Siskiyou County Municipal Code Art. 1 Declaration of Findings and Purpose

The Board finds and declares:

(a) The groundwater basins underlying Siskiyou County—including the Klamath River Valley Basin, the Butte Valley Basin, the Shasta Valley Basin, and the Scott River Valley Basin—have historically provided the people and lands of Siskiyou County with water for agricultural, domestic, municipal and other purposes that are likely to increase in importance in the future.

(b) The Board recognizes the principle of correlative rights developed in the case law of California, providing that water may be appropriated from a groundwater basin only if the groundwater supply is surplus and exceeds the reasonable and beneficial needs of overlying users.

(c) Siskiyou County has a paramount right and duty to govern the management and extraction of groundwater resources within its jurisdiction in order to protect the health, welfare, and safety of the residents of the County. It is essential for these purposes, and for the public benefit of the State, that groundwater resources of Siskiyou County be protected from harm resulting from the excessive extraction of groundwater for use outside the basin from which it was extracted, 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. Conserving the water resources in the groundwater basins underlying Siskiyou County, to avoid overdrafts and maximize the long-term beneficial use of groundwater resources, best serves the health, safety and welfare of residents of Siskiyou County.

(d) Much of the economic production of the County depends upon the use of groundwater.

(e) The groundwater of Siskiyou County also provides a significant amount of water for domestic uses throughout the County.

(f) The groundwater of Siskiyou County has been and will continue to be a vital part of the economic well-being and stability of the County.

(g) Because of the need for increased water supply to meet future needs within the County, and because surface water supplies obtained in the future may need to be used conjunctively with available local groundwater for reasonable and beneficial local uses, it is vital that the County's groundwater supply and quantity be preserved.

(h) The County will undertake as resources permit to develop a County water plan to more specifically address water availability, needs and usages in an attempt to foster prudent water management practices to avoid significant adverse overdraft-related environmental, social, and economic impacts.

(i) It is essential for information gathering and monitoring purposes, and for the protection of the County's groundwater resources, that the County adopt a permit process addressing the excessive extraction of groundwater for use outside the basin from which it was extracted.

(j) In adopting and codifying this groundwater management ordinance the County does not intend to limit other authorized means of managing Siskiyou County groundwater, and intends to work cooperatively with interested local agencies to further develop and implement joint groundwater management practices.

(k) The groundwater basins underlying Siskiyou County form significant water resources that must be managed in trust, and must be conserved so that they may be placed to the reasonable and beneficial uses of all potential users, while avoiding the waste and unreasonable use of these resources.

(l) Siskiyou County is the only local agency overlying all of the groundwater basins within the County.

(§ I, Ord. 98-15, eff. August 14, 1998; § I, Ord. 01-16, eff. September 6, 2001)