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To the Editor,
The Ukiah Valley Basin Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA) is considering adoption of a groundwater sustainability fee to fund local sustainable groundwater management. The fee resolution will be considered by the GSA Board on Tuesday, June 18th at 1p.m. at the County Board of Supervisors Chambers, 501 Lower Gap Road.
The GSA is an unfunded state mandate, coming from the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) passed in 2014 by then-Governor Jerry Brown. None of us are excited or happy about the levying of new taxes or fees. Fortunately, we as a community have been able to form our own local agency, the GSA, to lead the management of our groundwater. This community led approach is much more ideal, and successfully meeting the state’s requirements means that we will maintain that local control.
The proposed regulatory fee structure has two components. First is a base fee, collected per acre ($4.07/acre) per year fee paid by all property owners and will be collected annually with property tax bills. The second portion is categorized by four different groundwater user groups.
Group 1 is the public water systems, at $0.1352 per 1,000 gallons extracted. Group 2 is our agricultural lands, specifically crop land at $32.75 per cropped acre. Group 3 is our homeowners, known as improved properties at $34.67 per acre of the entire parcel. Group 4 is all other at $0.00, so just the base fee. These amounts for each fee group is based on the amount of groundwater each group uses. The proposed income from this fee is set at $600,000 a year.
While $600,000 is no small amount, thankfully it has been reduced from amounts previously proposed by the consultants supporting our GSA. While we often need the technical expertise of consultants to complete specialty work, it does not mean we turn a blind eye to the cost of this work. There has been a collaborative effort by community members, stakeholders and many of those on our GSA Board of Directors to decrease the fee amount and insure that we are doing only the essential work at this time. I am thankful to all those that have dedicated their time and continue to be involved with the GSA.
I encourage you to get involved. Ask questions of your representatives on the GSA Board, which can be found at https://ukiahvalleygroundwater.org/about-us/board-of-directors/. Question the budget and the fees being collected. We should all be asking if what is being done is effective and efficient.
The meeting agenda, draft resolution, draft Rate & Fee Study, and additional information is posted at www.ukiahvalleygroundwater.org. Comments or questions about the public hearing or fee study may be sent to staff@ukiahvalleygroundwater.org. Please do not hesitate to reach out to me directly if you would like to discuss this in greater detail.
Madeline Cline
1st District Supervisor-Elect
