Montecito’s Groundwater Sustainability Agency needs to develop a management plan for the basin, which is pumped by water district and private wells.
The state’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act labeled the Montecito Groundwater Basin as “medium priority,” and the district’s board of directors also serves as the board of the Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA).
The agency has preliminary approval for $1.6 million in grant funding it applied for last year, to develop and implement the management plan, spokeswoman Laura Camp said.
Under state law, the GSA board is expected to submit a plan to the Department of Water Resources next year, and start implementing it in 2022-2024.
At its July 2019 quarterly meeting, the GSA board discussed specific projects to implement the plan, including groundwater metering programs, seawater intrusion monitoring, groundwater monitoring wells and stream flow gauges to calculate basin recharge from natural flows.
No one knows how many private wells are active in the Montecito area, or how much water they are pumping, so the groundwater metering program is a high priority.
When the Montecito Water District studied groundwater augmentation, its consultant created a database of 354 wells — including 22 district wells and 332 private wells in county and state records — but estimated there are more like 1,500 wells in the area.
The Groundwater Sustainability Agency is holding a public meeting on the basin management plan at 5 p.m. on Feb. 24 at Montecito Union School, at 385 San Ysidro Road.
Local residents can apply now to participate on the agency’s stakeholder advisory committee (for local knowledge and recommendations on non-technical aspects of developing and implementing the plan) or technical advisory committee, which looks for people with experience or interest in geology, engineering, hydrology or other relevant fields.
Applications for both committees are due March 6.
— Noozhawk managing editor Giana Magnoli can be reached at gmagnoli@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.