At its March 26 meeting Nipomo Community Services District Board of Directors reviewed a proposed “Water Shortage Response Plan” to address the depletion of local groundwater due to decades of over pumping and the current record drought, officials announced in a recent press release.
“Over pumping and the continuing drought have made our current groundwater basin unsustainable,” General Manager Michael LeBrun said in the press release. “We must take urgent action to protect the community’s water supply and to comply with court-mandated groundwater basin protection requirements.”
Last year, a court-appointed group responsible for monitoring groundwater conditions reported that area wells dropped to their lowest level on record, almost triggering a “severe water shortage.”
An official groundwater status update—to be released in May—predicts that three consistent years of drought have continued to degrade the groundwater supply.
Now the district is developing drought rates “to motivate customers to reduce water use,” officials said. The proposed rates would be based on a set of five escalating drought stages; as the stages increase, the rates would increase as well to conserve water and to make up for the financial loss from reduced water sales.
The district has taken several additional steps to address local water concerns, including the acquisition of supplemental water supplies and the ongoing construction of an intertie pipeline. New water supplies will be available starting next year.
The next step in the plan is formal approval of the Water Shortage Response Plan, which is expected to occur at the Board of Directors’ April 9 meeting. The board will also conduct a first review of draft drought rates.
District officials said they plan to send out a mailer about the rates and will hold a community forum in April.
For more information, contact the district at 929-1133 or visit ncsd.ca.gov.
This article appears in Apr 3-10, 2014.
