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Mecham views water basin with new eyes

August 20, 2013

vineyardBy DANIEL BLACKBURN

A North County supervisor said a new county-produced map showing Paso Robles’ incredibly shrinking groundwater basin was a revelation to him and has impacted the way he looks at the issues.

“I didn’t expect to see what I was seeing,” First District Supervisor Frank Mecham told CalCoastNews. “It’s got my thinking going in a different direction, for the most part.”

County leaders have been examining a variety of options to address an accelerating draw-down of the water table, one of which is a controversial emergency ordinance to sharply stem use.

Supervisors will consider this option Aug. 27, when a proposal will be up for a vote. To pass, an emergency ordinance requires a four-fifths vote, meaning the current board — following the death of Fourth District Supervisor Paul Teixeira June 26 — will need to unanimously agree in order for the temporary measure to take effect.

It has been known for a decade that new development, primarily of vineyards and other agriculture, was taking a greater toll on the underground basin than ever before. Since 1997, according to county estimates, the basin’s level has fallen at least 70 feet, maybe as much as 100 feet in some areas.

But until the wells of some influential ranchers and residents in outlying areas began pumping sand in recent months, the potential problem was politically easy to ignore.

Now, neighbors, friends, large and small business entities are divided by the pending water crisis, and by proposed fixes.

Mecham has been publicly cautious about supporting an emergency ordinance, and recently asked county staff for more information.

“I asked to see a current map, because I wanted to see if there was ‘creep’ (declining levels in the basin) between 2009 and now,” he said. “That was much bigger and much broader than I thought it would be. I thought it would be bigger in terms of the ‘red zone’, but I didn’t expect to see what I was seeing.”

The ‘red zone’ is a deeper part of the basin underlying much of Paso Robles north to Bradley where most of the pumping activity over the past few years has been occurring.

Mecham said he thinks “all agree there is a problem. I knew there was a problem but I didn’t know the extent of the problem. Now there’s much more data, which will help to put (any decision) on a firm footing. I wouldn’t say I was surprised by (the basin overdraft’s) broad expansion, but I didn’t expect to see this. I thought there would be a little, but not near as much” as the new map shows.

As mayor of Paso Robles in 2005, Mecham signed an agreement with area ranchers regarding water supplies.

“I am concerned that it might affect that agreement if any emergency ordinance were to cover the  entire area” over the basin, he said.

Update, By request.

Resolution of the Board of Supervisors of the San Luis Obispo County. Groundwater basin agreement. by CalCoastNews


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When an American water source the life blood of American citizens is under threat and fear hangs over them you can only call it what it is. Domestic terrorism.


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I’m gonna take the time to use the water shortage to draw an analogy….just because I can. Let’s say the BIG oil companies, and Mega corporations are the ones siphoning the lifeblood, er, we’ll call it “water” out of the citizens by actually wasting millions of gallons of water a day. Their Tea Party candidate will stand up and patriotically declare war on all of those six years old out there with squirt guns, because that is clearly the problem, and we must all band together to stop them….the crowd cheers wildly. When I read the comments, the battle lines are clearly drawn. It’s pretty easy to tell who the conservatives are, and who the liberals are….conservatives defend the rights of the rich to take whatever they want, whenever they want, and the libs are looking down the road at what’s best for the most of the folks in SLO Co. Oh yeah, and they know the planet’s getting hotter, and that we need to start paying attention to climate change…


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Probably many grass roots Tea Party folks are beginning to feel a little used supporting anyone who will talk their talk. Now the Astroturf commenters who frequent sites like these… they might be using different handles soon.


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I’m certainly glad that Frank seeing the light with respect to the shrinking GW basin, but it further reinforces the notion that our Supervisor’s are indeed out of touch, and are NOT adequately addressing issues of importance within their districts in a timely manner.


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Tomorrow all eyes will be on this subject, see the August 27th Board of Supervisors Agenda and try to be there. Hear to the Greenies sing cum-by- ya and try to swallow property your rights. Their crafty speakers want you to fund personal negligence through a so called Emergency County Government Ordinance. It will be a winded discussion about your money with no promise to fix anything, only to end with a all or nothing vote.


Understand that North County water will still flow to SLO while those who are riparian (inherent water rights to the natural flow of water) will be threatened to fund developement elseswhere at the expense of their aggriculture zoned land.


To add insult to injury, if this ordinance passes, everyone will likely have to fund the County’s legal defense, a new layer of wasted revenue and a serious blow to personal responsibility.


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Re: the PRIOR agreement: so because something was agreed upon in 2005, we can’t ever do anything differently? And, the PRIOR agreement was not voted on, but agreed to by Big Grape, they think it protects them forever from doing anything?

Mr. Mecham, Sir, things change, the vineyards have proven that they will not change, unless forced to. The PRIOR agreement should be rendered moot and void, and let the conserving of water begin.


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no doubt the vineyard need to be metered. We need to know their usage at the very least to know for certain if they are a collective mass user of the public’s water. If the public has been mislead or lied to and they are proven to use a gross amount of water disproportionate to others, then some heads need to roll and compensation made to the citizens reliant on that water that is being pilfered from them, destroying surrounding properties.


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We know they’re using about 70% of the water, they don’t deny that. They just seem to think that we should accept that and be grateful that they’ve brought money into town, and let them carry on doing what they’re doing.

Although, some of them, like Gary Eberle blame it on the rural residents. He says we all have swimming pools, and it’s our fault.


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Why all the hoopla over property owner making use of the water under their ground while, at the same time, everyone ingors San Luis Obispo diverting 23,000 acre-feet today and 46,000 acre-feet tomorrow.


Well daaaauaa, it’s all about the control industry, let’s meter, let’s charge and everyone will hold hands and skip down the dusty road together again. Oh, your well is still dry?? We did something and now it’s your turn, hire a lawyer.


That was…….it felt good to just say how it is. Sometimes P.C. just gets boring and is a polite lie.


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I find it extremely unacceptable that Supervisor Mecham has refused to act on this issue, knowing what the longterm effects of this water shortage will bring to our county. It’s better to be safe, then sorry Mr. Mecham.


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He keeps talking like he’s been aware of this for a long time, and that’s why he got Naci water… and then what Mr. Mecham?


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Drink no wine before its time. Have we run out of time?


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I wish Supervisor Texiera was here to voice his opinion and to exercise his vote.


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Supervisor T. never understood the gravity of the water shortage in his own district. He never would support the pipeline which is now, thankfully, underway. Why you would want the opinion of basically a lay person who chose not to study or value the in-depth analysis available to him of his own districts’ water problem, is beyond me.


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The decision is easy. Err on the side of caution.


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