College Lake Water Diversion Granted

COMMUNITY NEWS College Lake Water Diversion Granted

In December, the state granted the Pajaro Valley Water Agency the right to divert up to 3,000 acre-feet of water per year from Salsipuedes Creek and College Lake for growers as irrigation, part of a long-developed plan to reduce seawater intrusion.

An acre-foot is equal to 325,850 gallons.

The Pajaro Valley Water Agency applied for the water right in 2017.

The diversion, designed to reduce groundwater pumping, is part of the College Lake Integrated Resources Management Project.

The unanimous approval by State Water Resources Control Board marks a major milestone in the College Lake project, which is a key part of the local plan to bring the Pajaro Valley into sustainable groundwater management by 2040.

Pajaro Valley Water plans to seek state approval to build a new treatment plant to filter and disinfect diverted water plus new pipelines to distribute the water.

Conditions include monitoring impacts to steelhead, toxic algal blooms and non-native species.

“This is a success story on all levels,” said Sean Maguire, state water board member.

Pajaro Valley Water Board Chair Amy Newell told the state board: “I can’t overstate how important this project is to our plan for achieving sustainability of our groundwater basin. The last 12 years of delivering blended recycled wastewater to growers on the coast for irrigation in lieu of groundwater pumping has already made a measurable improvement in slowing the rate of seawater intrusion and stabilizing groundwater levels.”

She said, “We are now at the point of not being able to meet the demand of growers for delivered water during the irrigation season. I can assure you that every acre-foot of water delivered from College Lake to our coastal distribution system will further reduce groundwater pumping by a comparable amount.”

Brian Lockwood, Pajaro Valley Water general manager, testified on the growers’ economic value, producing fruit, vegetable, flower, and other crops worth more than $1 billion a year on 28,500 irrigated acres.

The state Department of Fish and Wildlife, the National Marine Fisheries Service and Diffenbaugh Family Farms next to College Lake initially objected, then withdraw their protests after reaching agreements with Pajaro Valley Water.

Jerry Busch, co-founder of Watsonville Wetlands Watch, initially asked to speak on behalf of the public at a hearing, then reached an agreement with Pajaro Valley Water and withdrew his party status and his testimony.

The College Lake project is expected to provide an average of 1,800 to 2,300 acre-feet per year of surface water, offsetting that amount of groundwater pumping.

Groundwater accounts for more than 90% of water demand in the Pajaro Valley.

Overdraft in the basin has averaged 12,100 acre-feet over the past 30 years — representing over 20% of the region’s annual water use.

This long-term overdraft has led to seawater intrusion into the groundwater basin, degrading water quality via substantial increases in chloride concentration along the coast. n

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