Sonoma County can keep issuing well permits while it appeals an order to stop doing so after a temporary stay on the order was extended.
A judge in the California First District Court of Appeal agreed to extend the stay Thursday, the same day it was set to expire.
The original order was issued when the county was sued after it adopted amendments to its well permitting process in 2023 to comply with a state court decision that requires more scrutiny of groundwater impacts to any navigable waterways, which are protected by the state as a public trust.
The lawsuit challenging the changes was brought by the environmental advocacy groups Russian Riverkeeper and California Coastkeeper Alliance, which argued that the amendments violated the California Environmental Quality Act, known as CEQA, and the Public Trust Doctrine. A Sonoma County Superior Court judge agreed and ordered the county to stop issuing new permits.
The county is appealing the decision and asked for a stay of the order while that appeal played out. The county maintains that the amended process is even more environmentally sensitive than the previous well permitting rules, and that going back to the drawing board could significantly delay implementing new rules needed to protect groundwater.
“Complying with the court’s flawed order could take years and might still encounter future legal challenges,” Supervisor Lynda Hopkins said. “This also means that the county would have no ability to issue non-emergency water well permits while trying to comply.”
Sonoma County has more wells per capita than any other county in the state, with 40,000 wells on 23,000 parcels. An average of 283 permits were issued each year from 2017-2021, according to the county.
The amended permitting process involved creating a new Public Trust Review Area that would require more evaluation for well permit applications that would have downstream groundwater impacts to public waterways that could impact wildlife such as coho salmon.
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