Regardless of how scarce groundwater becomes in Butte County, local officials will have some manner of control. Reacting to new statewide regulations requiring California to start monitoring groundwater, the Butte County Board of Supervisors moved to name the county as the local Groundwater Sustainability Agency.
Defiant failure to make the move by mid-2017 could trigger state officials to assume direct control, an option the board found unappealing at its meeting yesterday. The county may still invite other water related public agencies to join the effort.
Until recently, California was the only state in the western United States to not measure and monitor groundwater supplies.
New Groundwater Sustainability Agencies will have to write and approve groundwater management plans, generally by 2022. The plans must show how to cease over-drafting aquifers and how groundwater basins can move to sustainable stewardship by the year 2042.
In other action, the board, after much discussion, adopted special event venue regulations, aimed at reducing strife between operators and neighbors in unincorporated areas. Disputes between those who offer their properties up as wedding venues and neighbors irritated by noise, traffic and lighting forced officials to weigh in.
Supervisor Larry Wahl, the lone opponent to the rules, said they were too onerous and expensive for small businesses.
“This is just too much regulation, over-regulation and it’s big government at work, controlling every aspect of the small business person’s life,” Wahl said. “It’s not right.”
Supervisor Steve Lambert however, said the foundation for such rules is valid.
“It’s no different from having ah, y’know a car dealership next door to you,” Lambert said. “I mean there’s some noise there. It’s just business and resi…(sic). We have zoning and things like that for a reason.”
The new rules only impact special event venues not located on a winery in unincorporated agricultural areas of Butte County.