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Colusa County Enacts Well Permit Moratorium

North State Public Radio

Published July 14, 2015 at 10:30 AM PDT

The new ordinance temporarily restricts new well permits and seems to be mainly targeted at Colusa County agriculture. Photo: An irrigation pump – which is commonly used to draw groundwater from wells to water crops.";

If you live in Colusa County and you want to put in a new well or you want to deepen the well you already have, you’re probably going to have to wait until January 31 to get that chance. The waiting period actually could be even longer under the new countywide ordinance now in effect that temporarily restricts well permits.

Voted in unanimously by the Board of Supervisors on June 30, the new ordinance states no new wells or reconstruction of old wells can take place in the County of Colusa over the next six months. After that time, the Board of Supervisors will either let the ordinance expire or have the ability to extend it for another six months after holding a public hearing.

“There are some exceptions,” said Mary Fahey, water resources coordinator for Colusa County’s Department of Agriculture. “If a domestic well goes out that can be repaired. And if an agricultural well goes out or loses the capacity to pump and they have a crop in the ground that they will lose if they do not deepen their well, then they will be allowed to deepen their well.”

Some of the wording in the ordinance makes it seem like agriculture might be its main target, as it clearly states that last year more irrigation wells were installed in Colusa County than any other year on record. Projections for irrigation well installation this year it says “will meet or exceed 2014 levels.”

A map showing the change in groundwater levels in Colusa County from Spring 2004 to Spring 2015. Arbuckle (one of the areas shown on the map in deep red) is an area of concern in the county. The ordinance stated that last year eight well outages were reported in the Arbuckle area. Seven of those were domestic wells, including one that supplied water to several residences throughout the Arbuckle Public Utilities District.

Fahey said the ordinance is a response to regularly declining groundwater levels and some domestic well outages.

According to the ordinance, parts of Colusa County have seen groundwater declines between 5 to 8 feet per year. It states in 2014 there were 10 well outages, seven of those being domestic wells in the Arbuckle area – an area that’s been seeing some of the greatest groundwater declines in the county.

Fahey said Colusa County’s Department of Agriculture and the Environmental Health Department are hoping the ordinance will give them time to further assess countywide groundwater conditions and to look into well spacing and construction standards.