Catch up on the latest GSA board meeting recaps anytime—at home, on the road, or on your tractor.
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The advisory committee reviewed progress toward returning to DWR oversight, recommended a reduced water allocation for 2026, and advanced the well registration program with incentives. Additional discussions covered injection well pilots, well inventory expansion, and subsidence monitoring updates.
Board meeting covering groundwater use fee implementation, LandIQ data system updates, and budget approval for fiscal year 2025-26. Significant discussion on grower concerns about data delays and fee structure.
The Monterey Subbasin Implementation Committee approved its April 23 minutes and reviewed a proposed valley-wide demand management framework with six agricultural and four domestic measures. Staff aims to bring the framework to the board this fall; no measures were adopted. Members urged timely, simpler implementation toward 2042. An ERA Economics consultant said scenarios run so far show demand management alone would not resolve seawater intrusion.
The board set FY 2026 fees at $13.83 per cropped acre and $5.32 per connection. DWR crop maps replace assessor land-use codes for the acreage calculation; mapped idle and unclassified acres also count. Staff updated the board on Salinas River and seawater-intrusion feasibility work under a $10.3 million grant, and on demand-management planning across subbasins.
The Water Board proposed a new graduated SGMA fee structure that would lower costs for most small and mid-sized farmers while increasing rates for large users. Key concerns included potential loopholes for large operators to avoid fees, use of budget reserves, and the fairness of layering new fees on top of existing GSA costs.
