limited and narrow in scope

There is an urgent need to create a county-wide drought-resilient water storage and delivery infrastructure. __ AGREE __ PARTIALLY DISAGREE _X_ DISAGREE Response explanation (required for a response other than Agree): Local water agencies and groundwater sustainability agencies are making substantial progress on tackling the challenging set of water storage and delivery infrastructure issues. They are doing so through a number of inter-agency collaborations; however, the urgency assigned to drought storage and the priorities of local water agencies vary based on their specific supply sources and technical challenges, making an over- arching, county-wide infrastructure neither desirable nor likely to be achievable.

Interdistrict water sharing plans spanning North County and Mid-County that could benefit all residents have existed since 2015 and deserve to be accelerated. _X_ AGREE __ PARTIALLY DISAGREE __ DISAGREE Response explanation (required for a response other than Agree): Acceleration and expansion of various water sharing plans must be considered in the context of mutual benefit, cost effectiveness and practicability. Also, it is important to note that not all residents are served by the public water agencies. Such water users are very likely the most vulnerable in severe drought conditions and it is notable that MGA and SMGWA have included private pumpers as key stakeholders in working towards a sustainable groundwater supply.

Establishing a strategic groundwater reserve, as described in documents from the City of Santa Cruz, is a well-understood and achievable first step. __ AGREE _X_ PARTIALLY DISAGREE __ DISAGREE Response explanation (required for a response other than Agree): Establishing a strategic groundwater reserve is well-understood in principle, but many studies and tests are required before any particular aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) project can be deemed achievable. SCWD is currently in the recovery phase of an ASR demonstration project in which excess winter surface flows were injected into Beltz wells #8 and #12. Much has been learned, and much remains to be learned about the ongoing feasibility of ASR in the Mid-County groundwater basin. Studies of creating drought storage in the over-drafted Lompico aquifer in the Santa Margarita groundwater basin are in an early stage but advancing feasibility studies is a high priority for SMGWA. The practicability of any particular ASR project will need to be assessed in comparison with alternative solutions that are also being evaluated. An important initial step in fully implementing ASR projects in the Santa Margarita and Mid-County basins is the approval of petitions by SCWD and SLVWD before the California Water Resources Control Board to modify their water rights, changing points of diversion and places of use. This will allow water supplies to be managed regionally and more efficiently, which can support a variety of conjunctive use projects, including ASR.

Each agency described in this report communicates well with neighboring agencies, but collaboration is limited and narrow in scope. __ AGREE _X_ PARTIALLY DISAGREE __ DISAGREE Response explanation (required for a response other than Agree): We partially disagree with this finding because, while we agree that the water agencies in Santa Cruz County typically communicate well, we don’t agree that the collaboration is “limited and narrow in scope”. The collaboration between agencies is ongoing and expanding. The breadth of collaboration varies depending on the alignment of each individual agency’s activities in support of their objectives and strategic work plan. There is a clear trend toward more comprehensive collaboration among larger groups of stakeholders. The proposed projects and management actions in the Santa Margarita Groundwater Agency’s (SMGWA) Groundwater Sustainability Plan (GSP) are evidence of the extensive collaboration between San Lorenzo Valley Water District (SLVWD), Scotts Valley Water District (SVWD), the County and the City of Santa Cruz Water Department (SCWD). As initial steps in those collaborations, SVWD and SCWD applied for and received grant funding to construct a pipeline that will enable water supplies to be managed more efficiently across the region, and SLVWD and SCWD signed an agreement to cooperate regarding the process to enable SLVWD to exercise its contractual right to Loch Lomond water and are currently in discussions on how to advance this project. SMGWA is working on the implementation of its GSP agreeing on the approach of advancing a suite of projects (conjunctive use, aquifer storage and recovery, purified recycled water recharge) to be further investigated by SLVWD, SCWD and SVWD.

Agency communications to the public emphasize conservation and sustainability while downplaying agency planning to achieve drought resilience. __ AGREE _X_ PARTIALLY DISAGREE __ DISAGREE Response explanation (required for a response other than Agree): We agree that water providers typically emphasize conservation and sustainability in their communications with the public, but this is driven by California regulations requiring water purveyors to implement water shortage contingency plans. In reality, achieving drought resilience is a natural outgrowth of water shortage contingency planning and sustainability planning. The mandate of Groundwater Sustainability Agencies such as SMGWA as defined by the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) of 2014 is, first and foremost, to ensure groundwater sustainability. That said, the GSP developed by SMGWA includes a number of potential projects that would also improve drought resilience. This is because the climate scenario used in modeling groundwater conditions in the Santa Margarita basin for the next 20-50 years includes extended dry periods. Thus, all the projects are or will be modeled and evaluated in the context of their resiliency to drought. The planning process used in developing the GSP was noticed to the public at great expense and effort, and open for public comment every step of the way. The public was informed and encouraged to participate not only at SMGWA Board meetings but at various public and community outreach events that allowed for open dialogue and conversation. Drought resilience will no doubt be a positive by-product of implementation of projects in the GSP, and, as SMGWA moves forward with eliciting public input on the projects, planning for drought resilience will be a major component of the agency’s communications.

The individual water supply districts lack funding, resources, and charters to develop county-centric drought-resilience infrastructure. _X_ AGREE __ PARTIALLY DISAGREE __ DISAGREE Response explanation (required for a response other than Agree):

The Groundwater Sustainability Management agencies lack the charters, staff, and resources to plan or execute a county-wide drought-resilience strategy. _X_ AGREE __ PARTIALLY DISAGREE __ DISAGREE Response explanation (required for a response other than Agree): We agree that the Groundwater Sustainability Agencies in the County cannot focus their resources on County-wide strategies. They could participate in regional or County-wide projects to the extent such projects benefit the groundwater basins and are consistent with agencies’ mission under the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. Regardless of their lacking the charters, staff and resources, the Mid-County Groundwater Agency (MGA) and Santa Margarita Groundwater Agency are joint unions of multiple public agencies, small water systems, and private well owners, all of whom are affected by climate conditions. As such, they have considered and will continue to consider how their collective actions might address and mitigate drought impacts. Several of the proposed management actions in the Groundwater Sustainability Plan recently adopted by SMGWA involve regional collaborations that address drought resilience -- in particular the proposed projects to use the Lompico aquifer as a drought supply storage for the City of Santa Cruz and to use wastewater generated at Santa Cruz Wastewater Reclamation Facility and further treated by Soquel Creek Water District to augment groundwater supplies in the Santa Margarita basin.

There is no county-level agency chartered to plan, propose, or build regional district-spanning drought-resilience infrastructure. _X_ AGREE __ PARTIALLY DISAGREE __ DISAGREE Response explanation (required for a response other than Agree): Invited responses on additional findings by SMGWA representative, Piret Harmon