COLUSA, CA (MPG) Colusa County property owners have until Aug. 8 to decide whether to approve the Colusa Groundwater Authority’s proposed new tax structure aimed at supporting the implementation of its Groundwater Sustainability Plan.
Notices and ballots were mailed to landowners on June 17, initiating the 45-day public review and protest period.
The proposed fees would fund a $1.9 million program that includes water demand management, domestic well mitigation, planning, and administration. These efforts are part of CGA’s strategy to meet the requirements of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act and ensure long-term groundwater reliability in the Colusa Subbasin, CGA officials said at the first of two public meetings held June 24.
Ryan Aston, of SCI Consulting, said the tiered fee structure is based on land use classification.
For the assessment to go into effect, voters must agree to tax themselves 53 cents per acre for non-irrigable land; $11.19 per acre for groundwater-only parcels; $7.42 per acre for conjunctive use parcels (surface and groundwater); and $2.66 per acre for surface-water-only parcels.
CGA officials emphasized that all parcels benefit from basin-wide groundwater management and SGMA compliance, and the fees are structured to reflect the relative benefit each parcel receives from the programs and infrastructure supported by the groundwater sustainability plan.
“I think the work that our engineers have done is very good work,” said CGA Chair Jim Wallace. “It is based on good data – or the best available data from our Groundwater Sustainability Plan…It is the best possible approach to resolving the challenge that we have, with respect to bringing the assessment forward, to support our responsibility as a community to implement a sustainable groundwater management plan.”
Landowners who attended the June 24 workshop at Colusa Industrial Properties voiced strong objections to the CGA’s proposed fees, arguing the region’s groundwater depletion and land subsidence stems largely from recent changes in crop patterns from seasonal and row crops to permanent tree crops and over-pumping.
According to the Department of Water Resources, the Arbuckle area in Colusa County has sunk as much as 2.6 feet from 2015–2023, and the zone between Orland and Artois in Glenn County dropped about 1.9 feet over the same period.
Mary Wells, whose family has farmed in western Colusa County for generations, said her father and grandfather said surface water is the better investment.
“They did not know the word sustainability, but they knew they couldn’t rely on groundwater,” Wells said.
Wells added that she, other farmers, and public agencies have already invested heavily in Sites Reservoir and that a groundwater assessment represents “double double taxation.”
Stakeholders argued that any new fee should first target incentives for crop choices and surface-water use, infrastructure upgrades, and recharge projects, rather than broad assessments on every acre that will largely fund administration, planning consultants, and well monitoring.
CGA officials argued that without local funding to implement groundwater management programs, the California Department of Water Resources would implement programs at a higher cost to water users, including municipalities.
“We are just trying to prevent the state from taking over,” said Director Kate Dunlap.
The CGA Board will hold a public hearing for ballot tabulation on Aug. 7, where the results of the Proposition 218 process will be announced. A majority protest would be required to prevent the fees from taking effect.
If approved, the assessment would be placed on the next tax roll and adjusted annually for five years, based on the Consumer Price Index, officials said.