The board rejected Alternative 3’s package of minimum thresholds 40 feet below objectives and early-warning levels 15 feet below them outside Chico, 2–3. It sent threshold options, early-warning language and the non-dry-year condition to its advisory committee. In a separate 4–1 vote, it directed staff to draft removal of that condition; no plan amendment was adopted. Residents described wells under strain. The board approved a Davids Engineering agreement.
SHAC approved its July 22 minutes. Draft groundwater plan documents are open for comment through October 26 and find the sub-basin on track for its 2042 sustainability goals. On October 14, the Vina GSA board will discuss a proposed minimum-threshold alternative and the non-dry-year clause; any further SHAC review depends on board direction. SHAC is scheduled to review proposed local management levels October 28.
Staff said draft GSP amendments and a periodic evaluation are expected Sept. 14, with public comment through Oct. 26 and LML-specific comments requested by Oct. 14. The board discussed revisiting Alternative 3 alongside Alternatives 1 and 2 and the non-dry year language at the Oct. 14 meeting. Public commenters said current minimum thresholds could allow about a third of wells to go dry before corrective action.
Both boards approved keeping existing groundwater minimum thresholds (Alternative 1) rather than raising them, adding an early-warning layer through Local Management Levels set 20 feet below measurable objectives, with staff directed to draft more prescriptive trigger language. The RMS monitoring well network expansion from 17 to 29 wells was approved as a formal GSP amendment. Both boards voted to retain non-dry-year language and provide an offsets explanation to DWR.
The advisory committee voted 5-2 to recommend revising groundwater Minimum Thresholds using Alternative 2's dual-criterion approach, creating earlier regulatory triggers in 16 of 25 RMS wells (though some MTs would be lower than 2022 levels in certain polygons). They also voted to recommend removing the non-dry year qualifier from undesirable result definitions, after first voting down a motion to keep the language. Both recommendations now go to the GSA Boards for final decision.
