This will probably be “water week” on the Land Use Report. There is a lot to say about the world of water in the Monterey Bay Region. In Santa Cruz County, the Board of Supervisors receives an annual status report on water resources, and it’s worth a look. I have put a link to the last report in today’s transcript. You can track that link down by clicking on the “Archives/Podcasts” icon at the top of the main page on the KUSP website.

Here is a brief summary, by way of a direct quote from the report presented to the Board:

Santa Cruz County continues to address major water resource challenges. Most of the groundwater basins are being pumped in excess of sustainable yield and the major water supply agencies do not have sufficient sustainable supplies to meet current and future demand. Historic salmon and steelhead populations have been greatly diminished by reductions in streamflow, increased erosion and sedimentation, barriers to migration, and removal of large woody material from streams. Coastal water quality has been degraded by urban runoff and leaky sewer systems…

Where’s the good news, you might ask? Well, I’m not sure that there is much good news out there, except for the fact that this community is at least not oblivious to the problems. Knowing you have a problem is a good first step!

More Information:

• Gary Patton’s Blog: Two Worlds
• County Water Resources Program Status Report

I am “Of Counsel” to the Wittwer & Parkin law firm, which represents the Community Water Coalition. The Coalition has been working hard to try to prevent the City of Santa Cruz from extending its water service to the UCSC “North Campus,” at least until the City has a truly adequate, reliable, and sustainable water supply.

Tomorrow, at 9:30 in the morning, the Santa Cruz County Local Agency Formation Commission is going to consider this very question. LAFCO meets on the Fifth Floor of the County Governmental Center, and you are invited to attend and participate. Here’s what’s at stake:

1. On the UCSC campus, the University is proposing to pave over more than 300 acres of what used to be a “natural reserve,” and to build over 3,000,000 square feet of academic and residential facilities.
   
   
2. For all those served by the City’s water system, which includes residents and businesses in Live Oak, Pasatiempo, and parts of the City of Capitola, extending City water service to the currently unserved “North Campus” will put additional strains on the City’s already overstretched water supply.
   
   
3. For endangered fish species in the San Lorenzo River, more potential diversions from the River means a greater likelihood of extinction.

There is more information in today’s transcript.

More Information:

• Gary Patton’s Blog: Two Worlds
• LAFCO Website
• LAFCO Agendas

I am an environmental attorney and represent the Community Water Coalition, or CWC, which is appearing this morning at the LAFCO meeting I mentioned yesterday. At issue is a proposal that would allow the City of Santa Cruz to extend water service to unserved portions of the UCSC campus. The University has asked for 152 million gallons of City-supplied water, each year, to allow the construction of over 3,000,000 square feet of new buildings.

State law does not allow a water service agency to provide water outside its defined service area unless LAFCO gives explicit approval. This law is designed to prevent service extensions that would overtax scarce water resources. The CWC, of course, thinks that this is exactly what is being proposed in this case, but so far, LAFCO has not agreed.

LAFCO does have a policy that says that no extension of water service should be allowed unless the water agency has an “adequate, reliable, and sustainable” water supply. Since the City is trying to build a $100-million dollar plus desalination plant, to provide adequate water for its system, it’s pretty hard to see how the City’s system meets those tests. Most of the discussion this morning will likely focus on whether there is any “condition” that LAFCO can impose that can adequately address this inconsistency between reality and the LAFCO policy.

More Information:

• Gary Patton’s Blog: Two Worlds
• LAFCO Website
• LAFCO Agendas

I tend to approach issues from a “philosophical” perspective. We live, most immediately, in a world that we construct ourselves, and our public policy, or “political,” decisions play a major role in determining what our world looks like. “Planning,” from this philosophical perspective, is our community effort to define what it is we would like to achieve. If we have good plans, and then follow them, we should come pretty close to creating the kind of world we’d like to live in. Of course, theory and practice often diverge, and it’s easier to talk about “utopia” than to achieve it.

Thinking about water from my “philosophical” perspective, there really isn’t any problem until we run into scarcity. Once there isn’t enough water to do everything we’d like to do, we have to begin doing some planning in earnest. We are definitely there! One approach I call “manufacturing water.” The desalination process is exactly that, and manufacturing our way out of scarcity has a long history of success. There is, however, a different approach, which is to “live within the limits” of our natural systems. This could be called an “ecological” or “environmental” approach, and has also worked well for human societies in the past.

To my mind, we’re facing some big decisions here in the Monterey Bay Region where water is concerned. These are “political” decisions, and these philosophical choices are really at the root of the matter.

More Information:

• Gary Patton’s Blog: Two Worlds
• Desalination.com Website
• SCWD2 Desalination Program Website
• Desal Alternatives Website
• Vote On Desal Initiative Website
• Vote On Desal Initiative Measure
• Land Use Blog – Desalination And Growth

Here are the big three water problems in Monterey County, as I see them:

1. There is significant groundwater overdraft in North County and in the Salinas Valley aquifer, and this is causing seawater intrusion, which then contaminates the groundwater remaining in the aquifers.
   
   
2. The surface water sources used on the Monterey Peninsula are inadequate, because the water provider is taking more water from the Carmel River than is legally allowed. This illegal diversion has been known about for a long time; still, there is no agreed upon plan to solve the problem. There does seem to be agreement that it’s virtually impossible to cut back existing water use enough to eliminate the illegal diversion, so a “new” water source is required. Getting such a “new” source online has proven difficult (to understate the case).
   
   
3. Agricultural and urban runoff is polluting both surface streams and (ultimately) the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.

Efforts that have been made to solve the first two problems have been characterized by a search for the “big solution.” The massive “Regional Water Project” is of this variety. Lately, a more “small is beautiful” and “incremental” approach has been suggested, by way of the recently announced groundwater replenishment project. Such an “incremental,” as opposed to a “big solution” approach, just might be fruitful!

More Information:

• Gary Patton’s Blog: Two Worlds