HomeMy WebLinkAbout10-06-2015 CLR - Ashbaugh (2)SITR LUIS CITYOF
OBISPO
OCT 0 2 2015
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COUNCIL MEETING: I b AP - I S
ITEM NO.:�
Council Liaison Report
City of San Luis Obispo, Office of the City Council
DATE: October 6, 2015
FROM: John B. Ashbaugh
RE: Water Resources Advisory Committee — September 2
The County Water Resources Advisory Committee meeting last month generated a small
controversy when the full Committee voted down, after considerable discussion, a proposal by
rural representatives to give them more opportunity to obtain funding from the State Department of
Water Resources and the County's Integrated Regional Water Management Plan (IRWM).
The original proposal, had it passed, would have requested the Board of Supervisors to ask the
State to make it more difficult for disadvantaged communities and municipalities (including SLO)
to obtain grant funding from DWR. There's considerable money at stake here, with about $65
million to be awarded to the Central Coast region from Proposition 1. Specifically, the proposal
would have asked that DWR give greater priority to watershed and stream restoration projects that
do not fall within municipalities and/or disadvantaged communities, including those that are would
not normally "ready to proceed." On a vote of 7 -11 -4, the WRAC voted this proposal down; I
voted with the majority.
The WRAC also received updates on the effort to form a Paso Robles Basin Groundwater
Management District in response to the dramatic decline in well levels in areas overlying this
basin. Last month, the County Local Agency Formation Commission approved a set of measures
that will be placed before the voters and property owners overlying that basin. If all these measures
are approved as presented, a new groundwater management district will be formed, with funding to
be obtained by a parcel tax affecting all properties that overlie the groundwater basin. The
elections will take place in March, 2016.
In the meantime, the County's Urgency Ordinance that had been passed in August, 2013 to
establish a moratorium on new wells within the basin has expired. Efforts to enact a new
Countywide Water Conservation Program ( CWWCP) continue, however, in order to seek ways to
reduce water demand in the light of the continuing severe ( "exceptional ") statewide drought.
Finally, the WRAC received a report that the Board of Supervisors has received a "high -level
report" on desalination opportunities, focused primarily (but not exclusively) on the Diablo
Canyon Nuclear Power Plant. Upon my inquiry, County staff indicated that this report may - include
opportunities for renewed desalination of seawater at the Morro Bay Power Plant; this opportunity
is to be discussed further among unspecified "potential partners for a regional project."
On a final note, it is worthwhile to note that the City has been successful in recruiting the County's
top water conservation planner, Xzandrea Fowler, from the County Planning Department to fill the
role just vacated by Ms. Kim Murry as head of the City's Long -Range Planning Division. Ms.
Fowler has presented as lead staff before the WRAC on occasion with respect to the CWWCP and
its associated Environmental Impact Report. The County's loss = the City's gain...
Council Liaison Report on wider resources 10 -6 -15