San Luis Obispo's Groundwater Contamination Characterization Project is one step closer to completion.
Currently, the city receives water from Whale Rock Reservoir, Salinas Reservoir and Nacimiento Reservoir. Once finished, the project will add two new groundwater pumps to the water supply, making up 10-12% of the city's water use.
“We are in the implementation phase right now," said Nick Teague, the city's Water Resource Program Manager. "We are focused on building the infrastructure that's going to be drawing water from the aquifer, treating that water and then putting it into the distribution system.”
Last week, the city council approved going out to bid to install monitoring wells that would measure the effectiveness of how well the two groundwater pumps would be in removing contaminants like PCE from the aquifer, as well as ensure compliance with the state’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA).
“It kind of regulates how we can use groundwater to make sure that we're not drawing it down to conditions that we can't recover from in the future," Teague explained of the legislation. SGMA became state law in 2014.
The city is contributing $1 million toward the project while the State Water Board is funding almost $9.7 million through both the planning and implementation phases. The State Water Board has supplied more than $340 million over the past five years to help cities like San Luis Obispo improve water supplies and drought resiliency.
“The city jumped on this, made sure it was ready by our final funding round when we had the money available. It was just a successful project," said Mike Downey, State Water Resources Control Board Finance Division Deputy Director.
According to Downey, the funding source comes from Proposition 1 grant program funding. Other communities across the state, including in Los Angeles, Stanislaus and Riverside counties, have been beneficiaries of similar funding.
“We are looking at what's the quality of groundwater, regardless of where we are in the state," Downey said. "But every community has kind of a different mix of water quality that they're dealing with.”
Teague says this project aligns with the city’s goals of water conservation.
“We are focusing on water conservation and then, now utilizing state grant funding to utilize the groundwater resources that we have,” he said.
Teague says they expect the new groundwater supply wells to be completed by mid to late 2026.
