Realtors want a voice on Merced County groundwater ordinance

Farmers aren’t the only people concerned about Merced County’s impending groundwater ordinance.

More than 60 Realtors met with county administrators and elected officials Tuesday during a Merced County Association of Realtors meeting. The group wants to be included in discussions about the proposed groundwater ordinance, which has been under development since May.

“The focus was less about water mining and more about the county’s oversight of property owner rights and the ability to drill irrigation wells on their own property,” said the association’s government affairs director, Andy Krotik.

County CEO Jim Brown and Supervisors John Pedrozo and Hub Walsh, who sit on the county’s water committee, gave a presentation on the ordinance before fielding questions from the Realtors.

Merced County officials began drafting an ordinance to manage groundwater after two private landowners proposed a large sale and transfer of groundwater. The water would be sold to two water agencies in Stanislaus County.

The proposed ordinance allows Merced County officials to regulate similar out-of-county groundwater exports and oversee new well construction through a permitting process.

Walsh said the Realtors on Tuesday expressed concerns about property rights as they relate to water, homeowners having a fair share of groundwater and how lack of water can affect home values. Many of them also asked when the county expects to adopt the ordinance.

“They were concerned about how the access of water impacts the value of property,” Walsh said. “If the aquifer drops enough that you’ve lost access to your well, then that impacts property values.”

Though Realtors don’t want to rush the ordinance, Krotik said, another concern is not having an idea of the costs and requirements related to drilling a well on homeowners’ property.

After seven months of meetings with stakeholder groups and water experts, county supervisors in December voted to delay adopting the ordinance. They said the setback was because of “last-minute” comment letters the county received from the public and Merced Irrigation District leaders.

One concern raised in the letters was a controversial exemption in the ordinance’s language, which would allow property owners of two adjoining parcels to transfer water outside the county’s basin. The exemption was removed from the ordinance based on the stakeholders’ recommendation, then put back in without notification.

Longtime farmer Bob Weimer and others worried that the exemption could be easily manipulated to move water outside Merced County boundaries and officials wouldn’t be able to track how much water is leaving the basin.

Brown said in a previous interview that the exemption allowing water transfers between adjoining properties was put back in because removing had legal implications for the county.

“After looking at it, there was some concern regarding the legal risk on existing operations and concerns were raised on the consequences to the ag community, especially the smaller-scale farming operations,” Brown said.

Brown said changes were made to the exemption to address concerns. He said the exemption applies only to existing operations, where infrastructure to move water between two properties is already built. Any new or future transfers would need to go through a permitting process.

But even for existing water transfer operations, Brown said, landowners would need to report how much water is being moved between the neighboring properties.

“Legally, if it’s an existing process, it’s been determined that landowners have existing property rights and they’re entitled to their fair share,” Brown said. “So legally, the county does not have authority to be able to say you cannot move that water. But we can ask them to share what they’re doing and require new ones to go to a permit process.”

The groundwater ordinance is expected to return to the Board of Supervisors at the end of January for further direction.

This story was originally published January 6, 2015 at 7:57 PM with the headline "Realtors want a voice on Merced County groundwater ordinance."