It was “a perfect storm,” but it generated a win of local groundwater management — a good example in the midst of our historic drought. Driscoll’s Berries, based in Watsonville, faced a groundwater crisis in 2010. Foreshadowing 2014, wells were drying up, water quality was degrading and disputes were becoming the new normal along the Central Coast — where aquifers are also experiencing salt water intrusion. “A perfect storm,” was what a Driscoll’s spokeswoman recalled this week for National Geographic (link below).
The company’s executives could not simply wring their hands and watch water go down the drain in the Pajaro Valley, as the blogger notes. They took action. With their neighbors and the local conservation district, they launched a regional public-private partnership, creating innovation and accepting shared sacrifices to solve their problems. Recycled wastewater, designated recharge zones, micro-irrigation and integrated conservation technologies — a collaborative menu of actions that is working.
As we struggle with a water bond and groundwater management legislation, there is a lesson to be learned here.