Santa Rosa Plain Groundwater Sustainability Agency’s Monitoring Network Design and Construction Project – Shallow Interconnected Surface Water Wells

Santa Rosa Plain Groundwater Sustainability Agency’s Monitoring Network Design and Construction Project – Shallow Interconnected Surface Water Wells

In 2014, the State of California adopted the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) to help manage its groundwater. SGMA established the framework for managing groundwater resources in medium and high priority groundwater basins. Local Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSA) were tasked to manage their groundwater resources in accordance with a Groundwater Sustainability Plan (GSP). The Santa Rosa Plain groundwater subbasin is a medium-priority basin established under SGMA and is managed under a DWR-approved GSP. A critical component of groundwater management is having a robust monitoring network to establish a baseline for groundwater levels. Once the current baseline is established, groundwater levels can be compared to historical data to determine long term trends and track the effectiveness of sustainable management criteria in the GSPs and implemented by the GSAs. The Santa Rosa Plain GSA received an approximately $5 million grant from the California Department of Water Resource through its Sustainable Groundwater Management Grant Program.. One of the grant components is the planning, design, and installation of two shallow groundwater monitoring wells within the groundwater basin and GSP area. The specific focus of these wells is to address data gaps in the GSP’s monitoring network and provide data, as identified in the GSP, for interconnected groundwater-surface water monitoring. The Proposed Project would improve the Santa Rosa Plain’s GSA’s monitoring networks through the installation of two shallow monitoring wells to monitor interconnected surface and groundwater. The two shallow interconnected surface water monitoring wells are single completion wells with a depth up to 50 feet below ground surface (bgs). The well casing will have a diameter of 2.5 inches installed within an 8” diameter boreholes. Well construction details and diagrams are also located on Figures 4-5. The proposed activity includes: 1) well construction permitting; 2) borehole drilling and monitoring well construction using portable drilling equipment appropriate for the well location and specifications; 3) elevation survey of surface completion at each well site; 4) well development and sampling; and 5) site clean-up and restoration as necessary. The GSA has implemented best management practices for siting and will continue to implement best management practices for construction and monitoring to minimize or avoid local disruption to communities and resources during these operations. The duration for the entire Proposed Project is anticipated to be 8 to 10 months, with field activities occurring over a 1-to-2-month period. The monitoring wells will provide groundwater information to support and implement long-term sustainable groundwater planning and management and inform projects to help the GSP meet the sustainable groundwater management goals of the Basin.

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