Cuyama Valley groundwater plan approved. What does this mean for Big Carrot?
The embattled Cuyama Valley groundwater basin now has a state-approved plan that aims to create a sustainable source of water mainly through groundwater pumping reductions.
On Thursday, the California Department of Water Resources approved the groundwater sustainability plan drafted by the Cuyama Basin Groundwater Sustainability Agency, a joint powers agency comprised of Kern, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura counties as well as the Cuyama Community Services District and Cuyama Basin Water District.
The plan was required under the California Sustainable Groundwater Management Act because the Cuyama basin is considered critically overdrafted.
Also on Thursday, the state approved the groundwater sustainability plan for the Paso Robles groundwater basin.
Implementation of the Cuyama Valley groundwater sustainability plan will move forward even while an adjudication complaint over groundwater rights in the basin trudges forward in the Los Angeles Superior Court.
That adjudication complaint, filed by carrot industry giants Bolthouse Farms and Grimmway Farms and others in August 2021, aims to have the courts determine water rights in the Cuyama Valley — therefore potentially trumping any groundwater allocations set aside in the basin’s sustainability plan.
Typically, a court allocates water rights to users based on how much they used in the past and whether such use is “reasonable and beneficial,” according to state law.
The adjudication complaint has raised hairs in the Cuyama Valley, especially among small-scale farmers who worked closely with the Bolthouse and Grimmway representatives to draft the groundwater sustainability plan over a course of three years.
A non-jury trial in the case is expected to be held at a Los Angeles courthouse on Aug. 7, according to court records.
Meanwhile, the groundwater sustainability plan’s pumping allocations and other management actions will be implemented.
Major reductions in pumping required to create healthy basin
The Cuyama Valley groundwater sustainability plan calls for significant reductions in groundwater pumping to bring the basin into balance.
The basin’s estimated sustainable yield is about 20,000 acre feet of water.
In 2021, about 59,300 acre feet of water was pumped out of the basin, according to a report published in March 2022.
“To achieve balanced pumping and recharge, groundwater users must decrease pumping by approximately 67%,” the groundwater sustainability plan states.
To do so, the plan targets what it calls the central basin management area.
This area, located over the town of Cuyama and toward the intersection of highways 166 and 33, is where the worst groundwater reductions have happened, according to the basin’s sustainability plan.
That’s where water levels are estimated to have dropped anywhere from 5 to 7.7 feet annually, the plan says.
Pumping allocations do not apply for those who are outside of the central basin management area.
Those within the central basin management area must reduce groundwater pumping enough individually to reduce the total use of the basin by 5%, according to the plan.
The Cuyama groundwater sustainability agency will determine how much each user must reduce their use.
The plan notes that in 2024, another 5% total reduction is required. Then, in 2025 and each year after reductions would need to step up to 6.5% through 2040 in order to achieve the 67% pumping reduction required to hopefully bring the basin into balance.
Beyond pumping reductions, the groundwater sustainability plan calls for improvements to wells in the valley, possibly implementing a cloud seeding project to increase rainfall in the area, and improved flood and stormwater capture.
This story was originally published March 3, 2023 at 9:00 AM.
