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About the Carpinteria GSA

The Carpinteria GSA is a public agency formed by a joint powers agreement between the Carpinteria Valley Water District, City of Carpinteria, Santa Barbara County Water Agency and County of Ventura to sustainably manage the groundwater in the Carpinteria Basin. The agency was formed in January 2020, in response to California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act adopted in 2014 requiring local and regional agencies to develop and implement sustainable groundwater management plans. The historic legislation empowers local officials to halt the trend of critically overdrafting basins by strengthening local management of specified groundwater basins.

Below is a summary of some of the key elements of SGMA:

  • Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSAs). GSAs are made up of one or more local agencies overlying a groundwater basin. The Carpinteria GSA is made up of CVWD, Ventura County, City of Carpinteria and Santa Barbara County Water Agency.
  • Groundwater Sustainability Plans (GSPs). Each Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA) must develop a Groundwater Sustainability Plan (GSP). The GSP is a detailed road map for how each groundwater basin will reach and maintain long-term sustainability.
We Rely On Groundwater

Groundwater is water we drink; water that grows our food; water that helps recharge our lakes and rivers. Groundwater is increasingly relied upon by growing cities and thirsty farms, and it plays an important role in the future sustainability of California’s overall water supply.

What is groundwater? Groundwater is the water found underground in the cracks and spaces in soil, sand and rock. It is stored in and moves slowly through geologic formations of soil, sand and rocks called aquifers.

MORE ABOUT CARPINTERIA GROUNDWATER BASIN

Carpinteria Groundwater Basin has been designated a high priority basin under the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA). The re-designation from very low priority to high priority was done as part of California Department of Water Resource’s (DWR’s) 2018 re-prioritization. The change in priority occurred largely because errors in the data from the 2014 prioritization were corrected. For more information about the Basin prioritization process visit the California Department of Water Resources.

If you have questions regarding this new priority designation contact Carpinteria GSA Executive Director, Robert Mc Donald at bob@cvwd.net or 805 263-4826 . If you would like to explore how the rating was determined, follow this link to the DWR SGMA Basin Prioritization Dashboard and click the map area of Carpinteria. The dashboard includes a helpful tutorial.