COLUSA COUNTY (MPG) – The Colusa Basin Drainage District on April 14 authorized spending $100,000 to support two pilot groundwater recharge projects in the Colusa and Yolo subbasins.
The board agreed to provide $50,000 each to the Dunnigan Water District and the Colusa County Water District to help fund projects aimed at replenishing depleted aquifers and improving water supply reliability following decades of over pumping.
Both Districts have a role in ensuring compliance with the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, CBDD officials said during a public hearing at the Westside Water District office in Williams.
Despite SGMA becoming law in 2014, few people were familiar with groundwater recharge efforts until the region was adversely affected by a three-year stretch of extremely dry years.
According to the California Department of Water Resources, between 2020 and 2022, 99.77% of California experienced moderate to extreme drought, resulting in insufficient water supply for food production, domestic use, recreation, and wildlife.
In 2021, DWR reported 25 domestic wells had gone dry in Colusa County and 191 domestic wells had gone dry or were running out of water in Glenn County due to excessive pumping, which also caused land to subside in the areas of Arbuckle and Orland – and under Interstate 5.
Since 2023, California taxpayers have invested more than $200 million in groundwater recharge projects, authorized by two executive actions signed by Governor Gavin Newsom. The projects aimed to move surface and flood water during the wet season to place on private farmland to percolate back into depleted aquifers.
Jordon Navarott, Dunnigan Water District general manager, approached the Colusa Basin Drainage District for financial help supporting its direct recharge projects on private property in the Yolo Subbasin, after grant money dried up for the purchase of water.
Navarott said the district’s 2022 grant-funded diversion of about 200 acre-feet of water from the Tehama-Colusa Canal into Buckeye Creek resulted in infiltration rates that were excellent. DWD is also constructing percolation ponds in areas with high percolation rates that would allow drainage of excess surface water into the Yolo Subbasin.
“But now we are starting to run into an issue where grants no longer support the purchase of water for the recharge,” Navarott said.
Shelly Murphy, Colusa County Water District general manager, expressed similar circumstances and reason for reaching out to Colusa Basin Drainage District for money.
“None of the grants provide funding for the purchase of water,” she said.
CCWD is now working with the Dunnigan Water District to redirect Sacramento Valley flood waters through the Tehama-Colusa into ephemeral streams overlying the Colusa and Yolo subbasins. The surface water percolates into the groundwater basin as it flows through the stream’s channel toward the Sacramento River, thus increasing the area recharged.
Murphy pointed out that while the Yolo Subbasin is not within Colusa Subbasin boundaries, the water underneath is all interconnected.
Only six members of the public attended the April 14 meeting, among them residents of Colusa who have been paying tax assessments to the Colusa Basin Drainage District for 30 years. There were no public members from Glenn County.
Ben King, of Colusa, was critical of the Colusa Basin Drainage District for taking $4 million from local taxpayers since it was formed without completing any of the nine voter-approved projects identified in 2000 in the CBDD’s Integrated Water Management Plan.
King said some groundwater recharge is good, but taxpayers should not be buying water for farmers.
“This is just about giving money to your friends,” King said.
According to the district’s financial documents, the $6 per parcel and $3 per acre property assessment in Colusa and Glenn County, has mostly gone toward administrative and legal expenses and to purchase the cattle ranch west of Willows from the Lindquist family as a possible location of a flood control project.
According to Merilee Vanderwall, CBDD manager, funding never became available for a major flood control project, but supporting recharge projects does align with the initial plan’s six principals and the purpose for when the district was formed.
“At the time, there were not a lot of shovel ready projects,” Vanderwall said. “These projects are in place, and we are able to partner with them.”
Board member Mary Fahey, of Arbuckle, said recharge projects are long overdue and allows for CBDD to be able to help meet the demands of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, which has a zero tolerance for subsidence.
“The projects are benefiting everyone in the basin…” Fahey said. “It is all groundwater, whether you are in the city or on a private well. If we can improve groundwater levels, then we are helping out.”
Other board members were equally enthusiastic about spending the money on actual projects that meet the goal of the Colusa Basin Drainage District and said they look forward to partnering with other districts to do more.
Board member Todd Miller said groundwater recharge projects don’t just help the farmers but will help protect the town of Arbuckle’s water supply, Dunnigan’s water supply, Interstate 5 travelers, and protects the local agriculture economy.
“It’s not just the farmers who we are here for,” Miller said.
According to Vanderwall, the allocation of $100,000 on the water recharge projects meets the constitutional requirement to cover costs from existing assessments.
The district has no current plans to approach voters to increase their assessment, she said.