WATSONVILLE — The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) recently notified Pajaro Valley Water Management Agency that its Basin Management Plan (BMP) was approved and considered functionally equivalent to a Groundwater Sustainability Plan (GSP).
“This approval is a huge win for all Pajaro Valley residents as it saves PV Water the time, money and energy that would have gone toward developing the state-mandated plan,” General Manager Brian Lockwood said.
Approval of the agency’s alternative path to a GSP also allows it to stay focused on the proposed projects and programs that community stakeholders adopted in April 2014 at the completion of the BMP planning process.
“This is excellent news,” said PV Water Board Chair Amy Newell. “The decision allows our staff to stay focused on implementation of the projects and programs described in the BMP, such as the proposed College Lake Integrated Resources Management project.”
Lockwood praised the staff and a group of consultants who had been working tirelessly to advance the proposed water supply projects and implement the water conservation program.
“Receiving approval from DWR validates all the hard work our team has completed to date and keeps us moving forward to achieve our goal of a sustainable groundwater basin,” Lockwood said.
PV Water is a state-chartered water management agency formed to efficiently and economically manage existing and supplemental water supplies in order to prevent further increase in and to accomplish the continuing reduction of long-term overdraft.
