SB 522 Drought Task Force and Resilience Planning

Meeting Schedule* - 2025:

  • January 22, 2025
  • April 23, 2025
  • July 23, 2025 - cancelled
  • October 22, 2025

*Additional meetings may be scheduled if needed.

Most Recent Agendas:

April 23, 2025 Agenda - Click Here!

January 22, 2025 Agenda - Click Here!

Colusa County SB 552 Drought Resilience Plan

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.
  • The Plan also must 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. 

Colusa County Drought Task Force

Under SB 552, each county in the state is required to establish a standing county drought and water shortage task force to facilitate drought and water shortage preparedness for state small water systems (5 to 14 service connections) and individual domestic wells within the county’s jurisdiction.  

Colusa County established a Drought Task Force beginning in 2015 as approved by the Board of Supervisors.   The task force will meet and coordinate with the project team to develop the County’s FY24/25 Drought Resilience Plan. The County will be working with the task force members on the following subjects:

  • Perspective of domestic well owners and small water systems.
  • Understanding of Local water suppliers, as they support long-term mitigation strategy and actions and short-term response actions.
  • Knowledge on providing accessible and safe water supplies to communities. 
  • Help target special water needs that may arise during droughts.
  • Review of FY24/25 Drought Resiliency Plan.
  • Meet 2 to 4 times per year unless needed more frequently.
  • Keep an eye on future drought funding sources to cover the additional costs of drought mitigation and response. 

Colusa County Drought Resiliency Plan

Each county must have a drought resilience plan to assist in carrying out the preparedness efforts.  The County is the recipient of grant funds from the Department of Water Resources to help prepare the County’s initial SB 552-compliant drought resilience plan.  Staff with consultant support will be working directly with the Drought Task Force to develop the plan. 

On June 17, 2025, the Colusa County SB 552 Drought Resiliency Plan was approved by the County Board of Supervisors.  The Task Force will remain in place and may contribute to the following:

  • Sharing findings and recommendations related to drought and water shortage planning efforts with the community
  • Providing briefings to the Board of Supervisors
  • Facilitating proactive planning and coordination across ongoing or anticipated county efforts to minimize the occurrence of water shortage events
  • Monitoring drought conditions to initiate reasonable short-term response actions
  • Sharing regulatory requirements/updates and implementation
  •  Sharing/pursuing funding opportunities for water shortage planning

Drought Resiliency Plan: