Wyandotte Creek board approves initial monitoring network for interconnected surface waters and groundwater-dependent ecosystems

The Wyandotte Creek Sustainability Agency on Oct. 23 approved a preliminary monitoring network and timeline to better measure interconnected surface waters (ISWs) and groundwater-dependent ecosystems (GDEs), voting to add three existing shallow wells to five already used in the basin.

Agency staff said the action is intended to respond to Department of Water Resources (DWR) recommendations and to begin filling “data gaps” that DWR flagged during plan review. Becky Fairbanks, SGMA project manager, told the board the item covers wells that already have at least five years of groundwater-level data and that the board was not being asked to take final action on plan amendments at the same meeting.

The board’s consultant, Laura Foglia, walked members through the technical rationale for using shallow wells and groundwater-level metrics as an initial proxy for interconnected surface water. “When we look at the interconnected surface water, we think about surface water body with the ground water,” Foglia said, describing three conceptual conditions (gaining stream, connected losing stream, disconnected stream)…