Please help in Paso Robles groundwater crisis

The defeat of Measure A made clear that local residents do not want to pay the county or a water district to manage the groundwater basin. You have a long history, San Luis Obispo County Supervisor Frank Mecham, of supporting rural residents and seeking permanent solutions to their declining groundwater. Please do not abandon us now.

The problem has not gone away. The basin is still being overpumped. One large agricultural corporation has expressed interest in planting several thousand new acres of grapes as soon as the planting moratorium sunsets and they can do so legally.

Please help stabilize water levels by turning to the California Water Resources Control Board. Let them make the difficult decisions — meters, reporting and pumping restrictions — decisions that the county has been unwilling to make. Such a program will cost money that the voters have denied to the county. Staff is needed, and facilitation services, legal support and grants must be pursued. (Even those cost money and staff time, and many need a 50 percent match.) Meanwhile, well levels continue to fall. Even more severe measures will be needed to balance the basin if we wait.

Please help us, Mr. Mecham, and ask the state to begin managing the basin immediately.

This story was originally published March 26, 2016 at 5:35 PM with the headline "Please help in Paso Robles groundwater crisis."