Board Members Remain Committed to Long-Term Water Supply Solutions to Solve Water Shortage Issues
Soquel, California – Earlier this week, leaders in the City of Santa Cruz issued a statement recommending they would not pursue a 2014 vote on the proposed regional scwd2 desalination project and would instead initiate a community involvement process to evaluate water supply options for the City.
Soquel Creek Water District Board President Tom LaHue and Vice President Bruce Daniels today issued statements regarding the impacts this has on the District.
From Board President Tom LaHue:
“We understand that there is a public debate underway in Santa Cruz that leaders there want to address, but in the District we want to reassure our customers that our focus and mission remains unchanged: providing long-term, safe, reliable water to our customers and protecting our groundwater resources.
The District is facing a water crisis. We rely entirely on well water, which is being pumped and used at a rate that threatens the water supply. Water levels in the underground aquifers are too low, which allows seawater to enter and contaminate the water supply. This contamination threat is particularly urgent because seawater entry is already happening in two separate areas of our District. Once it reaches our wells or wells used by others, it makes the water supply unusable.
The District has worked extensively with community members over several years to evaluate and refine our options for water supply reliability and continues to communicate with our residents and businesses on the potential solutions.
Currently, customers are being asked to reduce water use by an additional 15% because this has been a dry year. Without additional water sources, District water customers would need to reduce overall water usage by 35% year round for at least 20 years to fix the problem.”
From Board Vice-President Bruce Daniels:
“This is not a problem that can wait much longer for a solution and we want our customers to know that we are moving forward to find the best long-term options. We are still committed to continue evaluating desalination, mandatory water rationing, expanding our water demand offset program, moratoriums, water transfers and other regional solutions.
The District plans on completing the environmental review process with the City of Santa Cruz for the proposed desalination project and ensures the final environmental impact report will respond to comments and concerns that have been raised by the public. We also plan to move forward with our District commitment for a vote of our constituents on possible solutions.”
The Soquel Creek Water District is a non-profit, local government agency providing water to Capitola, Aptos, La Selva Beach, Opal Cliffs, Rio Del Mar, Seascape and Soquel. www.soquelcreekwater.org