HomeMy WebLinkAbout10/15/2002, LIAISON - NORTH COUNTY WATER PURVEYORS GROUP LIAISON REPORT October 15, 2002 Page 1 of 2
October 15,2002 MEETING AGENDA
DATE ITEM 4 b
To: Council Colleagues
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From: John Ewan,Councilman w
Subjebt:North County Water Purveyors Group Liaison Report
The North County Water Purveyors Group met on Friday October 11th in Templeton. The agenda for
the meeting included update reports on the Nacimiento Pipeline project and the Paso Robles
Groundwater Basin Study.
The Nacimiento project continues in its development and definition. The final project definition is
about 95%complete and the EIR is moving toward completion of the Draft for late fall/early winter.
The County has been largely engaged in negotiations with affected property owners regarding pipeline
alignment. Additional work to be completed includes the financial impact analysis(how the project will
affect the county property values and other financial impacts both positive and negative on the county),
and a cost analysis that will identify for the participants what their costs to participate in the project will
be. Due to other priorities,little progress has been made on the draft participation agreements over the
past several months.
The County has approved the second phase of work for the Paso Robles Groundwater Basin Study. This
phase will focus in developing a model of the basin to be used in predictive analysis and fiuther study of
water quality issues facing the basin.
A new item of discussion at the meeting was the formation of a new group of North County landowners
called PRIOR. This group is attempting to organize North County agricultural interests and gather
funding to file a preemptive decision paper with the Courts affirming their prior rights to the Paso
Robles Groundwater Basin and precluding any opportunity for prescriptive rights acquisition by Paso
Robles. This action may be seen as somewhat aggressive and will likely elicit a response from the
agencies. This has the potential to lead to a full on water rights suit similar to what has been going on in
the Santa Maria Valley over the past several years(number involved in the lawsuit now into the
thousands!). Several North County representatives plan to meet with the proponents of PRIOR to see if
they can head this off. Our staff will be analyzing the potential impacts of this action on the City of San
Luis Obispo and will seek direction from Council if/as appropriate.
Finally,it now appears that the City of Paso Robles is growing more and more concerned with the long-
term adequacy/reliability of their supplies and thus more and more supportive of the Nacimiento
Pipeline project. Issues facing Paso include water quality impacts of their high salinity wastewater
discharge(which would be lessened if they were to begin using a lower salinity surface supply such as
Nacimiento)and the threat of tightening water rights from others like PRIOR discussed above.
Currently we show our own water supply picture as likely attainable with our more localized resources,
but with the significant issue of housing and HCD's requirements and a lack of certainty with
groundwater we should not be too vocal or quick to abandon the Nadmiento project. Our current
strategy continues our participation in the Nacimiento project as we gather more information on the
yield and viability of all of our water supply options.
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October 15, 2002 Page 2 of 2
If you have any questions regarding this liaison report or the North County Water Purveyors Group,
please contact me or John Moss(x205).
RECEIVED
OCT 15 2002
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