
FIVE POINTS (2)
SHAFTER (5)
TEMECULA (62)
IMPERIAL (87)
THIS YEAR LAST YEAR AVG. YEAR % FROM AVG.
1.72 1.31 1.53 12
1.82 1.62 1.67 9
2.09 1.88 1.97 6
2.06 1.85 1.76 16
1.90 1.66 1.64 16
1.88 1.75 1.71 9
2.04 1.78 1.82 11
1.36 1.28 1.28 8
1.25 1.08 1.26 0
2.18 2.15 2.15 1
W eekly reference evapotranspiration (ETo) is the rate of water use (evapotranspiration—the sum of soil evaporation and crop transpiration) for healthy pasture grass. Multiplying ETo by the appropriate “crop coefficient” gives estimates of the ET for other crops. For example, assume ETo on June 15 is 0.267 inches and the crop coefficient for corn on that day is 1.1. Multiplying ETo by the coefficient (0.26 inches x 1.1) results in a corn ET of 0.29 inches. This
information is useful in determining the amount and timing of irriga- tion water. Contact Richard Snyder, UC Davis, for information on coefficients, 530-752-4628. The 10 graphs provide weekly ETo rates for selected areas for average year, last year and this year. The ETo information is provided by the California Irrigation Management Information System (CIMIS) of the California Department of Water Resources.
For information contact the DWR district office or DWR state headquarters:
SACRAMENTO HEADQUARTERS: 916-651-9679 • 916-651-7218
NORTHERN REGION: Red Bluff 530-529-7301
NORTH CENTRAL REGION: West Sacramento 916-376-9630
SOUTH CENTRAL REGION:
SOUTHERN REGION:
Fresno 559-230-3334
Glendale 818-500-1645 x247 or x243
24 Ag Alert June 9, 2021
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