There’s good news and bad news when it comes to water supplies for the residents of the Nipomo Mesa.
Phase one of the long-anticipated supplemental water project is near completion, and water supplies have already arrived, delivering at least 4 million gallons since July 2 to the parched Mesa from Santa Maria, according to the Nipomo Community Services District.
The only catch is that residents will see an increase in their water bills, of course.
But that should only be a minor caveat to residents on the Mesa, whose ever-increasing population relied solely on an ever-decreasing supply of groundwater over the last few decades.
Fears were growing in Nipomo that the groundwater basin was being depleted to the point of no return. Since record keeping began in 1975, the basin is at its lowest level, according to Michael LeBrun, general manager for the Nipomo Community Services District.
“It’s been threatened and over-pumped for a number of decades now,” LeBrun told the Sun.
On May 21, the district’s board of directors declared Stage III drought conditions, which is the second highest level of drought response in California.
Luckily for everyone, a $17-million public works project to pump water from Santa Maria to Nipomo was already underway. Planning for the project began in the early 1990s and construction started in July 2013.
To match the water coming from Santa Maria, the district has to switch the type of disinfectant for the water from chlorine to chloramine, which will happen later this month.
Officials in Nipomo are calling it the “most important” project in the District’s 50-year history.
The first stage of the project will bring 650 acre-feet per year (almost 212 million gallons) to the Mesa.
When the project is finally complete, it will deliver a full capacity of 3,000 acre-feet of water per year to Nipomo.
LeBrun called the occasion a “monumental accomplishment” for the district and said the project should provide water to the Mesa for future generations. The rate increases for customers should happen around September or October, LeBrun said.
A public ribbon cutting ceremony is being planned for early September.
This article appears in Jul 16-23, 2015.