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Mecham says Paso Robles water district dead

March 6, 2014
Frank Mecham

Frank Mecham

By DANIEL BLACKBURN

A controversial water district proposal sponsored by a group of vintners and ranchers and intended to manage the Paso Robles aquifer probably will not pass constitutional muster,  and its primary backer said he is “disheartened.”

“It looks like it’s dead,” said First District Supervisor Frank Mecham about the district plan upon his return from Sacramento, where he discussed the proposed district with Sen. Bill Monning, (D-Carmel),  Assemblyman Katcho Achadjian (R-San Luis Obispo) and staff members.

“I wish we’d heard about this problem earlier,” he added.

Mecham said the county contingent was told that legislation introduced recently by Achadjian appears to be in conflict with the state constitution. The most apparent issue, said the lawmakers, was the makeup of the governing board. The supervisor was accompanied by San Luis Obispo County Administrator Dan Buckshi and Public Works Director Paavo Ogren.

“We wanted to find out if this thing (the formation plan) was going anywhere,” said Mecham, “and what we heard was that ‘there might be some issues here.’”

Monning told the county group that they “may have hit a brick wall here,” Mecham said.

The proposed bill will be examined by the Office of Legislative Counsel, which Mecham said will then “offer an opinion.” That might take several months, he added.

Monning told the group that as the plan was examined in Sacramento, the concept for formation of the district’s governing body raised “red flags.”

Meacham suggested the county group was “blindsided” by the news.

“I’m not very optimistic that this is going to move,” said Mecham, who first expressed his concerns on KPRL Radio Thursday afternoon. He said he was taken off guard by the lawmakers’ assertions.

“This wasn’t my deal, I just tried to bring folks together on this,” Mecham said. He told members of two local groups who had been supporting the district formation plan about the potential problems Thursday morning.

Jerry Reaugh, chairman of the Paso Robles Agricultural Alliance for Groundwater Solutions (PRAAGS), did not return a phone call from CalCoastNews. His group has been planning the district since last summer.

The second advocacy group, PRO Water Equity (PWE), issued a statement late Thursday: “Initial feedback from our legislators makes it evident that special legislation to create a hybrid board of directors faces significant scrutiny in Sacramento. The new petition for a water district will not be filed with LAFCO until the bill has been fully vetted by Legislative Counsel and we have greater clarity on how best to move forward.”

Updated Friday at 8:40 a.m. to incorporate comments by PRO Water Equity.

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Surprise, surprise!

Frank, Bruce and Adam attempted to kick this can and it ricocheted and hit them upside their collective heads..

Back to square one!

The county needs to show leadership in this matter. Begin by implementing a building moratorium. Next put a moratorium on new vineyards. Make it a 24 month moratorium and use the time to revise your building codes. Water conservation should be paramount. Rain gutters and gray water should be directed to irrigation tanks for the home. Landscaping should be graded to create collection points for run off to percolate into the ground instead of being directed to streets and gutters. Next begin installation of inflatible dams for the Salinas River so that its flow can be slowed to allow more water to petcolet into the basin.

Finally, encourage landowners to build collection basin in every draw and gully through which seasonal rains flow to aid in water retention. If the three of them, who represent diverse political points of view join together to do these things they will look like leaders instead of politicians.


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So we implement conservation and restrictions on quality of life to enable development and unending population growth, be it subdivisions or Agenda 21 stack-and-pack? For how long? Long enough for developer gospel-prosperity right up until the rapture?


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The county is mandated to accomplish a certain amount of low-income, high-density housing.


The only two areas of the county which are even possible for this to occur are North County and South County.


Declaring a water emergency will stave off the development of North and South County, but as long as we have the current board of supervisors and county management in place, this development WILL occur.


Of course, the requirement for low-income, high-density housing has nothing to do with North County’s booming development of hotels and resorts.


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The problem with the BOS implementing a moratorium for new vineyards is that it doesn’t address the issue of the existing vineyards’ expansions, even after the BOS put a temporary moratorium on planting new grapevines. Some of the vineyards simply continued to expand their vineyards with new plantings. Even though evidence was presented to the BOS, they did zip to address it.


So the BOS’s moratoriums, at least when it comes to rich vineyard owners, are really toothless because the BOS does nothing to enforce the moratoriums.


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Newsflash! Bruce Gibson is the one who created the Paso hysteria. He’s the one who has everyone running around pulling their hair out.


Is there a drought in Paso? Yes. Just like everywhere else in the west–including Bruce’s district. Hell, especially Bruce’s district. Just look at the hoopla created when Lady Gaga filled up the Hearst pool in his district.


But it was Bruce who started fanning the Paso flames about five months ago, causing discord and needless frustration, not to mention a huge waste of time. His mission? Trying to make the more conservative supervisors Mecham and Arnold look bad.


Bruce may think he is succeeding on that score, but that is only in his coldly calculating mind. In reality, he tears at the wonderful fabric of SLO County. His condescension of those who disagree with his controlling ways is a shame our county bears. I am weary of it.


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The Paso Groundwater Basin is at risk due to unsustainable water looting by big-bucks vineyard owners.


Their use of water is totally unsustainable. They don’t even attempt to take minimal steps to conserve water. Their open ponds are a testimony to that.


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Now the litigants take center stage. We can all watch for years as the water rights folks battle in court over a right they already have against the cities who will spend millions of our tax dollars fighting for their right to supply water for their citizens. In the mean time, we all can keep pumping, wells will continue to go dry and no water supplemental water projects will be started. Now all our water rights are being placed at risk. If the cities can prove they were pumping while the basin was in overdraft before the quiet title action was filed, the Steinbeck group loses and the Cities will have their prescriptive rights. You say at least this will not effect me? Not true. At some point, the courts will require the plaintiffs to bring all overlyers into the lawsuit. They will spend a million or more just serving each and every property owner in the basin. So be prepared to get out your checkbook everyone as you will have no choice but to defend yourself.


If the Santa Maria lawsuits are an indicator of what will happen here, sixteen years and legal costs estimated to be north of $15,000,000 left everyone in about the same place from where they started. The plaintiffs got their quiet title and the cities go their prescriptive rights to keep pumping to supply water to their citizens.Years from now a judge will decide how much we all get to pump and water meters will be mandated. Forget that the judge who ruled in Santa Maria said that the courts act as a blunt instrument and are not suited to handle such matters. And by the way, you will have no vote in any of this.


In the meantime, let’s all help Mr. Del Campo by looking under our beds for the Resnicks.


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You won’t find them by looking under your bed, but under your land. As Pelican points out, the Resnicks are the Enron of water.


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YOWZER. One of the reasons the Rezniks support the water banking is that it enables transfers.


The Rezniks own Paramount almond-growing operation, which ships 80% of overseas transfers of almonds to other countries.


Almond growing uses less water than vineyards, but it is still a high-water-requirement crop.


If the Rezniks control the Paso water district, they control the use of the water in that district. This includes water transfers and water banking.


Even if water transfers and water banking was banned by the water district plan, that doesn’t mean the water district wouldn’t do it. These water-robber barons often just do what they want and figure the litigation costs as part of the costs of business.


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In my opinion, court adjudication is the only way to ensure that ALL of the users of the Paso GW Basin–and not just the powerful new vineyards which are driving the depletion of the GW Basin– retain their water rights and access to water.


It worked well for the Nipomo Mesa. Yes, as in any huge court situation with multiple participants, it was messy and took a few years for it to occur.


However, had it not occurred, the Nipomo Mesa would be in a far worse condition than it is now because the water sellers were simply issuing intent-to-serve water permits as fast as they could, despite the evidence that the aquifer was reaching overdraft.


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The chaos continues


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This is sad. The proponents raised many important issues – and suggested a solution. We may disagree with the details – but something needs to be done in at least portions of the basin. For now chaos continues


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Democracy 1

Plutocracy 1


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Once folks started to find out just what was behind this crony political move, the politician will now bail. He’s washing his hands of it, but I don’t trust Mecham after the way he handle this early on.


The people won this round, but don’t expect the power brokers both outside of the county and those in San Luis Obispo to give up going after North County’s water.


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Congratulations then. You won. What again is your prize? Crony this and that. No proof, but throw it out there anyway. You blame the County politicians for saying that the North County should have its own water district. Most of them tried to assist two private groups to form a district. That’s it. A few farmers, ranchers, vineyard owners and rural residents got together in the spirit of doing something for all of us and out came the bomb throwers and conspiracy theorists. It must be fun to be you.


It is so easy in this world today to be against something. And you all succeeded. Again, what are you for? Now you will have a single person, one judge somewhere in the state, decide for us. All this will be done in court and judges chambers out of sight from the public. While all of this is going on, try and sell your land. Who would want to buy property in the basin and know that they have to sign on for a lawsuit and unknown lawyer fees for the next decade? I forgot, we don’t have a water problem; it just drought related. Don’t worry we all will be fine. And out of all of this eventually we will get a mandated water district, just not one that any of us had anything to do with. Ironic don’t you think?


I can’t wait to see what you all will be posting when the judge is named that will hear the case. My money is on those that will immediately go to the “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” theory (as you have done so frequently in the past) and will find that the judge is Resnick’s second cousin twice removed or something.


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The Resnicks have been at the head of the “I-got-mine-who-cares-about-you” water-looting vineyard problem. They also are the owners of the world’s largest almond-exportation business.


The only answer to the Paso GW’s problem is sustainable water use. This is something the Resnicks and their ilk simply will not do.


Therefore, any solution that involves giving more power over the Paso GW Basin to the Resnicks is going to be a solution that is bad for all but the richest Ag interests.


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Now the problems are coming out!

I would think that Frank Mecham,Adam Hill,Bruce Gibson and Katcho would have

researched this more than they did before rushing in!

The big money are still in courts for water banking and exporting water.

I wonder what was in it for all involved!


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Election money and promised support for agendas. It is all about money and power. Period!


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California’s history as shown us that it is very difficult for politicians–who are in the business of seeking power–to resist the temptation of the kind of power being involved in a water district can bring them…even if the involvement is “just” ignoring the dangers to the district’s water supply and bending over for those who will profit the most.


These kind of political favors to the elites bring many benefits to politicians. By increasing the water barons’ power, the politicians own power is increased because they helped enable the water takeover.


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It is my sense that this action is going to raise some serious questions about who knew what when and why?


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Questions are good, but the answers will be better. Someone is in somebody’s pocket.


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Maybe nobody knew anything and they still don’t know why. Thanks for your show. I don’t always agree with you but I know you will not be silenced by a governmental agency, much less by the quasi-governmental agency that shut down KVEC.


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Not necessarily. Folks like the Rezniks have done lots of favors for politicians over the years. They have a lot of favors to call in, which is good for situations like this.


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