A Water War Is Underway in Santa Barbara County's Carrot Country

A Water War Is Underway
in Santa Barbara County’s
Carrot Country

Cuyama Valley’s Biggest Water-Guzzlers
Forcing Everyone Else into Expensive Battle
over Groundwater Rights

by Melinda Burns | July 5, 2023

Grimmway Farms and Bolthouse Farms, by far the largest water users in the Cuyama Valley east of Santa Maria, have angered other landowners in the remote agricultural region by suing them over water rights. | Credit: Carl Perry

The Cuyama Valley, the driest region in Santa Barbara County, is awash in discontent. The world’s largest carrot producers, newly subject to restrictions on over-pumping, are suing all other landowners over water rights, and legal fees are mounting.

The Cuyama groundwater basin, which covers 380 square miles east of Santa Maria, overlapping with Kern, San Luis Obispo, and Ventura counties, is on the list of the state’s 21 basins in “critical overdraft.” Over time, more than twice as much water has been pumped out by farmers as has been replenished, resulting in ever-declining water levels underground. The valley gets an average 13 inches of rain per year; 10 is the definition of a desert. Wells are the only water supply here.

Jim Wegis, a fourth-generation farmer in Ventucopa, at the southeastern end of the Cuyama Valley, is shown here in front of a booster station along Highway 33. The station increases the water pressure for his irrigation system. Wegis replaced most of his alfalfa fields years ago with pistachios and olives, less water-intensive crops. | Credit: Carl Perry

During the second half of the 20th century, alfalfa, a water-intensive crop, was largely responsible for the groundwater drawdown; today, carrots, a $69 million annual crop, are dominant, spurred by the demand for baby carrots.