The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors has imposed a six-month halt in all new wells countywide, a far-reaching move likely to impact residential and commercial property owners seeking to tap groundwater amid a historic drought. The immediate drilling moratorium, which offers only a narrow exemption for emergency water needs, is meant to give the county more time to draw up a new set of well regulations aimed to safeguard surface and subsurface flows in the county’s major watersheds. A 2021 lawsuit by the environmental group California Coastkeeper Alliance spurred the work toward new regulations, and the Board of Supervisors was scheduled to vote on the new rules Tuesday.

Related articles: 

• AP News: California wells run dry as drought depletes groundwater
• Sonoma County Gazette: News release – Sonoma County issues moratorium on drilling new wells
• ABC 10 – Sacramento: Sacramento Valley starting to sink amidst multi-year drought
• KCBX – Central Coast: In the Vines – How drought and climate change threaten the Paso Robles wine industry’s future
• Patch: Water restrictions add to Russian River woes amid drought