From the Department of Water Resources:
The Department of Water Resources (DWR) today released its Groundwater Well Permitting: Observations and Analysis of Executive Orders N-7-22 and N-3-23 report, which focuses on Executive Order N-7-22 (paragraph 9, March 28, 2022) and currently active Executive Order N-3-23 (paragraph 4, which superseded N-7-22 on February 13, 2023).
The report summarizes different approaches taken by well permitting agencies and groundwater sustainability agencies to comply with the requirements of the Executive Orders, which included new well permitting requirements for local agencies to prepare for and lessen the effects of several years of intense drought conditions. The report recaps perspectives shared by some small communities, provides examples of local agency compliance measures, and contains observations of groundwater conditions that occurred during the time these actions were underway through summer 2023. Policy recommendations are also included that can be used to develop future solutions to align land use planning, well permitting, and groundwater management and use.
See more information related to groundwater wells on DWR’s Wells webpage and resources for well owners and users on how to ‘Be Well Prepared’. For questions about this report, please email sgmps@water.ca.gov.
DWR Well Permitting Analysis-Final_March2024
