Integrated Regional Water Management Planning
The Big Sur Land Trust is at the forefront of a new collaborative effort to improve how decisions involving water management are made in Monterey County and beyond. In recent years, California voters have passed three ballot propositions that set aside funds for broader approaches to water resource management, including addressing water supply reliability, water safety, water quality, flood prevention and environmental protection. In order to qualify for these funds, the State has mandated that local and regional water managers throughout California form diverse coalitions to develop an Integrated Regional Water Management Plan (IRWMP) that outlines each region’s water resource management priorities. Members of the coalition in Monterey County include the Land Trust and several other public, private and non-profit agencies and organizations that have a stake in ensuring the health, safety and protection of our region’s water resources and associated watersheds. This program has resulted in some new and creative partnerships between conservation organizations and public agencies, environmental justice groups, and small water companies.
According to Bill Phillips, Deputy General Manager at the Monterey County Water Resources Agency, IRWMP provides the framework for a much broader and more inclusive discussion of water issues than had previously been required.
“There have been tensions to be worked through,” Phillips says. “There have been significant conflicts between water users and the environmental community and regulatory agencies. Working through these conflicts takes lots of time and energy. IRWMP opens the door for a type of conversation which to my knowledge had not occurred before.”
To qualify for IRWMP funding, the State mandates that a number of state water policy objectives be met. Regional planning should focus on water supply, water quality, flood protection and floodplain management, regional communication and cooperation, disadvantaged communities, and climate change.
Phillips points out that non-traditional partners like the County Water Resources Agency and the Land Trust can accomplish more by working together.
“The Carmel River Floodplain Restoration and Environmental Enhancement Project, for example, is a big deal, with very real synergy” he says. “The Land Trust is interested in habitat protection. We are interested in floodplain protection. By working together, we can develop long-range sustainable plans for a flood-management system in the lower Carmel River that satisfy both our missions.”
For Phillips, the key word in IRWMP is integrated.
“I’m proud we have cemented a relationship that will not quickly vanish,” he says.
Along with the Land Trust and the Monterey County Water Resources Agency, sixteen other organizations, agencies and cooperatives comprise the Greater Monterey County Regional Management Group, including the City of Salinas, the Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve, the Environmental Justice Coalition for Water, the Watershed Institute at California State University, Monterey Bay, and the Monterey County Agricultural Commissioner’s Office.
Bridget Hoover, Director of the Water Quality Protection Program at the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, another member of the regional management group, points out that IRWMP makes it possible for the Sanctuary to widen the scope of its protection of marine areas.
“The Marine Sanctuary doesn’t have jurisdiction on the land, but everything drains off the land into the ocean,” Hoover says. “IRWMP facilitates a regional and collaborative approach to working with agriculture and with cities to improve water quality and to protect the marine organisms living within the Sanctuary.” As part of the first grant proposal, the Sanctuary has proposed a plan to work with partners to restore a small urban creek in Salinas that passes through agricultural areas, improving the creek’s habitat and water quality before it drains into the Sanctuary.
Other proposed projects include the removal of arsenic from a municipal well in Castroville; lining a wastewater pond to protect the groundwater in San Jerardo; and expanding a water recycling program in Soledad that would make non-potable water available for irrigation.
For the Land Trust, the IRWMP program makes a lot of sense for its current projects, says Donna Meyers, Director of Conservation. “Rather than focus on a single species or habitat, we are looking to preserve whole landscapes,” she says, “and integrated regional water management planning helps us do just that. It’s really about pursuing systems-based, holistic planning that ensures the ecological integrity of a site.”
