Agencies' projects receive millions
Another grant goes to county drought relief
Late last year, two local groundwater sustainability agencies were notified that they would be receiving millions of dollars in state grant funding and will finally be able to manage major projects. With the unanimous support of the Butte County Board of Supervisors, both agencies have agreements in place.
In conjunction with the county's Department of Water and Resource Conservation, the Vina Groundwater Sustainability Agency has $5.535 million to go toward a handful of upcoming projects. Additionally, the Wyandotte Creek GSA received $5.527 million via the same California Sustainable Groundwater Management grant.
Water and Resource Conservation Director Kammie Loeser brought the item before the board on Tuesday asking for authorization to allow the GSAs to manage the grant funding going forward.
“Each GSA board directed their respective management committees to develop recipient agreements with Butte County for grant administration and project coordination as well as retain consultants for the implementation of various projects or components,” Loeser said. “I will also note that the GSAs are contracting directly with consultants for some of the projects with Butte County.”
The county's contract with the Vina GSA has a maximum payout of $1,470,000 while the contract with the Wyandotte Creek GSA's maximum amount will be $1,025,000 for managing the grant funding. Both contracts last through April 15, 2026.
Once the management contracts were approved, the board went on to approve two contracts for future groundwater-related projects.
The first was with Rancho Cordova-based firm Geosyntec Consultants, Inc. for a recharge feasibility analysis for the Vina subbasin to the tune of $685,000. Budgeted into that amount is a plan to enhance data management systems for the Wyandotte Creek GSA.
Supervisors unanimously approved a second contract with Errol L. Montgomery and Associates, Inc. of Sacramento for coordination and modeling services for both the Wyandotte Creek and Vina subbasins at the cost of $467,000.
Supervisor Bill Connelly was on vacation and unable to attend Tuesday's meeting, meaning the unanimous votes consisted of the remaining four supervisors.
Drought relief
On Tuesday, the county accepted an additional grant of $5.6 million from the Community Wide Regional Funding Grant program that will go toward the Butte County Drought Resilience and Outreach Project, or DROP.
The project consists of water hauling for those on water directly affected by the drought.
Briana Haberman, deputy administrative officer with Butte County Emergency Management provided a statement regarding the new funding.
“Fortunately, 2023 was an extremely wet water year; however, new dry wells were still reported throughout the County,” Haberman said. “There is still an ongoing need for these services. The DROP will allow Emergency Management to continue to assist Butte County property owners impacted by dry wells.”
Other business
Aside from the various water-related grants, the board took the following actions:
• A grant for just north of $5.2 million was accepted by the county and will go toward the expansion of Butte County Behavioral Health's Stepping Stones Facility in Chico. The county matched $469,211, which pushed the total funding to $5,670,951.
• A $1,861,500 contract with Traditions Psychiatry Group for services at the county's psychiatric health facility was unanimously approved. The term of the contract lasts through June 30, 2025.
• Sheriff Kory Honea gave presentations regarding military equipment use as well as Immigration and Customs Enforcement access to inmates.
“There is still an ongoing need for these services. The DROP will allow Emergency Management to continue to assist Butte County property owners impacted by dry wells.” — Briana Haberman, deputy administrative officer with Butte County Emergency Management