Court Ruling Could Limit Groundwater Pumping in Sonoma

Each year in Sonoma County, steelhead and coho salmon return to spawn in streams along the Russian River that are fed by groundwater.

Environmental advocates have long urged the county to adopt measures that would prevent groundwater pumping and well drilling from drying up these streams and damaging vital fish habitat.

Today, a Sonoma County Superior Court judge sided with environmental groups, ruling that the county violated state law and failed to meet its obligations to protect so-called public trust resources when officials adopted rules for the wells under an amended local ordinance.

“We’ve known for a long time that over-pumping wells can harm our public resources, like salmon and steelhead,” said Don McEnhill, executive director of the nonprofit Russian Riverkeeper. “We’re seeing major habitat degradation.”

Coho salmon are considered endangered, while steelhead are considered threatened. Both spawn in tributaries of the Russian River, including Mill, Mark West and Green Valley creeks.

The court’s decision underscores a legal obligation for California counties to ensure that uncontrolled pumping of groundwater does not dry up waterways and threaten the survival of species, said Sean Bothwell, executive director of the California Coastkeeper Alliance.

“Groundwater and surface water are related, they’re essentially the same thing, and they need to be managed the same way,” Bothwell said. “We really hope this decision will give counties an incentive to be proactive and manage the system as a whole.”

Bothwell said the environmental groups filed the lawsuit because Sonoma County “was just issuing groundwater permits without any review or analysis of the impact on the river.”

An exposed gravel bar stretches along the Russian River in Healdsburg, California, in June 2021.

(Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)

Coastkeeper Alliance initially filed a lawsuit against the county in 2021 under the public trust doctrine, the principle that certain natural resources should be preserved for the public. That case was settled in 2022, when county supervisors temporarily suspended the issuance of drilling permits and began amending the county’s well ordinance.

Last year, Sonoma County supervisors approved amendments that, according to the county’s website, “create a new regulatory process that considers potential adverse impacts on public resources, such as coho salmon habitat, when approving well permits.”

However, environmental group leaders said the measures were insufficient and lacked sufficient analysis.

Another problem, McEnhill said, was that the county still did not require well owners to install meters to measure and report how much water they pump.

“It was like posting a speed limit on the highway and not having any police officers to enforce it,” he said. “When it comes to water, when it comes to trusting someone, that method has never worked in California or anywhere else in the country.”

A small amount of water flowed into Mill Creek, a tributary of the Russian River, during the June 2021 drought.

(Don McEnhill)

The plaintiffs argued that the county failed to meet its obligations under the public trust doctrine as well as the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).

Superior Court Judge Bradford DeMeo upheld that decision in his Aug. 21 ruling, writing that based on previous cases, the state has “an affirmative duty to consider the public trust when making decisions affecting waters.”

Bothwell said this is the first time a California court has required a county to consider public trust resources when issuing permits for new wells.

Sonoma County officials were disappointed by the court’s decision, said Paul Gullixson, a county spokesman. He said the decision followed “a rigorous public policy development process with considerable public, scientific and technical input that took seriously the public trust doctrine and CEQA compliance.”

Gullixson said in an email that county officials are awaiting the final ruling in the case, which will mark the beginning of a 60-day period to file an appeal.

Pending the final decision, the county is continuing its normal process of reviewing applications and issuing permits for wells, Gullixson said. If Sonoma County decides to appeal, any stay of the decision would allow the county to continue issuing permits under the amended ordinance pending the outcome of this case.

Environmental groups said the decision means the county will have to analyze the “cumulative impacts” of allowing more wells and adopt measures to ensure stream protection when new wells are permitted.

The decision should lead to science-based restrictions on well drilling and pumping, where necessary, to protect stream flows on which fish depend, McEnhill said.

“We see a solution to solve this problem,” he said. “Our goal is to provide enough water for the salmon to survive.”

California’s groundwater law contains provisions designed to protect groundwater-dependent ecosystems. But many of these vulnerable natural areas are located outside regulated groundwater basins. Scientists have found that only 1 percent of the state’s groundwater-dependent ecosystems are adequately protected by current measures.

McEnhill said that’s the case in Sonoma County, where streams that provide valuable fish habitat and are under threat are outside the areas targeted for measures to combat overpumping under the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act.

Bothwell said the goal in Sonoma and elsewhere should be to balance the demands of those who divert surface water and those who pump groundwater with the needs of fish and ecosystems, especially during severe droughts, which are increasingly intensified by climate change.

“Our main goal is to restore balance to the watershed,” Bothwell said.

How the county responds is especially important, he said, because the state’s groundwater law — which is expected to address overpumping by 2040 in many areas — is moving “too slowly, quite frankly, to address the problems that the Russian River watershed is facing right now.”