Posted: Thursday, September 01, 2011 11:00 AM
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Groups fight well logs bill
Cattlemen: 'It's creating a solution for a problem that doesn't exist'
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Farm groups are lining up against a bill in the California Legislature that would make landowners' well logs available to the public.
Since 1949, the state has required notification from well drillers whenever a well is created, deepened, reperforated or destroyed. The well completion reports include details about the well's depth, the type of soils encountered at each elevation and depth to water, according to a state Assembly bill analysis.
Until now, the information provided to the state Department of Water Resources has not been readily accessible to the public. State Sen. Fran Pavley, D-Agoura Hills, wants to change that, reasoning that the geophysical data is important to ground water managers, consulting hydrologists and others.
But the California Farm Bureau Federation, the California Cattlemen's Association and other farm groups oppose the bill, calling it unnecessary and worrying it could jeopardize the safety of drinking water.
"The information is available to the people it needs to be available to," said Justin Oldfield, the CCA's director of government relations. "From a public perspective, there's a lot of concern about putting this information out there about what wells are pumping water and how much they're pumping.
"This wouldn't help anything," he said. "It wouldn't solve a problem. It's creating a solution for a problem that doesn't exist."
The bill passed the Assembly Appropriations Committee, 11-6, on Aug. 18 and was sent to the Assembly floor. It passed the Senate, 25-14, on June 2.
In a letter to Pavley, the Farm Bureau noted that ground water management agencies already have access to well information to better manage ground water locally.
"No beneficial purpose could be gained by making this confidential data available to the public," the organization stated in its Aug. 18 letter. Officials from the CFBF were unavailable for comment last week.
Farm groups pointed to another letter from the California Police Chiefs Association, which expressed concern about the public-safety threats caused by making well information public.
"Put simply, the unfettered release of this information to the general public creates opportunities (for) individuals or groups that seek to do harm by attacking public water systems," CPCA government relations manager John Lovell wrote on Aug. 9.
Legislation in 1965 naming the state Department of Water Resources as the agency responsible for collecting the well information specified that the data was to be made available to government agencies only and not to the public, perhaps to protect proprietary information about soil characteristics and other data, bill analysts say.
Pavley and other proponents say well locations can be determined various ways, such as by aerial photographs, road signs or in public documents prepared under the California Environmental Quality Act.
They argue that details regarding subsurface geology and water depth can be used to develop underground aquifer maps that identify key recharge areas and other features, according to the Assembly bill analysis.
Further, supporters argue that in other states reviewing well logs is considered due diligence when buying a home with an existing well or drilling a new one, the analysis states.
The Department of Water Resources spends between $100,000 and $125,000 annually to remove identifying personal information from well completion reports, according to the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
Senate Bill 263
Proposal: Make depth, soils and other information in well completion reports available to the public.
Author: Sen. Fran Pavley, D-Agoura Hills, http://dist23.casen.govoffice.com/
Proponents include: Groundwater Resources Association, http://www.grac.org/
Opponents include: California Farm Bureau Federation, http://www.cfbf.com/
Read the bill: http://leginfo.ca.gov/
Comments made about this article
Posted By: kingfisher On: 9/1/2011
Title: This is a good bill, and privacy concerns are nonsense in this case.
The data that is available in these well logs is the only source of information that exists for understanding the nature of the subsurface complexity in California's aquifers. We need to be able to map these aquifers in order to preserve the quality of these waters. There is absolutely no doubt that water quality in California's major agricultural aquifers is being degraded. If we dont get a handle on this soon, you wont be able to irrigate without treating your water. You want to talk about cost?!? Try setting up a Ion Exchange treatment system at your well head to treat your irrigation water!
Sure, there's another way to get the data we need to understand these aquifers: YOU pay for it. Or would you rather that it be paid for by the tax payers?
Here's the 3 choices:
1. Use the data that already exists in those 100's of thousands of well logs.
2. Make beneficiaries (farmers) pay to collect basically the same dataset AGAIN, which will cost millions and take decades.
3. Make the tax-payers pay to collect basically the same dataset AGAIN, which will cost millions and take decades.
You think about that, and then decide.
This is a short, simple, obvious bill. It doesnt encroach on anyone's privacy. I'll tell you what will though: thousands of scientists and engineers drilling test wells all over your land to collect the same dataset. No doubt, if we have to do that, there will be a huge uproar, from the same people who oppose this bill, about how we are wasting money collecting a dataset we already have in the well-logs.
A responsible landowner is one who recognizes that his land is merely held in trust for future generations. The same goes for the aquifers. These are the people's resource, and need to be protected. You all know this. How many of you have wells that you used to be able to drink from that are no longer safe to drink? or have dried up? I have one on my own property!
This is not a privacy issue. What possible private informatin could be divulged here? Your address? That's silly paranoid nonsense. I can loom up your address on the internet in no time at all, I dont need a well-log for that! What else...your well depth? Why on earth would you care? Is it just obtuseness? Who CARES if a bunch of eggheads get to know the depth of your well and the nature of the spoils you drilled through? We all ONLY BENEFIT from this.