CA Supreme Court to Deliberate Well-drilling Permits on June 2nd

California Water Impact Network (C-WIN) challenged the County of San Luis Obispo's well-permitting procedures on the the grounds that permits for wells that meet certain thresholds must be in compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The California Supreme Court will deliberate on Monday, June 2, 2020 at 9am. The hearing can be viewed here.

C-WIN President and Executive Director Carolee Krieger notes: We are asking that discretion be given to county agencies to require CEQA review of industrial well projects. We believe that without a proper CEQA evaluation for these bigger projects, that all of the potential impacts, including those on protected and other groundwater-dependent species, as well as growth inducing impacts, are never addressed and can cause great harm.

California's Supreme Court will deliberate the question of whether state groundwater well-drilling standards published by the Department of Water Resources and incorporated into several counties’ well-permitting ordinances require local officials to exercise discretion in certain cases. If discretion is required then well-permitting must be in compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), as the Fifth District held. If the standards are purely ministerial, as the Second District held, then well-permitting is not subject to CEQA. The Supreme Court argument, which pertains to a Stanislaus well permit case in which the Fifth District held that the permitting is subject to CEQA, is June 2 at 9 am. C-WIN is hopeful that the decision will overturn the Second District's decision.

Read about this and other C-WIN cases here.