SLO County supervisors move to change new rules giving more water to Paso Robles farmers
The San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors took steps Sunday to dismantle the county’s new planting ordinance, which allows farmers in the Paso Basin Land Use Management Area to use more water to irrigate their crops.
On Sunday, the board voted 3-1 to put the ordinance on the Feb. 7 meeting agenda — when supervisors will vote on whether to repeal it. Supervisor Debbie Arnold missed the meeting; she did not give a public reason for her absence.
Sunday’s vote came less than two months after a previous iteration of the board passed the new water rules.
Supervisor Jimmy Paulding quoted the San Luis Obispo County Farm Bureau to explain why he didn’t support the planting ordinance.
“’It might help a handful of property owners, but it does so at the expense of the vast majority of growers in the Paso (Robles Groundwater) Basin, and mitigation measures set a dangerous precedent for regulating agriculture in SLO County,” Paulding said.
Paulding was sworn in as supervisor on Jan. 3, creating a liberal majority on the board along with supervisors Dawn Ortiz-Legg and Bruce Gibson.
At its Jan. 24 meeting, the trio announced its intentions to reverse many of the policies passed by the board’s former conservative majority.
What is SLO County’s new planting ordinance?
In 2015, the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors adopted an ordinance that limited the amount of water farmers could draw from the Paso Robles Groundwater Basin for irrigation, according to Planning Division Manager Airlin Singewald.
In order to receive a county permit to plant crops irrigated with water from the basin, a farmer’s new crops had to be water neutral — meaning the new crop could not use more water than the previous crop on that site, with an exemption of 5 acre-feet of water per year, Singewald said.
The new ordinance, which supervisors passed 3-2 on Dec. 6, grants each property an exemption of 25 acre-feet of water per year, according to Singewald.
In December, Arnold and fellow conservative supervisors John Peschong and Lynn Compton said that the planting ordinance restores property rights to people who couldn’t farm under the 2015 ordinance.
Gibson and Ortiz-Legg, however, opposed the ordinance, with the concern that allowing properties to draw more water would deplete the basin.
Farmers flocked to the Dec. 6 meeting to urge the board to reject the ordinance.
“We’re alarmed. We’re over a basin that’s already in severe overdraft,” Paso Robles Wine Country Alliance representative Patricia Wilmore said at the Dec. 6 meeting.
Farmers also expressed concern at the meeting about strings attached to the extra 25 acre-feet of water.
In order to access the extra water, farmers would have to implement a list of environmental mitigation measures including planting crops at least 50 feet away from riparian areas, providing a hydrology report for use of well water, and implementing carbon sequestration measures, according to county documents.
SLO County Farm Bureau Executive Director Brent Burchett called the measures “costly and burdensome bureaucratic red tape” at the Dec. 6 meeting.
“All these things just add up. More burdens are piled on farmers,” Burchett said then. “We don’t want to go to court. We want to work this out. But we want you to be aware of the legal implications of what you’re doing.”
Supervisors move to repeal water rules
At Sunday’s meeting, two San Luis Obispo County residents asked the board to preserve the new planting ordinance.
“You have local people with minimal acreage wanting us to use their own land,” San Miguel resident Darcia Stebbens said. “I think it’s reprehensible for supervisors to not want their constituents to be able to use their own land and the water that’s under their feet.”
Stebbens, an accountant, lead the charge for ballot recounts of the District 2 and District 4 Board of Supervisors races.
On Sunday, Ortiz-Legg, Paulding and Gibson voted to put the ordinance on the board’s Feb. 7 agenda, with Peschong dissenting.
Peschong said that the planting ordinance is important because it restores water rights to farmers.
“I believe water rights are property rights,” Peschong said.
Ortiz-Legg, however, suggested that the county extend the 2015 ordinance, and use the Groundwater Sustainability Management Act to improve water levels in the basin.
That would ensure that there’s water available for farmers in the future, she said.
“We have a sustainable groundwater manager now and really good plans to be able to bring that basin into sustainability,” Ortz-Legg said at Sunday’s meeting. “We really want to work with everyone.”
On Sunday, the board also voted 3-1 to allow a quorum vote to extend board meetings past 5 p.m., with Peschong casting the dissenting vote. Before, all five supervisors needed to vote in favor of extending the meeting.
Sunday’s meeting ended after about 11 minutes.
“This is the fastest board meeting in the history of San Luis Obispo County,” Peschong joked.
“And on a Sunday,” Ortiz-Legg added with a laugh.
