A Residential Well User Rip-Off Is In The Works

If you are a "de minimis" user of well water for your residence expect to be paying a new fee on your property tax bill. And expect it to go to the benefit of big ag, the wine industry and Sonoma County Alliance affiliated business interests, and the Farm Bureau, and the Wine Growers Association. In fact Bob Anderson, the paid lobbyist for the Wine Growers is the head of the group recommending the fee structure. The machine, headed up by the Sonoma County Alliance is looking to victimize the little people.

When the state law, The Sustainable Groundwater Act was adopted the parameters were to regulate large industrial and Ag users of groundwater, with deep wells that may be sucking aquifers dry and to leave the small residential de minimis users alone. Industrial users could have their usage rates monitored and limited and fees applied to prevent overuse.

Now the tables have been turned since local politics has taken charge. It's being looked at as an opportunity to impose a broad-based regressive tax and establish a pot of money that can be used to benefit the wealthy. And also an opportunity at the local level to thwart the intent of the law and not regulate big industrial use.

The truth is that most residential users contribute recharge that exceeds their usage.

Another fat greedy government bureaucracy has been born. Expect it to introduce itself to you in the form of a parcel tax. Beware the lies and devious motives of those we have in elected office.

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Sonoma County seeks input on how to fund new groundwater-management system

Sonoma County is launching a public outreach campaign this week to gather input on its nascent groundwater regulatory system that could eventually levy new costs on thousands of residents throughout the region. The county has a trio of new groundwater management agencies — one each for the Santa Rosa Plain, the Sonoma Valley and the Petaluma Valley — that will over the coming weeks hold community workshops focused on the funding mechanisms they might implement moving forward.

First up is the Sonoma Valley meeting Wednesday at the Sonoma Veterans Memorial Building, with the Santa Rosa Plain workshop following March 21 at the Finley Community Center and the Petaluma Valley workshop concluding the series March 29 at the Petaluma Community Center.

“For the most part, residents and businesses have used groundwater as a source of free water,” said Supervisor Susan Gorin, who chairs the Sonoma Valley agency. “The introduction of the groundwater sustainability agencies means we have to look at water in totality. Surface water and groundwater are interconnected, and we have a finite supply.”

...

Funding options under consideration include charges on groundwater use or wells, as well as potential new levies by parcel or acreage,...

If you are a resident in the affected areas please educate yourself, attend the meetings identified in the article and speak up. And by all means contact your county supervisor directly. The whole way they went about setting this up was disingenuous.

This is OUTRAGEOUS!!! Does anyone know if you live outside the 3 basins in question - Santa Rosa Plain, Petaluma Valley and Sonoma Valley -- will you be taxed?

I could not tell from the website if fees are being considered across the entire county or in the 3 areas: https://sonomacountygroundwater.org/

This is definitely "Another fat greedy government bureaucracy" in the making.

It will behoove all homeowners with wells to keep an eye on this ugly piece of local political/Big Ag rigging, whether you live in the 3 basins or not.

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https://sonomacountygroundwater.org/srp/

https://sonomacountygroundwater.org/

Here are the basins. Looks like you may be in the clear, because if you've not heard of this yet you probably are not in the affected basins. The Santa Rosa Plain Basin is large though and extends well beyond the city limits. I am well outside city limits but am in the "Santa Rosa Basin."

They are not taxing those who live outside the basins by what I've heard. There has been talk of taxing those who have city water and not wells. This is for a couple reasons - some city water is obtained from "municipal wells" and another reason is those on city water may inhibit recharge due to paving over land so water doesn't soak in. Or maybe they think it is politically easier to spread the cost that way. Lots is up in the air still.