SLO County town looks for new water source to ease water troubles: ‘We have no plan B’
The small San Luis Obispo County town of Los Osos is aiming to alleviate its water problems by searching for a second source of water to feed its 14,400 residents.
“We do not have an alternative water supply. We just have our groundwater basin,” said Ron Munds, Los Osos Community Services District general manager. “We’re vulnerable.”
For now, the coastal community’s sole source of water is stored beneath rows of homes, businesses and empty lots in a basin deep underground. And it’s been in trouble for decades due to the massive overpumping of the resource.
Los Osos has a plan to bring the overdrafted groundwater basin into balance through water conservation measures, using recycled water and shifting which wells the community pumps from to avoid further seawater intrusion.
If it’s successful, the community will have a groundwater basin with enough freshwater supply to feed its current residents as well as a growing population.
“We’ve got a good plan, but we’re not sure it’s going to work,” he said. “We have no plan B — all our eggs right now are in that basin plan.”
Los Osos has history of groundwater issues
Los Osos’s water issues date back at least to the 1970s and ’80s, when development boomed in the town nestled against the hills next to the Morro Bay estuary.
Severe overpumping coupled with nitrate contamination from leaky septic systems caused the water basin to deteriorate.
By 2015, a plan was drafted to help the basin recover so Los Osos could eventually open its doors to new development and population growth.
The latest annual report by Cleath-Harris Geologists, released in June, analyzed the 2021 conditions of the groundwater basin. It shows that Los Osos is beginning to inch toward sustainability, mostly due to water conservation efforts and the use of recycled water.
However, seawater intrusion from years of excessive extraction remains a serious source of pollution, and the minor retreat back to the ocean shown in the June report is based only on a few years’ worth of data.
Plus, the ongoing and severe drought the region is experiencing means the basin has not received the recharge it needs to further push back that seawater intrusion.
Those water woes caused the California Coastal Commission to write a strongly-worded letter in April to San Luis Obispo County officials asking them to stop permitting any new development in the town, including homes, accessory-dwelling units and guesthouses.
Is connection to state water an option?
Although the basin report shows some signs of improvement, it’s not nearly enough, Munds said.
“We need to address the uncertainty of our water supply,” he said. “Our basin seems to be holding its own according to the monitoring report, but we don’t know how long this drought will be or the long term impacts.”
Therefore, since September, Munds has been on the hunt for an alternative source of water for Los Osos.
In that time, he’s found that a hookup to the State Water Project is likely the most feasible option for Los Osos.
That would probably mean constructing a pipeline to the Chorro Valley pipeline, and paying the city of Morro Bay for any surplus state water it may have, Munds said.
Munds noted that Los Osos would likely want about 200 acre-feet of water annually from the State Water Project. This would ideally come during wet years when Morro Bay has its full allocation and there are no cutbacks due to drought, Munds said.
“The goal is still to balance our basin. It’s not to bring in water to be reliant on,” Munds said.
During dry years, Los Osos would likely pull solely from its groundwater basin, he added.
Greg Kwolek, Morro Bay’s director of public works, said the city is certainly willing to explore the state water connection with Los Osos.
Morro Bay often has a surplus in water supply, Kwolek said. However, the surplus only comes during wet years when the city is allocated all of the state water it requests.
As of March 18, Morro Bay has been allocated only 5% of what it requested from the state.
“In a year like this one, we probably wouldn’t have sent any water to Los Osos,” Kwolek said.
Munds said he hopes to bring a conceptual design and plan for the pipeline to state water to the Los Osos Community Services District’s Board of Directors this fall.
If quickly approved and budgeted by the board, Munds expects the pipeline would likely be about three years out from operation.
But as California experiences its worst drought in at least 1,200 years, that isn’t the only alternative water source Munds is considering.
“This concern is not only for current, existing conditions, but it’s really (this): ‘Where is climate change going to go in the next 30 years or more?’” he said.
Munds and Kwolek noted that a regional desalination plant has been discussed at the county level. They would both be interested in buying into that plan, they said.
The conceptual desalination plant would be a new water source — likely to be hotly contested — that could help diversify the communities’ water sources, they said.
“We want to be a part of any regional solutions,” Munds said. “Both near and long term, I’m trying to find solutions that will keep us resilient and sustainable.”
This story was originally published July 14, 2022 at 12:55 PM.
