Butte County Water & Resource Conservation July, 2015 Volume 16, Issue 7

WaterSolutions To manage and conserve water and other resources for the citizens of Butte County

Inside this issue

Beautifully Brown Lawn Transformation Contest ..... 2

Increased Groundwater Monitoring, Gets Ready for Increased Pumping ............. 2

14/15 Grand Jury Report .... 4

Surface Water Curtailment ........................ 4

Groundwater Level Update- June Measurements ........... 5

Planning for a Dry Year ....... 6

Re-managing the Flow ........ 7

Meeting Schedules ............. 8

Lake Oroville Storage .......... 8

Forecasted Lake Oroville Storage .......... 8

Butte Countys Budget for Fiscal Year 2015-16

On June 23, 2015, the Butte County Board of Supervisors approved the recommended budget for the 2015-16 fiscal year. The Countys budget of $475.9 million reflects the continued slow economic recovery that began in 2011. The largest source of general purpose revenue is prop-erty tax, which is 65% of total general purpose revenue. Property tax revenue continues to grow about 3.0% to 3.5% per year Public safety sales tax (from Proposition 172) is the second largest revenue source and accounts for 18% of total general purpose revenues, followed by the local share of sales tax (6%). The fourth largest revenue source comes from the lease of the Countys State Water Project Table A (4%). The remaining general purpose revenue is made up of tobacco lawsuit settlement funds (2%), various franchise fees, taxes, unrestricted State and federal revenues, interest earnings and miscellaneous revenues. The increased statewide sales tax growth helps the County with increased realignment and criminal justice funding. Locally, agriculture continues to be the economic engine of the County despite the enormous challeng-es.

The County budget maintains existing service levels, achieves appropriate level of reserves and investments for ongoing and deferred maintenance. One of the budget highlights includes sufficient funding to aggressively enforce the Countys medical marijuana cultivation ordinance. Along with the positive developments, though, many challenges still remain. Some of these including a drought of historic magnitude is negatively impacting agriculture, forcing residents to reduce water usage, and creating high fire danger throughout the County.

For the Department of Water and Resource Conservation, the 2015-16 budget provides suffi-cient resources for core activities that include assessing and reporting on groundwater condi-tions, managing the Table A allocation, administering Chapter 33, implementing the Basin Man-agement Objective program and educating the public about water resources. The budget pro-vided resources for two important projects. First, the Department will be able to continue the Water Resource Management and Protection Project. The Department will complete the first phase of the project by updating the Water Inventory and Analysis Report and the Butte Basin Groundwater Model. The budget allows the Department to continue with the stable isotope groundwater recharge investigation. Second, the drought is posing challenges throughout the state and locally. The Department has increased the frequency of groundwater elevation moni-toring. These are among the highlights of the Department priorities in 2015-16. Of course, we expect there will be many more water resource opportunities and challenges over the next year. While Butte County has entered a period of economic recovery, a number of uncertain-ties remain on the horizon that could change the fiscal picture. For more information on the Butte County budget please visit the County website at http://www.buttecounty.net/.

By Paul Gosselin

Butte Countys Beautifully Brown Lawn Transformation Contest...Because Brown is the New Green

Join the effort! Butte County Department of Water and Resource Conservation has a new Beautifully Brown Lawn Trans-formation contest, because Brown is the New Green.

Earlier this year the state mandated urban water suppliers to reduce their water use by 25%. However, 40% of Butte Countys population are in unincorporated areas and not subject to the reduction. Although not mandated, we are asking those households in the unincorporated areas of Butte County to join the water conservation effort by reduc-ing the amount of water they put on their landscapes or replacing their lawns with drought resistant landscaping.*

What will my neighbors think? We understand that people take pride in the appearance of their home and their neighborhood. Many may want to reduce their water use but dont want their neighbors to think theyve just gotten lazy. A simple Brown is the New Green sign announcing why the lawn looks as it does will do much in relating the rationale be-hind it and could just spread the word to those who have yet to catch on.

(Continued on page 3)

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Butte County Increases Groundwater Monitoring, Gets Ready For Increased Pumping

Editor's Note: NSPR reporter Sarah Bohannon went on a ride-along with the state Department of Water Resources to learn why Butte County is increasing groundwater monitoring and to see exactly how groundwater levels are monitored.

July and August are when groundwater use is the highest in the northern Sacramento Valley. With many farmers getting little or no surface water this year, its likely that use is going to go up even more this summer. To see what one county Butte is doing to be proactive about this increase in pumping, I shadowed April Scholzen at six wells in the northwest area of Chico. If she werent with me, I would have had no clue that most of the wells we measured were wells. They were all over the place and none of them looked the same. But for a water re-sources technician, like Scholzen, wells are pretty easy to spot. It also probably helps that shes been working the route for about five years.

You get good at it after a while recognizing them, Scholzen said.

Its not normal for Scholzen to be in the field during June, but because of the drought, Butte County officials have asked the Department of Water Resources to help them increase their valley groundwater measurements from a few times a year to once a month at least during the spring and summer season.

The two agencies monitor about 130 wells in the valley region of Butte County. Its a number that Scholzen said takes her about a week to get through. She measures three different types of wells: domestic, irrigation and observation wells, which are solely used for collecting data.

Buttes observation wells are the easiest to monitor. Theyre equipped with a piece of digital equipment called a data logger. It allows a censor to be installed in the well that captures cer-tain information, like pressure and water temperature, or more importantly in this case, water levels. All Scholzen has to do is upload the data onto a hand-held computer.

Scholzen also takes hand measurements. One way she does this is with a device called a sound-er, which is a reel of electric measuring tape with a piece of metal on the end called a transduc-er. To get the measurement, Scholzen takes the metal transducer end and slips it into the wells access hole. She lets the weight of the transducer unravel the long spool of electric tape, then waits to hear it hit water. After that she just holds the sounder in that position, reads the meas-uring tape and writes the measurement down in her field book.

Groundwater Monitoring>> page 3

By Sarah Bohannon, North State Public Radio

How groundwater is measured

DWR Water Resources Technician April Scholzen uses a hand-measuring tool, called a sounder,

to measure the groundwater levels of an observation well in the northwest area of Chico. While

Scholzen takes the measurement, the groundwater levels of the well are also being download-

ed digitally onto a hand-held computer, which reads the information from a censor, called a

data logger, thats inside the well. (June 3, 2015)

How do I WIN? To enter the contest:

1. Email your name, address, phone and a current photo of your lawn to the Butte County Water & Resource Conservation Depart-ment at bcwater@buttecounty.net

2. We will mail you a free Brown is the New Green lawn sign or you can pick one up at 308 Nelson Ave., Oroville

3. Proudly display your new lawn sign and encourage others to save water

4. Email a Beautifully Brown Lawn Transformation photo to our office by August 31st with a short note explaining what you have done over the summer to save water in your yard (a reminder email will go out on August 24th)

The winner will be announced at the September 2nd Water Com-mission meeting (you will not need to be present to win). The winner will receive a special prize and be crowned Butte Countys Beautifully Brown Lawn King/Queen of 2015.

(Continued from page 2)

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The sounder is easy because you put the sounder down in the well and when it beeps youve hit water, Scholzen said. But you cant use a sounder on all wells. Sometimes you have to use a steel tape.

Unlike the sounder, steel tape doesnt let Scholzen know when shes reached water. To figure it out she covers the tape in blue chalk and feeds it into the well. When she pulls the tape back out, she looks for the highest point on the tape where the chalk has been washed away. From there she just subtracts that number from the amount of tape she fed into the well and that calculation gives her the new measurement.

At one well measured, Scholzen got a measurement of 44.6 feet. The year before, in fall, the measurement had been 46.9 feet.

So were seeing levels that are approaching fall measurements, Scholzen said.

Fall measurements are usually lower than measurements taken around this time of year be-cause fall comes after the peak groundwater pumping season summer. But in this case, sum-mer hasnt even started yet and Scholzens measurement of this well was only 2 feet higher than last years fall measurement.

Were all just kind of holding our breaths, Scholzen said. And it [the wells water level] may not go down anymore. It might hold at this, but I dont know, were just starting the pumping season. Well see.

Although that single measurement is by no means an indication of whats going on in the whole county, it does illustrate how important it is to collect this type of data, especially during this fourth year of drought. And thats exactly why Butte County has increased their groundwater monitoring. They may not be able to predict future groundwater levels, but if they start getting calls about wells drying up, at least theyll already have a pretty good idea about whats going on beneath the countys surface.

This is the second year Butte County has increased its groundwater monitoring to monthly dur-ing the drought. The county hopes to use the data to help keep an eye on things this year, but also to help understand Buttes groundwater system for the future. (Groundwater level moni-toring was increased in the 90s in Butte County and those measurements are currently being use to help analyze this drought.)

This year, Butte water officials expect groundwater use to be high and that shallow wells could run into problems. Check out Buttes Private Well Owner Information Brochure to learn more about Butte Countys groundwater system, to get a well preparedness checklist and to learn what you should do if youre a Butte County resident and your well runs into problems.

June groundwater measurements happening in other counties too

The Northern Region Office of the Department of Water Resources is also taking extra June groundwater measurements in the valley portions of the other areas it monitors. That includes the counties of Glenn, Colusa and Tehama, and also the area of the Redding Basin.

Groundwater Monitoring >> continued

This isnt the first time Butte County has increased its groundwater monitoring

Be prepared

Current groundwater levels

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As discussed in the May Water Solutions, this water year brings a shortage to both State Water Project (SWP) service contractors (20% allocation) and Central Valley Project (CVP) service con-tractors (0% allocation for agriculture and 25% allocation for municipal and industrial). These entities have contracts to purchase water from the SWP and CVP but their supply is not tied to a water right. This decrease in water has left local entities like the Tehama Colusa Canal Au-thority (TCCA) districts, who dont have access to groundwater, in search of other supplies to meet their needs.

In addition, Settlement Contractors on both the CVP (Sacramento River) and SWP (Feather Riv-er) received curtailment, or cutback, notices for water year 2015. These districts, with pre-1914 water rights, have contracts with the State and Federal government to receive their water through the CVP and SWP facilities. The curtailment percentages are based on the amount of water these districts would normally divert for their use under the California water rights sys-tem.

On the CVP, settlement contractors will only be allocated 75% of their normal supplies and the USBR has incorporated a requirement that all CVP settlement contractors participate in water transfer programs with part of that 75% to help other water-short areas throughout the state. There are other restrictions associated with the timing of these diversions to keep water in Shasta Reservoir for the cold water pool needed for fisheries. However, the timing on all of this appears to be a moving target because the fishery agencies cannot get a handle on the temper-ature of the water in Shasta. A compromise timing deal with Sacramento Valley irrigators was approved by the State Water Board on May 14, but that approach was suspended on May 29, cutting off deliveries. On June 16th this suspension was extended to allow the finalization of a revised plan leaving rising uncertainty associated with any water supplies on the CVP system. This action by the State Board forces those irrigators that have wells onto groundwater.

The reduction of flows out of Shasta will have ramifications on the SWP as well because these two projects together are required to make releases to meet water quality standards in the Delta. Therefore, water not released from Shasta will be required to come from Oroville and Folsom Reservoirs to meet the salinity standards in the Delta.

On the Feather River, the SWP settlement contractors were stuck with a 50% allocation for 2015. This step, taken by DWR, has not been taken since the early 1990s. The terms of these settlement contracts allow up to a 50% cut-back in any one year and no more than 100% total over any seven years. So if the drought continues and DWR cuts this group to 50% again in 2016, per their contracts they could not be cut again until 2022 absent a violation of these con-tracts. If the drought persists, the result may come down to a courtroom battle on the contract or the underlying water rights.

To continue this bleak story, on May 1, 2015, the State Water Board curtailed junior water rights holders throughout the Sacramento and San Joaquin River watersheds. The curtailment order went out to all diverters with post-1914 appropriative water rights, requiring them to immediately cease diverting water from the system to make that water available for senior water rights holders and fishery flows. This move impacted nearly 9,000 entities holding junior water rights dating from 1914 throughout the state.

Another blow was delivered on June 12th to senior water rights holders with the State Water Boards curtailment of pre-1914 appropriative claims commencing during or after 1903. The last time this occurred was during the 1977 drought. The State Water Board also emphasized in this order that an evaluation for additional curtailments of more senior water rights will be made every two weeks through September, which means that there may be more to come. This proclamation doesnt bring any level of comfort or security that additional cuts wont be made later this year. To date, a total of 9,218 water rights have been curtailed.

All this boils down to the fact that there will be increased groundwater pumping for agricultural production and other needs to off-set the decrease in surface water supplies throughout the Sacramento Valley, including Butte County. In response to all this madness, the County has worked with the local districts to set up an enhanced groundwater monitoring program with

Curtailment>> page

Curtailment of Surface Water Supplies Deepens Throughout the State

By Vickie Newlin

2014-15 Butte County Grand Jury Report Released

2014-15 Butte

County Grand Jury

Report Released

On June 19, 2015 the Butte County

Grand Jury released their report.

The Grand Jury focused their inves-

tigation on Butte Countys emer-

gency planning and response in-

cluding drought. A chapter of their

investigation entitled, Managing

Butte County Groundwater: Empha-

sizing Drought Years 2012 through

2014. The Grand Jury covered the

issues associated with the current

drought as well as future imple-

mentation of the Sustainable

Groundwater Management Act. To

read the Grand Jury report please

visit http://www.buttecounty.net/

administration/grandjury.aspx.

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Monitoring was conducted June 1-5, 2015. The map shows the average change in ground-water level from March to June measurements in wells monitored in each of the sub-regions in the val-ley portion of the County. The table shows the average depth to water of wells by sub-region measured each month. Note that the selection of wells averaged can change from month to month since pumping or tempo-rary inaccessibility can cause a well to not be measured. Detailed results for all wells in the monitoring net-work are available on our website (http://www.buttecounty.net/waterresourcecon-servation/Groundwa-terLevels). Contact Christina Buck with questions.

Groundwater Level Update June Measurements By Christina Buck

more frequent measurements to assess impacts and help people get through these lingering drought conditions.

We all need to remember that we are in this drought together. Municipal purveyors have been ordered to meet specific conservation goals set up by the State Water Board. You can help by following the regulations implemented by the State Water Board to help them meet these goals, which can be found at: http://www.waterboards.ca.gov/water_issues/programs/conservation_portal/emergency_regulation.shtml

With decreased surface water supplies, more agriculturalists have been forced to supplement their irrigation needs with groundwater. Please work together with all of your neighbors in the timing of your irrigation to limit the stress on the groundwater table and also to minimize in-creased pumping costs for everyone.

As Benjamin Franklin is often quoted: "We must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately."

Curtailment >> continued

Meeting Schedules

Water Commission

7/1/2015, 1:30 p.m. Board of Supervisors Chambers 25 County Center Drive

8/5/2015, 1:30 p.m. Board of Supervisors Chambers 25 County Center Drive

9/2/2015, 1:30 p.m. Board of Supervisors Chambers 25 County Center Drive

Board of Supervisors

7/28/2015, 9:00 a.m. Board of Supervisors Chambers

Department of Water & Resource Conservation

308 Nelson Avenue Oroville, CA 95965 Phone: 530-538-4343 Fax: 530-538-3807 E-mail: bcwater@buttecounty.net Website: www.buttecounty.net/waterandresource

Water & Resource Conservation Staff

Paul Gosselin, Director Vickie Newlin, Assistant

Director Christina Buck, Water

Resource Scientist Autum Kirk, Administrative

Assistant , Senior

Water Commission

George Barber, Chair DC Jones, Vice-Chair Kathy Chance Larry Grundmann Brad Mattson Ryan Schohr John Scott David Skinner Ernie Washington