New agency will set water use fees in Paso Robles basin — but one community won’t be included
The San Miguel Community Services District declined to join a new agency that will charge fees for pumping groundwater from the Paso Robles Groundwater Basin.
The basin is managed by five Groundwater Sustainability Agencies, four of which voted to create a Joint Powers Authority that would have the power to levy fees.
On Thursday night, the San Miguel Community Services District Board of Directors voted 2-2 on a motion to join the Joint Powers Authority. Because the board was tied, the motion failed, and the agency missed the Friday deadline to join the Joint Powers Authority.
San Miguel will continue to operate independently as a groundwater sustainability agency, with the ability to set its own water use fees. This means the Joint Powers Authority cannot levy fees in San Miguel’s jurisdiction.
Right now, the basin is considered “critically overdrafted,” as users pump about 13,700 acre-feet of water more than is returned to the basin each year, according to county reports. To put that into context, an acre-foot is enough water to cover a football field in a foot of water.
The fees would fund programs designed to balance the basin along with administrative tasks like monitoring wells and writing annual reports.
Board members Ashley Sangster and Owen Davis voted against joining the agency, while Brendin Beatty and Rod Smiley voted for it. Board member John Green was absent from the meeting.
Smiley said he supported joining the new agency. He thought it would benefit San Miguel to have influence over forming the Joint Powers Authority, and if they didn’t like the rates or programs being considered, the CSD could have left, he said.
Sangster, however, couldn’t support the Joint Powers Authority without knowing what rates it would set or what programs it would create.
“I shudder to think of giving this newly-formed bureaucratic entity a blank check,” Sangster said. “To me this is a lot of unknowns, and I’m really fearful for what it would mean for our ratepayers.”
He would reconsider joining the Joint Powers Authority after it sets the groundwater extraction fees so he has enough information to decide if the program would benefit San Miguel, he added.
If San Miguel had joined the new agency, it could have left at any point after giving a 90-day notice, according to San Miguel CSD general manager Kelly Dodds.
Now, if the CSD changes its mind, it could still petition to join the Joint Powers Authority — potentially with a buy-in fee, Dodds said.
New agency could charge fees for groundwater use
Right now, the Paso basin is governed by five Groundwater Sustainability Agencies: San Luis Obispo County, the city of Paso Robles, the San Miguel Community Services District, the Shandon-San Juan Water District and the Estrella-El Pomar-Creston Water District.
Each Groundwater Sustainability Agency can vote to set water-use fees for its own region, but there is no way for the agencies to set a fee that would apply to the entire basin.
By Thursday, all four groundwater sustainability agencies but the San Miguel CSD had voted to create and join the Joint Powers Authority.
The four-member Joint Powers Authority will be able to vote to set fees for property owners pumping water across the basin in all areas but San Miguel.
Water users include farmers, domestic well users and municipal water systems. The organization would include a seat for each of the sustainability agencies that wish to join.
Revenue from the fees will replace grant funding from the California Department of Water Resources, SLO County groundwater sustainability director Blaine Reely said.
San Miguel excluded from new agency
Right now, each Groundwater Sustainability Agency pays for a portion of the annual groundwater sustainability report, Dodds said. The San Miguel CSD pays $18,000 per year for its portion.
If San Miguel had joined the Joint Powers Authority, it would have been charged an estimated $8,000 annually for supporting projects in the basin — but that number could have changed depending on the budget the agency adopted, he said.
Because San Miguel didn’t join the agency, its residents won’t be charged groundwater extraction fees levied by the Joint Powers Authority on the rest of the basin.
The San Miguel CSD could still set its own water extraction rates.
What could the fees look like?
The county got a first look at potential water use rates at the Paso Basin Cooperative Committee meeting in January.
The Joint Powers Authority will vote to select the rates.
Farmers, residential pumpers and water systems would be charged different rates based on their water consumption.
Agricultural users could pay between $64 and $246 per acre-foot of water depending on the chosen rate structure, while water systems would pay about $36 to $46 per acre-foot of water consumed, according to county consultant Ryan Aston.
Meanwhile, domestic users would pay about $34 to $37 per acre-foot of water under all budget options, he said.
The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act prohibits agencies from imposing certain regulations on “de minimis users,” which are people who pump two acre-feet of water or less annually for domestic purposes.
But according to Proposition 218, if an agency charges some customers for a service like water, all customers must pay a fee proportional to the benefit that they receive from the service, Aston said.
Because domestic users would benefit from management of the basin funded by fees, they will likely be required by Proposition 218 to pay fees too, he said.
The Joint Powers Authority would need to vote to renew or change the fees every five years. Farmers would not be charged for the amount of water they pump.
Instead, fees would be levied based on water consumption, which is the amount of water used by crops on the property.
