Should domestic well owners pay Paso Basin water use fees? One district says no
Domestic well owners should not be charged fees for pumping from the overdrafted Paso Robles Groundwater Basin, according to one water district.
“The problem has never been the de minimis users,” Shandon-San Juan Water District Board of Directors president Willy Cunha told The Tribune on Thursday. Farmers are most responsible for dwindling water levels in the basin, so they should be charged the fees — as long as the rates are reasonable, he said.
The Shandon-San Juan Water District’s Board of Directors voted 4-0 on March 26 to pass a resolution that opposed charging domestic well owners water extraction fees, water district secretary Stephanie Bertoux said.
Why did only four directors vote? The board didn’t provide the public proper notice that board member Matt Turrentine would attend the meeting virtually, so he couldn’t vote on the item, Bertoux said.
De minimis groundwater users pump less than 2 acre-feet of water annually for household needs, and “these fees would unfairly burden residents with minimal impact on overall water sustainability,” a news release from the board said.
Meanwhile, agriculture used about 93% of the groundwater pumped from the basin, according to the 2023 Groundwater Sustainability Report. Cunha said it’s up to farmers to reduce their water use to improve the water levels in the basin.
“It was always the plan, always the idea that the bigger extractors would carry the load,” he said.
Does the law require domestic well owners to pay fees?
The Shandon-San Juan Water District joined a newly-formed Joint Powers Authority that will have the power to set fees for water use from the Paso Robles Groundwater Basin.
The Paso Robles Groundwater Basin is considered “critically overdrafted” by the California Department of Water Resources.
On average, people pump 13,700 acre-feet of water more than is returned to the basin — though the actual amount fluctuates yearly, county groundwater sustainability director Blaine Reely previously told The Tribune.
The Paso Robles Groundwater Sustainability Plan requires the basin to be sustainably managed by 2040.
The fees would fund programs to bring the basin back into balance, while also encouraging irrigators to use water more efficiently, Reely said.
The county would prefer to avoid charging domestic well owners for water use, he said. 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.
Because domestic users would benefit from management of the basin funded by fees, they would likely be required by Proposition 218 to pay fees, too, Reely previously told The Tribune.
The Shandon-San Juan Water District, however, believes that Proposition 218 wouldn’t require de minimis users to pay water extraction fees because they proportionally draw so little water from the basin, Cunha said.
The water district will bring these arguments to the Joint Powers Authority’s first meeting on Monday at 4 p.m. at the Paso Robles City Council Chambers.
“Our board firmly believes that small-scale groundwater users, particularly those relying on domestic wells for household use, should not bear the financial burden of groundwater extraction fees,” Cunha said in the release. “Our commitment is to fair and equitable policies that prioritize basin sustainability while ensuring minimal hardship on residents.”
