San Juan Water District Proposes to Take Lead in Water Management of Northern Sacramento County

The San Juan Water District hosted a meeting of five water boards on Tuesday, November 26, for the purpose of presenting its proposal to assume more water management authority across the water boundaries of Orangevale, Citrus Heights, Fair Oaks, Carmichael and Northridge.

The main purpose of the meeting was to determine whether the boards of the various districts had an interest in allowing the San Juan Water District to assume total water management responsibilities. San Juan Water District, which provides water to the family agencies in attendance at the meeting, currently manages only surface water for the northern section of Sacramento. The meeting was to present a proposal for San Juan to also assume responsibility for groundwater-managing surface water transmission and groundwater pumping, and monitoring the water quality of both.

While the directors of the attending boards seemed optimistic about the proposal, discussion continued throughout the night about how San Juan would carry out its new responsibilities, and what part the individual districts would play in assisting San Juan with water management.

Questions arose concerning the representation of the individual districts on the board, and the possibility of creating a "lead water board" comprised of members elected at large. Other questions focused on how San Juan would gain water rights to wells within the individual districts, and how assessments would be levied against agencies that pumped groundwater during peak cycles when pumping was disallowed.

The biggest question of the evening, and the one that created the most discussion and which raised even more questions, was identifying the need for the lead water board to have management authority across the entire water basin-not just the northern section of the county. Directors from all five of the attending water boards identified the need for a single council to govern groundwater. Folsom, Sacramento and Sacramento County all have water management authority within their boundaries, and because "upstream" policies might not always be conducive to the established policies "downstream," the directors of the water boards agreed to explore the potential of a single water authority.

The purpose of the meeting was not to reach any final conclusions, but was simply a gathering of water officials to determine whether they would like to further explore a regional water supply system. Most of the board directors were receptive to looking into the issue.