Frequently Asked Questions

By Rick Meyer

A: Bruce and Rick's stand is clear: It is the responsibility of the Board of a public agency to encourage public participation and represent customers' wishes. We commit to explore all kinds of solutions to drought and our serious groundwater overdraft problem. We do not make up our minds until we have heard from our District staff and from the public. Since we do not have some of this input until Board meetings, we commit to keep open minds until then. Special interest groups get quoted a lot in newspapers because they create controversy, like specific project proponents who are angry because the Water Board even discussed limiting new hookups, even if those development projects were ultimately approved.

Q: Are you in favor of desalination?

A: Bruce and Rick are both strong advocates for putting viable water supply options to a vote. We pursued a regional desalination plant until the City of Santa Cruz backed out of the Memorandum of Understanding between our two districts less than a year ago. After extensive analysis, the Board choose to recharge the aquifers, eliminating the deficit, using recycled water, as a preferred project for further study. We are in favor of the most cost-effective supplemental water supply that has the least environmental impact. California law requires us to prefer the most environmentally friendly new water source, and that we mitigate projected impacts. However, we won't know what the impacts are for sure until an environmental impact report is prepared. We have the background and expertise to make sure the analysis is impartial and scientifically accurate.

Q: Why have previous Boards allowed the water overdraft to continue for decades?

A: It's a fact that the current Soquel Water Board inherited serious water problems from previous boards, but getting a Board majority of scientists a few years ago has spurred deep understanding of the condition of our aquifers and quick action to correct long-standing imbalance between the water we pump from the ground and what is replenished by nature each year. It is easy with 20/20 hindsight to say something should have been done 30 years ago and condemn past Boards that we did not serve on, but they did not know then what we know now. The overdraft is hidden deep underground and cannot be directly observed. For a long time, water scientists (hydrologists) told the board that there was no overdraft. When overdraft and seawater intrusion were eventually suspected, the Board had a series of monitoring wells drilled near the coast to watch for seawater coming inland. It was only a few years ago that some of these wells started to show increasing salt. Soon after, the Board entered a partnership with the City of Santa Cruz to build a supplementary supply, and the project continued for several years until the City withdrew. As soon as the City withdrew, the Board started the planning for a different supply and now a new recycled water supply is being designed. Major infrastructure projects can take 10 or more years. Yes, that is a very long time compared with developing an iPhone app, but there is no way around it. In the last 10 years, great progress has been made: demand has been reduced to match projected supply, by our customers with our help. Now the deficit in the aquifer is no longer growing, but it still must be refilled.

Q: Why are private pumpers allowed to pump all the water they want, while District customers must conserve?

A: The District has no control over owners of private wells like Cabrillo College and the golf course because their access to the groundwater under their property has been guaranteed by California law. Meyer and Jaffe supported formation of a basin-wide private pumper's stakeholders' group that is looking at ways all basin users can contribute to a regional solution.

There are several types of private pumpers: residential, agricultural, and commercial/institutional all with different needs. The cost of drilling and maintaining wells, tanks and distribution is not free, so their well water cannot be thought of as free. The more important question than how much they pump, is how much do they affect the shared layers of the aquifers? Meyer and Jaffe will see that we find out.

California's new groundwater law requires depleted aquifers like our be brought to sustainability. Bruce and Rick are working to build a regional agency that will undertake this work: the Basin Implementation Group, of which Bruce is Chair.

Q: Will the Board enact a moratorium on new development

A: No. Responding to a petition by members of the public, one Director advocated to put an open public discussion about ways to limit new hookups onto a Board agenda, which happened at the June 3, 2014, public hearing. The Board communicated with many members of the public with a wide variety of opinions on this subject, and they supplied whatever information was asked of them. After listening and responding to many members of the public, the Board decided to take a very different course than a building moratorium, either complete or "tiered" (preventing new hookups of only very large projects, for example). The Board restructured a program in which applicants for new water service to pay to reduce water use somewhere in the District, to offset their new water demands. The Board made sure that such "water demand offset" projects will offer very long term savings that are even more than the new demand. This program is already up and running, making a moratorium unnecessary. It assures that water for new development does not restrict water for current customers.