Attn: Department of Water Resources
cc: Napa County GSA; LSCE; Interim County CEO; Planning Commission; David Morrison; David Graves; Jamison Crosby

Subject: Comments on Napa GSA Performance and Progress
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To Whom it may Concern,

As Napa Valley Subbasin groundwater resources stakeholders, we wish to bring the lack of management effectiveness by the Napa County Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA) to your attention. Since the submission of Napa’s Groundwater Sustainability Plan (GSP) in early 2022, signs of groundwater scarcity have been evident and the drought has continued. Yet the Napa Valley Subbasin GSA has shown no indication that they intend to manage groundwater in a way that addresses the unprecedented conditions facing our community. We have no confidence in our GSA due to a history of inadequate leadership in resource management by its members. We therefore encourage the California Department of Water Resources to carefully assess our GSP for deficiencies, and to ensure that our GSA acts decisively to achieve the sustainability goal by applying all available mechanisms.

Our concerns are:

1. The GSA’s choices in establishing a Technical Advisory Group (TAG), as recommended by the Groundwater Sustainability Plan Advisory Committee (GSPAC), do not follow clear guidance to include only apolitical technical experts, with specialties spanning the breadth of the GSP’s content. This is engendering a lack of trust from stakeholders including portions of the agricultural sector, environmental users, and residents.
2. Thresholds have recently been exceeded in the Napa Valley Subbasin for chronic groundwater decline, groundwater storage reduction, depletion of interconnected surface water, and land subsidence. Our basin has encountered an undesirable result in groundwater storage. Lack of action from our GSA has allowed well owners to continue to pump without restrictions, thus increasing our groundwater storage deficit.
3. By engaging in performative governance, the GSA complies with policy on a technical level while avoiding meaningful Napa stakeholders desiring wise use of our scarce water resources via increased regulation and/or conservation express themselves publicly at meetings, both verbally and in writing, but the content of their messages is invariably dismissed or disregarded, even when backed by science or direct knowledge. Although there is the appearance of inclusion, goal-setting, and reporting, no action occurs on the ground. If this were a stand-alone issue, we would be less alarmed; however, GSA inaction is part of a pattern of ineffective governance of water resources by Napa County over many years. We are hopeful that state guidance will make it possible for our GSA to manage groundwater in the Napa Valley Subbasin with more success than we have seen for County surface water and drinking water.

We are writing to voice these concerns, and to create a record of our observations. Our livelihoods and well-being depend on well-managed water supplies. We have continued to closely follow GSA meetings and water resource management since the conclusion of the GSPAC process. Our goal is to protect our scarce groundwater resources for the benefit of all Napa Valley Subbasin groundwater users.

Background

In accordance with the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) of 2014, Napa County Supervisors and the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) delineated the Napa Valley Subbasin, and the Napa County Board Supervisors (BOS) established themselves as the GSA managing it. The Napa Valley Subbasin was re-prioritized from a medium to high-priority basin by DWR in 2018.

In 2019, the GSA submitted an Alternative Proposal which was subsequently rejected by DWR. Continuing their efforts to comply with SGMA, the GSA appointed 25 community members to its’ GSPAC in 2020. From July of that year to November, 2021, GSPAC members collaborated on the development of a GSP with the backdrop of worsening drought conditions. The full allotment of time was spent producing the Plan, which was submitted to DWR in January 2022. The GSP is currently under review.

In the past few years, locals have seen creek reaches drying and experienced curtailments of State Water Project allocations. Water trucks crisscross Napa Valley throughout the summer and early fall, delivering water to vineyards and residents with failing wells. In 2021, the City of Napa established restrictions on water truck deliveries as their supply dwindled. Well drilling rigs are a common sight throughout Napa County.

Studies confirm that the Western US entered a megadrought in 2000. It is compounded by climate change, and is the most severe drought in 1,200 years. The climate crisis is predicted to exacerbate extreme weather events indefinitely. In late October 2021, a torrential downpour caused landslides and local flooding. Some hailed “the end of the drought.” In truth, erratic weather is characteristic of transitions between California’s alternating long-term wet and dry periods, and is likely compounded by climate change.

Summer of 2022 will be at least as dry as 2021 was in Napa Valley, and early climate models are predicting another La Niña for the 2022-23 water year. There is no end in sight for water scarcity. With each day that passes without thoughtful action to manage our shared groundwater resource, reestablishing a sustainable level of use becomes more difficult.

Technical Advisory (Work) Group Recommendation

On November 8, 2021, near the end of their tenure, Napa GSPAC members voted unanimously to recommend that the GSA establish a Technical Work Group (TWG) (later renamed “Technical Advisory Group”) comprised of qualified experts to advise the GSA on implementing this complex plan. Late in the GSP development process, unanimous GSPAC votes were uncommon.

Motion passed unanimously: [GSPAC advises] the GSA to form a Technical Work Group (TWG) to work with staff, consultants and the GSA on implementation of the GSP, that the members of the TWG have technical expertise relevant to the GSP as well as experience working in a collaborative setting on public policy implementation, that the TWG have the responsibility and the timely opportunity to advise the GSA, and that the TWG charge be to address implementation of the entire GSP and include, among other things, a focus on data gaps and adaptive management.

On November 16, 2021, GSPAC members voted 17-4 to recommend that the GSA adopt the draft GSP and submit it to DWR. Several votes in favor of recommending the GSP hinged on the aspiration of a TWG that would be objective, apolitical, and science-based.

The spirit and intent of the TWG recommendation, expressed clearly by GSPAC members with diverse backgrounds and interests, was for the group to provide guidance that would be objective and trustworthy. Their charge would be to use the best available science to advise the GSA on the management of groundwater in the Napa Valley Subbasin, as a way to avoid partisan dynamics.

This concurrence of thought is evident at several stages of the process:

• At the November 8, 2021, GSPAC meeting where the idea of a TWG was first presented:
• Facilitator Scott McCreary summarized comments made by Lester Hardy, David Graves, Garret Buckland, and Michele Benvenuto at the October 8, 2021, meeting by saying, “There have been several comments along these lines: shift the focus, don’t be so prescriptive on interest groups, make sure that [a TWG] really emphasizes technical expertise” (2:24:42).
• Beth Novak-Milliken clarifies her proposal (2:34:45) before it goes to vote, saying, “What I suggested…was not anything political…I want that extremely clear; I do not want any of these groups to be political. I think these need to be work groups where you roll up your sleeves, you work together, and you get the work done, and the idea is not to have it [be] political.”
• At the February 8, 2022, GSA meeting (2:55:40), the GSA considered creating a “Stakeholder Advisory Group” that would give agricultural practitioners a “co-equal” role to a TWG (2:46:20), Michele Benvenuto, Executive Director of Winegrowers of Napa County, Molly Williams, Napa Valley Grapegrowers Industry & Community Relations Director, and Dr. Amber Manfree, who represented environmental users of water in

GSPAC, each provided public comment clarifying GSPAC intent and expressing interest in a single advisory group with “apolitical” members. Later in the same meeting, regarding a different agenda item, Michele Benvenuto asserts Winegrowers’ interest in “science- based” resource management (3:48:40).

Now that the GSA has appointed members to the TAG, it is apparent that the call for neutral parties with relevant training and experience that covers the full range of topics is not being adhered to. County staff recommended three initial TAG candidates to the GSA on May 17, 2022 (4:11:00):

1. Julie Chambon – Senior Engineer at Geosyntec Consultants, specialty in environmental engineering and hydrogeology
2. Monica Cooper – UC Cooperative Extension, specialty in Viticulture and Pest Management
3. Mathias Kondolf – UC Berkeley Department Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning, specialty in Fluvial Geomorphology

These three candidates are well qualified; however their specialties do not adequately cover the array of issues addressed by our GSP. These TAG candidates represent hydrogeology, viticulture, and fluvial geomorphology. The group lacks expertise in areas related to SGMA categories of groundwater dependent ecosystems and environmental users of water, i.e., fisheries, aquatic biology, and botany.

The bylaws of the TAG (page three) explicitly note the following as Member Qualifications:

III. A. The TAG shall be composed of at least three and no more than seven members selected by the NCGSA with technical expertise in one or more of the following disciplines:

1. Ecohydrology
2. Hydrogeology, including surface water and groundwater interaction and numerical flow models
3. Geomorphology
4. Fisheries; aquatic ecology
5. Botany, with expertise related to riparian and groundwater dependent ecosystems
6. Engineering, with expertise related to one or more of the proposed GSP project types
7. Viticulture, and vineyard management including sustainable growing practices and irrigation
8. Potable water system operations
9. Natural resources monitoring, including technological advances relevant to water resource management
10. Hydrology, particularly river system hydraulics and restoration approaches

At the May 17, 2022, GSA meeting former GSPAC members Peter Nissen (Napa County Farm Bureau) (4:19:45) and Michelle Benvenuto (4:21:33) suggested expanding the committee specifically to add members of the agricultural community. In a departure from earlier discussions, Nissen called for members “not involved in modeling” and Benvenuto said, “A scientific committee was not at all what the GSPAC recommended.” Other former GSPAC members, Mike Hackett (4:24:05), Beth Milliken (4:29:30), and David Graves (4:31:30), followed with comments requesting that the TAG retain a scientific focus and that additional TAG members should be subject experts with scientific backgrounds that expand the group’s capacity.

On Tuesday, May 17, the Napa County GSA directed staff to re-release the RFQ for the TAG to solicit additional applicants, specifically seeking expertise in “Viticulture and vineyard management including sustainable growing practices and irrigation.”

On June 21, 2022, the GSA appointed five people to the TAG, including the original three candidates plus two agricultural community members:

1. Miguel Garcia – Napa County Resource Conservation District Sustainable Agriculture Program Manager
2. Albert Filipelli – grapegrower with Vino Farms; previous operator of mutual water company

With three of five members representing agricultural practices and concerns, the TAG is now stacked in favor of Napa County’s agricultural industry, rather than being comprised of an objective, balanced, unimpeachable group of experts who can advise on and guide our plan in a way that all stakeholders can trust. The weighting of the appointments is counter to the spirit and intent of GSPAC’s recommendation. Ideally, the TAG will advise the GSA on appropriate monitoring and measuring and to apply the best science to protect groundwater resources for all in Napa County. This outcome is highly improbable with a majority of TAG members working and specializing in local agriculture, and without any representatives with expertise in groundwater dependent ecosystems or environmental users of water.

Threshold Exceedance without Action

On March 22, 2022, Napa’s GSA was informed that they had exceeded four minimum thresholds, three triggers, and had met criteria for one undesirable result under SGMA guidelines (3:52:25). No action was discussed by the GSA. Instead, the GSA will wait for recommendations from the TAG.