Divided Merced supervisors reject emergency groundwater moratorium

Merced County will not consider developing an “emergency moratorium” to temporarily stop groundwater exports and new well construction while its staff works on the county’s permanent groundwater ordinance, a divided Board of Supervisors decided Tuesday.

The item, which directed county staff to begin working on a moratorium, failed by a 3-2 vote with Supervisors Hub Walsh, John Pedrozo and Chairman Jerry O’Banion voting against it. Supervisors Deidre Kelsey and Linn Davis voted in favor.

Kelsey, during a board meeting last week, suggested a temporary measure to regulate groundwater transfers outside county boundaries while staff finishes work on the permanent ordinance that oversees groundwater mining, exports and new well construction through a permitting process.

County staff members have been working on the permanent groundwater ordinance since May, but the board voted unanimously last week to send the ordinance back to a stakeholder committee to review suggested changes. The ordinance likely won’t return to the Board of Supervisors until early next year.

“I think it’s taking too long, and the portion of regulating pumping groundwater should have been addressed today,” Kelsey told the Merced Sun-Star on Tuesday. “It seems to be eight months into the process, and we could have at least looked at the exportation of groundwater mining.”

Kelsey said she’s disappointed the majority of board members didn’t agree with her, but said she’s not surprised. While the adoption process for a permanent ordinance has been postponed, Kelsey said, some individuals continue to pump groundwater and sell it out of Merced County for profit.

“A groundwater exportation ordinance is the one piece of the proposed ordinance that everyone has agreed on that has been part of this conversation,” Kelsey said. “The majority of the board felt it was best to continue water exports out of the county at this time.”

Walsh, on the other hand, said the county is a lot closer to adopting a permanent ordinance than some might expect. Walsh, who sits on the county’s water committee and helped draft the ordinance, estimated having it back to the Board of Supervisors by January or early February.

“I don’t think we disagree that we want to do something, but they kept using terms like ‘a year’ or ‘six months’ before we get anything – and I think we’re a lot closer on the current ordinance than they think,” Walsh said. “It takes a while, and I understand people who are frustrated that it’s taking too long, but we want to do it right.”

Walsh said the emergency moratorium would have to go through the regular ordinance adoption process, which could take up to two months, including required environmental reviews.

The supervisor said having another ordinance simultaneously going through the adoption process could be a distraction – potentially hampering progress on the county’s permanent ordinance. “I thought it might be distracting to the current effort to develop another ordinance while we still have the current one under development,” Walsh said.

Merced County Executive Officer Jim Brown told the Sun-Star the county’s intention is to move as quickly as possible on adopting groundwater regulations, even scheduling a meeting with the water stakeholders’ group before Christmas and a second one in January.

“By taking a few more weeks, we’re hopeful that we can educate some on the misunderstandings that are out there regarding the ordinance,” Brown said. “A groundwater ordinance is complicated, and the water committee and stakeholder group are attempting to find that balance between protecting the ag economy and private property rights, while still preserving groundwater resources.”

This story was originally published December 16, 2014 at 7:18 PM with the headline "Divided Merced supervisors reject emergency groundwater moratorium."