SACRAMENTO – A new bill is advancing in the state Legislature that would provide rural counties much needed flexibility on performing groundwater elevation monitoring in remote locations or under publicly owned lands.

Assembly Bill 1152 by Assemblyman Wesley Chesbro (D-Arcata) would allow alternate monitoring techniques (ATM) in situations where traditional water well drilling is not feasible – because of geographic or geologic features or where a basin or subbasin is exclusively in state, federal or tribal ownership.

The bill is sponsored by the California Groundwater Coalition and supported by the Regional Council of Rural Counties (RCRC) as well as Lake and Trinity Counties and other local agencies.

Passed without opposition April 26 in the Assembly Committee on Water, Parks and Wildlife, AB 1152 would amend a law that established a statewide groundwater elevation monitoring program.

In a letter expressing appreciation to Chesbro for authoring the bill, RCRC noted that the “fundamental flaw” with the existing law was that “it is not always possible to physically or legally monitor a basis or subbasin” and to do so in areas that are “undeveloped, uninhabitated and undevelopable is of questionable value.”

Without these modified monitoring mechanisms in AB 1152, counties could face punitive financial penalties: Under the original law, SB7x 6 (2009), if a county and other eligible entities do not monitor groundwater elevations, the Department of Water Resources is required to step in and assume the monitoring functions – with none of the local entities then eligible for state water grants or loans.

“Two years ago, the legislature established a significant and long overdue ground monitoring programs,” said Chesbro. “But the legislation needs a few simple fixes in order to protect rural counties from being punished because of circumstances they can’t control. These proposed fixes do not in any way weaken or undermine the important water quality protections established by the original legislation.”

The types of alternative monitoring allowed under the bill would include, but are not limited to, aerial photographs, hydrologic records, well permits, and remote sensing data.

Prior to using an AMT, the monitoring entity would be required to submit a report to DWR signed by a professional geologist that sets forth facts on why alternative monitoring should apply, as well as supporting documentation. Continued eligibility to use alternative monitoring must be reestablished every three years.

RCRC is a 33 member services organization that champions policies on behalf of California’s small and rural counties. RCRC thirty counties represent more than half of the state’s 58 counties and nearly half of California’s land mass.

RCRC-member counties are Alpine, Amador, Butte, Calaveras, Colusa, Del Norte, El Dorado, Glenn, Imperial, Inyo, Lake, Lassen, Madera, Mariposa, Merced, Modoc, Mono, Napa, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, San Benito, Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou, Sutter, Tehama, Trinity, Tuolumne and Yuba.