New groundwater rules endorsed

After a couple hours of lively debate and passionate objections, Stanislaus County’s Water Advisory Committee endorsed an expanded groundwater ordinance Wednesday.

The 10-6 vote was merely a recommendation. Stanislaus’ Board of Supervisors will have the final say on the new water rules, and it’s expected to take up the controversial topic next month.

The technically worded proposal’s goal is to promote “sustainable groundwater management” by preventing pumping that causes “undesirable results.”

But most regions of Stanislaus would be exempt from having to comply with the sustainability regulations, including all properties inside any of the county’s irrigation districts or cities.

Those who want to drill new water wells outside those areas, however, would have to “demonstrate with substantial evidence” that their pumping would “not result in an unsustainable extraction of groundwater.”

That’s the clause that triggered the most dispute Wednesday. Several committee members objected to forcing farmers to prove their new wells would do no harm.

“Not knowing what evidence will be needed is a big deal,” warned Cooper Rossiter, whose family owns the Don Pedro Pump company in Turlock.

Starting Nov. 25, the proposal would require proof be presented before any new drilling permits could be issued for wells on unincorporated land outside irrigation district boundaries.

East side almond grower Louis Brichetto said such drilling restrictions will instantly drop farmland values, and he questioned whether they would violate landowners’ property rights.

Proving sustainability also will be costly, according to Sean Roddy, a committee member whose family owns Henning Bros. Drilling Co. in Modesto.

“It’s going to be an unreasonable expense for small farmers,” Roddy said. “It’s going to shut down drilling. ... You might as well call it a moratorium.”

Roddy said his family’s drilling records show Stanislaus’ water table has dropped an average of 50 feet during the last 50 years. He doesn’t consider that a lot.

“We are not taking too much water out of the ground,” Roddy insisted. He said it is “ludicrous” for rural homeowners to blame nearby farmers when their old wells go dry. “Let’s quit playing the blame game.”

Several audience members voiced contrary views.

“I don’t think anyone should be exempt” from the sustainability regulations, said Audrey Hermanson, a longtime Modesto real estate agent. She stressed how groundwater is a shared resource that doesn’t just belong to those who own the land above. “It’s all of our water.”

Walt Ward, the county’s water resources manager, said land within irrigation district boundaries would be exempted because they already are inside “the footprint of groundwater management plans.”

The Modesto, Turlock and Oakdale irrigation districts, for example, do their own calculations justifying how much groundwater they consider OK to pump.

Ward – who previously was the Modesto Irrigation District’s water manager – said exempting irrigation districts and their landowners from county groundwater regulations recognizes “the existing good management practices that are out there right now.”

To make sure well owners throughout the county aren’t pumping too much groundwater, however, the proposed ordinance would require everyone to share their pumping data and water level measurements with government officials.

But the proposed ordinance then assures that data would be kept secret from the public through an exemption from California Public Records Act disclosure requirements.

Committee member and Modesto City Councilman Bill Zoslocki doesn’t like that.

“What are we hiding?” Zoslocki asked. He said the public must “have confidence that we have an open process.”

Several community members agreed with him.

“Government needs to be open and transparent,” Modesto resident Brad Barker said.

Wayne Zipser disagreed with the idea of giving the public access to details about how much water each landowner is pumping.

Zipser heads the Stanislaus Farm Bureau and is the committee’s chairman. He favors releasing aggregated pumping data rather than individual landowner records to “avoid a witch hunt.”

Zoslocki ended up voting against the ordinance because of its secrecy provisions. Roddy, Rossiter, Brichetto, Vince Dykzeul and Francisco Canela opposed it for other reasons.

Voting for it were Richard Gemperle, Neil Hudson, Michael Lynch, Jim Mortensen, Tom Orvis, Donald Peterson, Rob Santos, Thomas Smith, Chris Vierra and Forrest White.

Larry Byrd and Ray Kablanow were not present for the vote.

This story was originally published October 29, 2014 at 6:31 PM with the headline "New groundwater rules endorsed."