In preparation for metering well water usage and charging customers accordingly, the Carpinteria Groundwater Sustainability Agency is alerting all property owners with wells of mandatory registration and flowmeter installation before the March 31, 2026, deadline.
Well owners will be responsible for installing approved flowmeters on their wells to enable accurate measurement of water usage and application of fees. Domestic well water users must register to qualify for exemption from the flowmeter requirement.
“In creating our local Groundwater Sustainability Plan, the public has asked that well owners contribute to cover costs associated with operating the Carpinteria Groundwater Sustainability Agency, and flowmeters are the best option for fair and equitable calculation of actual water usage and charges,” said Kelley Dyer, executive director of the Carpinteria Groundwater Sustainability Agency.
Well owners within the boundaries — including residents and ranchers in both Santa Barbara and Ventura counties — can find complete information at the Carpinteria Groundwater Sustainability Agency website: carpgsa.org. This includes frequently asked questions, approved flowmeters, recommended vendors and penalties for noncompliance.
If well owners do not install and register approved flowmeters before the deadline, their water usage fees will be estimated at the highest crop factor per acre, equivalent to estimated usage rates of greenhouse/nursery growers. Currently, well owners overlaying the groundwater basin have been assessed estimated charges based on crops and acreage. Installation of flowmeters will take guesswork out of assessing usage fees by measuring actual usage and applying that to rate calculations.
Well water usage charges and applicable fees will be added to the property tax bill of private well owners each payment period. Rates will be calculated based on the amount of water drawn from the groundwater basin and the adopted fiscal year budget of the Carpinteria Groundwater Sustainability Agency, which pays for the administration and operation of the Carpinteria Groundwater Sustainability Plan. The total budget will be divided by the total number of acre-feet of water used from the groundwater basin, and customers will be charged their portion based on metered well water usage.
“State regulators determined that the Carpinteria Groundwater Basin is at risk, so local agencies were mandated to create a Groundwater Sustainability Plan and Groundwater Sustainability Agency,” said Case Van Wingerden, president of the Carpinteria Groundwater Sustainability Agency’s Board of Directors. “In order to pay for this work, fees will be assessed to well owners of the groundwater basin. Flowmeters will make it a more fair and efficient process for everyone.”
Historically, well usage was not measured and no fees applied. The CGSA now has authority to charge fees to comply with its mandate to manage and sustain the critical groundwater resources that are shared by all properties overlaying the basin. Carpinteria Valley Water District also pays into the CGSA for its groundwater wells providing public water supply.
“Our goal is for all groundwater users to install and register accurate flowmeters, so we can all pitch in to the work it will take to sustain groundwater levels and implement our Groundwater Sustainability Plan,” Dyer said.
About the Carpinteria Groundwater Sustainability Agency:
The Carpinteria GSA is a public agency formed by a joint powers agreement between the Carpinteria Valley Water District, City of Carpinteria, Santa Barbara County Water Agency and County of Ventura to sustainably manage the groundwater in the Carpinteria Basin. The agency was formed in January 2020, in response to California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act adopted in 2014 requiring local and regional agencies to develop and implement sustainable groundwater management plans. The historic legislation empowers local officials to halt the trend of critically overdrafting basins by strengthening local management of specified groundwater basins.