Water Resources Agency proposes per‑well fees to fund expanded Salinas Valley groundwater monitoring; board asks for more outreach and equity options

Monterey County’s Water Resources Agency presented a proposed regulatory fee structure April 22 to fund an expanded groundwater monitoring program that will support the Salinas Valley Basin Groundwater Sustainability Agency’s (GSA) monitoring needs under the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA).

Senior hydrologist Amy Woodrow and agency staff described the proposal as a per‑well regulatory fee (Proposition 26 type) to create a reliable revenue stream for groundwater level and water‑quality monitoring, data management and required reporting. Staff said the program is expected to cost in the range of roughly $800,000 per year to implement; the proposal divides costs across wells in the expanded jurisdiction. Proposed fees presented to the board included:

- A one‑time initial well registration fee: $160.19. - An annual registration renewal: $21.90 per well. - A groundwater extraction reporting fee (applies to wells that extract more than 2 acre‑feet per year): $64.82 per year. - Groundwater‑level monitoring fee (to support field monitoring and data collection): $117.63 per well per year. - A groundwater‑quality monitoring fee for seawater‑intrusion monitoring in specified subbasins (applies to a smaller set of coastal wells); fee varies by subbasin.

Woodrow said the agency expects about 3,500 wells to be in the registration database, with roughly 540 of those in the representative groundwater‑level monitoring network (actual field visits are targeted at a subset of wells chosen to represent basin conditions). The extraction reporting fee was estimated to apply to about 2,100 higher‑use wells (non‑de‑minimis users); de‑minimis users (less than 2 acre‑feet/year) would be exempt from the extraction reporting requirement.

Board members and public commenters raised questions about billing, fairness for small or low‑income well owners, how the public will be informed, and the compliance and enforcement tools. Supervisor Glenn Church requested that outreach be expanded and that staff explore an equity waiver or low‑income program. Staff said the rate study has been refined to reduce the county indirect cost allocation and that they will consider options for low‑income exemptions or waivers and will coordinate with county communications staff to produce more public information and short explainer videos.

Ending: The board asked staff to expand outreach and return with additional detail (including equity options) as part of the agency budget consideration in May. The fees were not adopted at this meeting; the Water Resources Agency will consider final adoption as part of its FY 2025–26 budget process.