The Board hereby finds and declares:
(a) The groundwater underlying Yolo County has historically provided the people and lands of Yolo County with water for agricultural, domestic, municipal and other purposes.
(b) The Board recognizes that the principle developed in the case law of California that water may be appropriated from a groundwater basin if the groundwater supply is surplus and exceeds the reasonable and beneficial needs of overlying users.
(c) It is essential for the protection of the health, welfare, and safety of the residents of the County, and the public benefit of the State, that groundwater resource of Yolo County be protected from harm resulting from the extraction of groundwater for use on lands outside the County, until such time as needed additional surface water supplies are obtained for use on lands of the County, or overdrafting is alleviated, to the satisfaction of the Board.
(d) Much of the farm production of the County depends upon the use of groundwater to produce grapes, nut, fruit, field and vegetable crops which significantly contribute to the gross value of all agricultural crops produced in the County, estimated at nearly Three Hundred Million and no/100ths ($300,000,000.00) Dollars for 1994.
(e) The groundwater of Yolo County also provides water to several communities in the County, particularly to the cities of Davis, Winters and Woodland.
(f) The groundwater of Yolo County will be a vital part of future water use in the County. The present population of the County is nearly 150,000 and is conservatively projected to increase by the year 2020 to 315,000. Groundwater resources will serve as an important source of water supply to this increased population. As the water needs per acre of agriculture and urban areas are approximately equivalent for this region, and virtually all of the area to become urbanized is in irrigated agriculture, the consumptive demands of the groundwater lying beneath the County will remain essentially the same.
(g) Surface water supplies obtained in the future will be used conjunctively with groundwater. That is, surface water will be diverted in times of relatively high flows and groundwater will be used during dry periods when surface water is not readily available. In this regard, the greatest readily and economically available asset the County has in dealing with its water needs is its groundwater. Loss of the use of the groundwater would result in additional surface water needs. It is vital that the groundwater be preserved so that its capacity will be available for future conjunctive use.
(h) The Yolo County Water Plan Update 1992 identifies areas in the Yolo-Zamora Water District and lands along the east side of the Yolo County Flood Control and Water Conservation District from Cache Creek to Putah Creek, encompassing the Cities of Davis and Woodland as the areas where groundwater is most important. These areas have experienced up to four (4’) feet of subsidence that has aggravated flooding from the Colusa Basin Drain. Where the levees along Cache Creek are up to four (4’) feet lower than their design elevation, the risk of flooding, especially to the City of Woodland, is substantially increased. Similarly, the levees along the Willow Slough Bypass are up to two (2’) feet lower than their design elevation, thereby posing a risk of flooding lands near the City of Davis.
(i) The Yolo County Water Plan update 1992 concludes that an additional 120,000 acres feet of supplemental surface water per year is needed by the year 2020 to achieve a balanced use of both surface and groundwater for the County. The County and other public agencies in the County have worked with Federal, State, and other agencies to attempt to secure this needed supplemental surface water in order to relieve or alleviate the burden placed on the groundwater lying beneath the eastern portion of the County.
(j) The County seeks to foster prudent water management practices to avoid significant adverse overdraft-related environmental, social, and economic impacts. It is therefore essential for the protection of the County’s important groundwater resources that the County require a permit to extract groundwater for use outside the County. This chapter requires a permit for the export of groundwater outside the County and is not intended to regulate groundwater in any other way.
(k) In adopting this chapter, the County in no way intends to limit either the County or other public entities in managing groundwater under the Groundwater Management Act and any other applicable laws in a manner consistent with Yolo County Water Plan. (§ 1, Ord. 1195, eff. December 26, 1996)