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Grover Beach mandates 10% reduction in water usage

May 11, 2022

By KAREN VELIE

The Grover Beach City Council voted on May 8 to immediately require residents to reduce their water usage by 10%.

Customers who fail to comply with reduction targets may be subject to penalties. However, the City Council decided to postpone the imposition of fines.

“We understand that this is going to be difficult for Grover Beach residents, but ensuring we have a short-term and long-term water supply is a top priority for the council and the city,” said Grover Beach Mayor Jeff Lee. “We have seen our residents make the necessary reductions in the past and know each of us can do it again without the need to impose penalties.”

Last May, the city assigned customers a monthly baseline of water consumption based on the amount of water used in 2020.

Over the past three years, Lopez Lake and the Santa Maria Groundwater Basin, the city’s primary water sources, have dropped to alarmingly low levels. Lopez Lake’s storage level is currently below 15,000 acre-feet, which is 29% of the total reservoir capacity. The city’s groundwater supply is expected to decrease 7 1/2 feet by June 2022.

In an attempt to provide a supplemental water supply, Grover Beach has partnered with Pismo Beach and Arroyo Grande to develop Central Coast Blue, a water treatment facility that will be located in Grover Beach. The project will bring a sufficient supply of recycled water to the region, provide reliability during times of severe drought and minimize the risk of seawater intrusion into the groundwater supply. Central Coast Blue is expected to come online in 2025.

“Drought conditions continue to persist as we plan for future water needs,” said Matthew Bronson, Grover Beach city manager. “Beyond the current mandatory reduction of water, the Central Coast Blue project will provide our community with additional sustainable water supply, and we look forward to working with partner agencies to advance this critical project.”


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So when do we think it would be a good time for those impacted cities to commence exploring desalination plants like Santa Barbara already has supplying 30% of their drinking water?


Here’s a link to City of Santa Barbara’s desalination plant: https://cutt.ly/hHjkmLp


0

Dont worry a few more pot stores and everything will be better.


5

It is currently illegal to move a BEAVER from one location to another in the state of California, due to the fact that they qualify as “rodents”. However, other states have very significantly improved their watersheds by reinstating these keystone species into their former native environments, which include our county creeks. They slow and spread water, creating a place for welcomed restoration of biodiversity, whilst also allowing water to sink into the water table, instead of quickly draining out to the ocean, carrying our precious topsoil and nutrients with it.


Beavers once thrived here (there was an estimated beaver population of over 600 million animals in the US), along with a much better water supply, due in large part to their efforts. The water they conserve also reduces fire hazard by creating higher humidity. Wouldn’t that be nice? Not to mention the excellent natural firebreaks and effective shelter for wildlife they maintain when fires do occur.


Finally, since many states have beat us to this ecologically and economically friendly solution, many new techniques have been developed to mitigate any “nuisance” effects their dams might have on the plans of property owners. For more information on this and the many benefits of these excellent natural engineers, contact the SLO BEAVER BRIGADE and bring the solution home.


My slogan is BEAVERS DO IT FOR FREE. They certainly are more economical to supervise than any other of the proposed fixes for the problems humans created by removing them.


11

Has desal ever been reviewed as a water source for South County?


6

Without PG&E power to run a desal plant it’s not going to happen.

Our PG&E neighbor says once the plant is shut down, California will be buying power from out of state. $ound$ expen$ive.


7

Gee, what a “convenient” time to tout the merits of your new water recycling project….


9

1. What new sources of water have been brought online since the last time they implemented water restrictions??


2. How much new ‘load’ has been added to the system since they last implemented water restrictions??


The powers that be in SLO county seem to have no problem restricting (and even penalizing) current users…..at the same time they continue issuing new building permits! We know there is not enough of the resource to support the current population, yet they keep on with new construction and adding to the population.


Ridiculous!


There needs to be an immediate county wide building moratorium until new water sources are brought online and a RESERVE is built up.


Water rates should have a tiered pricing system that reflects when the structure was built. The cost for building out new water resources should be bore by those who the resources were built for…..the newly constructed.


It’s an insult to tell me I must reduce my water usage at the same time city hall is still issuing new building permits. Get your own house in order before dictating how I run mine.


27

I feel the homeowners are taking the blunt of the pain of the drought. I was reading that a single almond takes 1.1 gallons of water to produce and a gallon of almond milk takes 920 gallons to produce. We rally need to find new crops to grow that take less water. Just a thought. I’m sure it is easier said then done.


15

A 10% cut in the sales of water will become a serious increase in water rates. Remember no disaster goes unfunded. The reason this circle of finance continues is that most of us who could have seen this over and over again are dead while the decision makers have retired early and likely moved elsewhere.


29

What we need to do is sub divide neighborhood lots to build high density housing!


-10

Cities are being required by Newsom to add more “affordable” housing.

Stack and packs are the only way development makes sense with the cost of property and now inflation driven prices for materials.

https://www.gov.ca.gov/2021/09/28/governor-newsom-signs-legislation-to-increase-affordable-housing-supply-and-strengthen-accountability-highlights-comprehensive-strategy-to-tackle-housing-crisis/

Apparently it doesn’t matter whether or not infrastructure is in place to deal with it all, let’s worry about the cart first, the horse can just deal with it.


13