Landmark groundwater monitoring approved

An unprecedented show of support among water users in Sonoma Valley is making it possible for the county to pursue plans for amassing data on the quantity and quality of the Valley's groundwater. And pending success of the endeavors, the Sonoma Valley Groundwater Plan could become a model for other agencies and cities in the county and throughout the state.

The Sonoma County Water Agency will submit a grant application to the state on Dec. 11, for $250,000 which, if approved, would target two very important data-gathering programs for groundwater in Sonoma Valley.

After more than a year of meeting regularly, a volunteer committee of 20 local water stakeholders - the Basin Advisory Panel -formulated the county's first-ever Sonoma Valley Groundwater Management Plan, a blueprint for local managing of groundwater resources well into the future.

Recently, the plan was soundly approved by the SCWA Board of Directors who are also the Sonoma County Supervisors. The SCWA is the lead agency in the groundwater plan.

"What we'd like to do if we get the grant is to do studies talked about in the BAP meetings," said Jay Jasperse, chief deputy engineer for the water agency. "The grant money would be targeted for two programs, installation of dedicated monitoring wells and mapping of water recharge areas," he said. Dedicated wells have no pumps in them, they are constructed to monitor water levels and water quality.

Jasperse stressed that the well monitoring would be strictly voluntary and the water agency is in the process of rounding up those agricultural and domestic well owners who are willing to have their systems monitored. "We don't need to have everybody's well monitored ... we don't need or want all the wells, we just need to have a sampling," Jasperse said.

Some vineyard and dairy owners in the Valley have been reluctant to have it be known how much groundwater is being used in their operations. But the water agency says this historical data will be extremely helpful in the whole process of groundwater management.

"The monitoring program has to go on in perpetuity for the foreseeable future, it's kind of a way of life and I think it really gives a picture of the health of the water resources. The issues aren't going to get any smaller," said Jasperse.

There has been participation in voluntary monitoring over the past 10 years, with the cooperation of the City of Sonoma, the Valley of the Moon Water District and the Sonoma Ecology Center, but it is now necessary to expand the program to assess the current status and predict the future of groundwater supply.

Jasperse said the SCWA hopes to start the expanded monitoring in January of the coming year.