Board conditionally approves replacement well drilling but requires executed sharing or transfer agreement

Following a quasi-adjudicatory hearing on Sept. 24, the Fox Canyon Groundwater Management Agency Board of Directors reversed an interim executive officer’s denial of a well-permit application and conditionally approved drilling of a replacement well only after the applicant produces either a signed well-sharing agreement or a jointly submitted allocation-transfer agreement.

The appeal involved application number 309, filed by RN Daley Ranch LLC (referred to in the record as Daly/RN Veil Ranch) to replace a failed replacement well (H03). Staff presented the background showing that the original allocation resided with the failed well H02 (owned by Nottingham Trust) and that H03 had operated in a combined accounting code (comp code) with H02. Staff said the key legal and administrative issue was that the application to transfer allocation must be submitted jointly by…