On March 17, 2016, the Soquel-Aptos Groundwater Management Committee (SAGMC) voted to become the Groundwater Sustainability Agency for the Mid-County Basin Area under the new name: Santa Cruz Mid-County Groundwater Agency (MGA). The MGA will continue to oversee the management of the basin, and lead the writing and implementation of a Groundwater Sustainability Plan by 2020.
Santa Cruz Sentinel
POSTED: 03/11/2016 10:51:01 AM PST | UPDATED: 3 DAYS AGO
SANTA CRUZ -- California has not managed or regulated groundwater use on a statewide basis for most of its history, and many of the state's aquifers have been depleted by overpumping. A team of experts led by UC faculty has now published a report that describes a path forward for successful groundwater management.
On December 8, 2015, DWR received 23 grant applications for the 2015 Counties with Stressed Basins grant solicitation. The proposals, from County governments, requested a total of approximately $7 million, with total project costs of $12.7 million. On January 22, 2016, DWR announced the draft funding recommendations to award 21 proposals, totaling $6,689,382. Detailed information regarding the draft funding recommendations can be found at http://www.water.ca.gov/irwm/grants/sgwp/solicitation.cfm
By Samantha Clark, Santa Cruz Sentinel
POSTED: 12/10/15, 8:56 PM PST
Originally posted at http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/government-and-politics/20151210/santa-...
LIVE OAK >> Santa Cruz County and some local water districts are forming a new agency tasked with bringing the basin stretching from Santa Cruz to Aptos into balance.
By Brett Walton, Circle of Blue
WATSONVILLE, California [September 23, 2015] — Driving on the world-famous Route 1, just south of town, a traveler looking west across fields of strawberries can see the great silvery expanse of the Pacific Ocean.
By Brett Walton
Circle of Blue
SOQUEL, California [September 16, 2015] — On September 16, 2014, Governor Jerry Brown, cheerfully triumphant, signed into law the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, which many observers assert is the most significant addition to California’s water protection code in a century.
SOQUEL, Calif. [September 9, 2015] – While local efforts to collaborate and move forward with implementation of statewide regulations for sustainable groundwater management in the mid-county area continue, a recently proposed reclassification of the Soquel-Valley Groundwater Basin to critically overdrafted status has the potential to move up several important deadlines.
You might have noticed stories with predictions of a strong El Niño this winter starting to circulate in local media. This, in turn, has sparked a lot of speculation about how this would affect our local water supplies, which have been impacted by four years of drought conditions. The short answer here in the District and Mid-County area? Not much. Here’s why...
