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Merced supervisor urges State Water Board to let Delta Mendota groundwater plan proceed
Summary
Merced County Supervisor Scott Silvera told the State Water Resources Control Board that 22 of the 23 GSAs in the Delta Mendota subbasin have adopted a single groundwater sustainability plan and urged the board to allow local implementation under SGMA, citing local poverty and the need for affordable water reliability.
Scott Silvera, a member of the Merced County Board of Supervisors representing District 5, told the State Water Resources Control Board on the record that Merced County’s future depends on locally led groundwater management and affordable, reliable water.
"Merced County has a higher poverty rate, more than double the state average with 21.5% of residents living in poverty," Silvera said, framing the stakes of groundwater policy for his region.
Silvera urged the board to allow the Delta Mendota subbasin’s groundwater sustainability plan (GSP) to be implemented by local agencies under the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA). He said SGMA, enacted in 2014, was always intended to preserve local agency authority while making the State Water Resources Control Board the backstop if basins fail.
The Delta Mendota subbasin, Silvera said, consists of 23 groundwater sustainability agencies (GSAs) working together to produce one unified GSP. "That's 23 GSAs," he said, and reported that 22 of those GSAs have adopted the single GSP, with the remaining adoption pending and attributable to timing on that agency’s agenda.
Silvera described investments already underway across the subbasin — groundwater recharge projects, surface water storage, water-use efficiency and stormwater capture — as evidence of substantive local action toward sustainability. He acknowledged that staff review had found deficiencies in the plan but urged the board not to use that finding to preempt implementation: the plan, he said, "deserves the opportunity to be fully implemented without causing specific, identifiable harm to the public, our communities, the environment, and ultimately to our basin."
Emphasizing the original policy balance in SGMA, Silvera said local control was "not negotiable" in the law’s passage and that state intervention was meant only as a backstop. He closed by quoting Thomas Jefferson: "Whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government," and said the Delta Mendota subbasin can be trusted to implement its GSP.
An unidentified board member thanked Silvera for the update and said the board expects further discussion on SGMA and next steps with staff and subbasin partners.
