1. Demand management is being planned as a contingency, not an immediate action. ERA Economics and GSA staff outlined a framework under development with 10 possible measures: six agricultural and four domestic. Staff said Forebay and Upper Valley generally avoid undesirable groundwater results but have not reached their groundwater-level goals. The aim is to be ready if conditions warrant action. Staff hopes to bring a framework to the GSA board this fall; no demand-management measure was adopted.
2. Measures and activation decisions remain open. Agricultural options include on-farm conservation, extraction fees or tiered pricing, rotational fallowing or fallow banks, land repurposing, pumping limits or allocations, and penalty charges. Domestic options include education, rebates, mandatory conservation measures, and water pricing. Consultants illustrated a flexible stages-and-triggers approach, but the sequence, thresholds, locations, and measures to use have not been decided. Individual programs would require further development.
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