Soquel Creek Water District Conducts Exploratory Discussions on Back-up Water Supply Options
The District relies entirely on the Soquel-Aptos Groundwater Basin for its water supply which is over-pumped and experiencing seawater intrusion, a condition that allows seawater to enter and contaminate the groundwater supply. Once it reaches our drinking water wells or those used by others, it makes the water supply unusable. To prevent this seawater from continuing to move inland, the District needs to reduce our overall groundwater pumping by 35 percent for at least 20 years to allow the basin to fill up again.
The District has been evaluating a joint seawater desalination project with the City of Santa Cruz since 2007 but is also exploring back-up options.
“We can’t wait much longer for a solution to our groundwater shortage, and we want our customers to know that we are moving forward to finding the best long-term options,” said District General Manager Kim Adamson.
Since September, the Board of Directors is dedicating one meeting a month to focus on learning more about various water supply options. These meetings are held at 7PM at the Capitola City Council Chambers (420 Capitola Avenue), are open to the public, and the Board welcomes community input. The schedule is:
January 7, 2014- Mandatory Water Rationing/Demand Reduction Options
February 4 – Recycled Water Options
March 4 – Groundwater Options
April 1 -Water Demand Offset (part of demand reduction options)
May 6 – Other Options (If further discussion is needed) and Establish Criteria Weighting for Options Evaluation
June 3 – Options Evaluation: Ranking through criteria weighting and sensitivity analysis
The District’s intent is to shortlist and select a back-up option(s) to the joint scwd2 Regional Seawater Desalination Project should that project no longer be considered. For more information, visit http://www.soguelcreekwater.org/exploratory-discussions. These meetings are being recorded by Community TV of Santa Cruz County for playbacks on their government/public affairs channel 25171.
Last Updated: January 2, 2014