State Knocks ‘Deficiencies’ in Cuyama Valley Groundwater Plan

Dropping Well Water Levels, Threats to Water Quality and Wetlands Need More Study, Officials Say

An 850-acre vineyard, shown here in 2016, was installed in the northwestern Cuyama Valley by the Harvard Management Company, the investment arm of Harvard University. | Credit: Santa Barbara County Water Agency

Siding with Cuyama Valley conservationists, the state Department of Water Resources this month sent a local agency back to the drawing board to revise its 20-year plan for replenishing the groundwater basin, now severely depleted after decades of water-intensive, industrial-scale farming.

In a June 3 letter to the Cuyama Basin Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA), the department praised its “aggressive approach” in proposing to reduce agricultural pumping in the valley by up to two-thirds by the year 2040. But the department also identified a long list of “deficiencies” in the plan and suggested “corrective actions” to address them.

Cuyama Valley Map | Credit: Cuyama Groundwater Sustainability Plan

It was a victory of sorts for the community organizations and small-scale farmers who have long argued that a 20-year plan was too little, too late. They have invoked the specter of Dust Bowl conditions if the GSA does not crack down on the global carrot corporations that dominate the valley, their sprinklers running full-blast in 100-degree summer heat.