SqCWD Considers Groundwater Emergency Declaration

Delays Declaring Moratorium on New Service

By Noel Smith

With well over 200 attending the June 3 board of Directors meeting, the Board took two actions which have set a course for the District in addressing the drought and the continuing overdraft of the aquifers that supplies water for the District. They Voted 3-2 (Bruce Daniels, Bruce Jaffe, Rick Meyers Yes – Tom LaHue, Don Hoernschemeyer No) the staff to prepare a Declaration of Groundwater Emergency for a future meeting. If passed, this formal Declaration will enable the SqCWD to:

• Request the County to place a moratorium on new wells within the overdrafted aquifers
• Request other water purveyors pumping from the aquifers to place a moratorium on service commitments and connections similar to any imposed by the District
• Request all other water purveyors utilizing the affected aquifer for water supply to implement water conservation measures and use restrictions, consistent with those actions taken by the District to the extent feasible
• Request the County to require meters and monitoring of all wells within the impacted area
• Require water conservation measures and use restrictions by private well owners consistent with those actions taken by the District to the extent legally feasible
• Request the County to enact additional restrictions on agricultural water use within the affected area within its Groundwater Emergency policy

These are requests only, which the county can choose to not act upon.

The other action was to NOT declare a moratorium at this time, which would have stopped any new water service. A moratorium would also have denied issuing conditional will serve letters for several projects including the Twin Lakes Church campus upgrade. These plans have been on hold since April 1 due to the board’s decision to not issue any letters pending the outcome of the June 3 meeting.

The great majority of those attending the meeting and of the 35-40 who spoke to the board during the public comment portions of the meeting were there in support of the Twin Lakes project.

Studies conducted by the SqCWD staff showed that declaring a building moratorium would not save as much water as the continuation and tightening of the current Water Demand Offset (WDO) program which the district has in place. The WDO program requires any new or renovation building project to show savings of at least 200 percent of the current or planned water usage of the completed project.

Directors Daniels, Meyers and Jaffe kept referring to the “Low Hanging Fruit” of the WDO program and seem unconvinced that it could continue to save enough water to justify authorizing future building projects in the District.

For now it seems that current building projects in the district will continue to receive Conditional Will Serve letters if they meet the to-be-revised WDO program. However, the threat of a future building moratorium by the board continues.

Board Vice President Daniels was adamant about the enacting the emergency declaration and moratorium, saying the district must take these big steps to educate its citizens. He also said he doesn’t believe WDOs will save enough water.

Board members Jaffe and Meyer voted with Daniels on the emergency declaration, but Daniels was alone on his call for a moratorium. “The stakes are so high I want to err on the side of caution with seawater coming into the aquifer and polluting it with salt,” said Jaffe. Board President Thomas LaHue, and Don Hoernschemeyer disagreed with declaring an emergency “just to get people’s attention.”

During the Board’s discussion concerning a moratorium the audience openly and vigorously opposed the idea. Several speakers warned of the economic consequences especially when district staff studies showed that a building moratorium during the next 20 years would reduce demand on the aquifer by only 2 percent.

Mark Spurlock, executive pastor at Twin Lakes Church in Aptos said, “Why add real pain when there is no real gain?”