“In terms of the culture of water management in California, it’s a major cultural shift,” said Graham Fogg, a UC Davis professor of hydrogeology and groundwater expert. “I’ve worked at UC Davis for almost 26 years, and I never thought in my lifetime I would see this in California, frankly. But it has been sorely needed.” Richard Frank, a professor of environmental law at UC Davis, said these time frames are too long. “By the time this process cranks up in five, 10 or 20 years, the damage may long have been done,” said Frank. He also is concerned about a clause in the legislation that forbids public disclosure of personal information in reports on groundwater extraction. The clause cites a section of the Public Records Act that prohibits disclosure of information about utility customers, including name, address and “utility usage data.” If this is applied broadly in the case of groundwater, researchers and the public would not be able to access information about the location of wells and the rate of groundwater extraction. This is a level of privacy not extended to Californians who hold rights to divert surface water from streams. The annual reports they file with the state are posted on the Internet in undiluted form and are readily available to the public. “I think it’s a problem,” Frank said. “That effort at confidentiality would seem to have the potential to undermine the whole purpose and utility of this groundwater extraction data.”
Posted on: Mon, 15 Sep 2014 15:45:46 +0000
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