Placer County Drought Resilience Plan

The Drought Resilience Plan (DRP) will identify drought and water shortage risks affecting domestic wells in Placer County and propose both interim and long-term solutions. The DRP will help the county improve preparedness and response efforts by working directly with affected communities and vulnerabilities and will propose interim and long-term solutions for domestic wells within Placer County. We encourage all community members to read the County’s Drought Resilience Plan and share feedback or questions to help ensure the plan reflects the needs and priorities of our whole community.

Drought and Water Shortage Risk Assessment

A drought and water shortage risk assessment (referred to as a risk assessment) was prepared in the development of the County DRP as directed in CWC Section 10609.70(b). This risk assessment evaluates how potential hazards intersect with the County’s domestic well and SSWS assets and other community assets to characterize the vulnerability of domestic wells and SSWSs to water supply shortage. The outcomes from the risk assessment will help inform response plans with short-term actions to employ when a water supply shortage occurs and long-term mitigation strategies and actions that reduce the vulnerability to water shortages. This chapter presents the risk assessment results for Placer County.

Summary of California Drought Resilience Legislation SB552

In September 2021, Senate Bill (SB) 552 was signed by Governor Newsom and enacted into law. SB 552 includes new responsibilities and requirements at both the state and local levels to help small water suppliers and rural communities reduce their risk of inadequate water supply during a water shortage event.

What Are the New Requirements?

SB 552 imposes new drought planning requirements on certain small water systems in Placer County. You can read more about SB552 Requirements here: https://water.ca.gov/Programs/Water-Use-And-Efficiency/SB-552

For state small water systems and domestic wells within the County's jurisdiction, the County of Placer will:

Establishing a standing Drought and Water Shortage Task Force.
Develop a County Drought Resilience Plan that includes potential drought and water shortage risks and proposed interim and long-term solutions.

County Drought Resilience Plan Development

Senate Bill 552 requires all counties to improve drought and water shortage preparedness for state small water systems and domestic wells within a county’s jurisdiction by developing a County Drought Resilience Plan (County DRP). Plan elements must include:

Potential drought and water shortage risk
Proposed interim and long-term solutions for state smalls and domestic wells in the county.

Consider at a minimum:

Consolidations for existing water systems and domestic wells
Domestic well drinking water mitigation programs (e.g. well rehabilitation, assistance programs)
Provision of emergency and interim drinking water solutions
An analysis of the steps necessary to implement the plan
An analysis of funding sources available to implement the plan

The Department of Water Resource, through a stakeholder task force, prepared the County Drought Resilience Plan Guidebook which provides guidance on all elements including how to complete a vulnerability assessment that informs short-term response actions and long-term mitigation strategies and actions, examples of short-term response items and long term mitigation actions, and how to implement and maintain the County Drought Resilience Plan.

Additionally, SB 552 directed DWR to maintain and update its Water Shortage Vulnerability Scoring and Tool for counties to use in the plan preparation. DWR created the Water Shortage Vulnerability Explorer tool, which is accessible at the DWR website.

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Scott Sandow

Placer County Public Information Officer

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Placer County Drought Resilience Plan