24 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY JUNE 25-JULY 1, 2026 www.montereycountynow.com Forebay Aquifer Subbasin, Langley Area Subbasin, Monterey Subbasin and the Upper Valley Aquifer Subbasin. Through this process the Salinas Valley Basin Groundwater Sustainability Agency (SVBGSA) was formed, governed by a board of 11 directors, each member representing different interests across the Salinas Valley. This group, which will recommend a suite of projects to the state in about a month, consists of a number of people representing agricultural interests, South County cities, disadvantaged communities, environmental interests and the City of Salinas. Each subbasin has its own committee, and another advisory committee made up of roughly 13 members and chaired by Weeks makes recommendations to the board. “There’s all these different entities,” says County Supervisor Glenn Church, who also serves on the SVBGSA board. “Everybody goes to their corner and argues for themselves, and those days are over. We’re going to have to come up with some common solutions.” A veteran in the world of water, Derrik Williams has been studying where it goes and how it flows for over three decades. As a technical consultant for a firm called Montgomery & Associates, he’s been working with the SVBGSA as a project manager, explaining how seawater intrusion works and how the sediments underground distinguish our subbasins. Aquifers are often classified as confined or unconfined. Unconfined aquifers are “like your sink,” Williams says. “Think of it as a bowl of gravel and sand.” Underground, there might be layers of clay, sand, silt and rock, forming ribbons and pretzel-like patterns that shape how water moves; generally, towards the sea. The 180/400 Subbasin is a confined aquifer, meaning layers of sediment separate groundwater at different depths. The “180” and “400” aquifers, named for their approximate depth in feet below the ground, sit above a deeper aquifer at around 800 feet. Beneath those lie even deeper aquifers, about which relatively little is known. “Some people push back and say, but our subbasins are different, and they are different,” says Williams. “This is going to be the balancing act, how you bring the entire valley into sustainability. Because it will probably take the entire valley, knowing that you are hydrologically benefiting some parts of the valley more than others. Economically you might be benefiting the entire valley equally, but that’s different than hydrologically benefiting one area.” The Thyme Room at the County of Monterey’s Schilling Place campus in Salinas smells of garlic, maybe onions. Windows are open, but the air is thick with heat and unanswered, high-stakes questions. Meetings happen here often, but this one matters: for the first time, the board of directors of the SVBGSA—11 representatives reflecting different interests across Monterey County—are getting an overview of projects that will shape the region’s water future. In August, this group will recommend a portfolio of projects to the state. “We only have so many flavors of water to work with,” Weeks told the board May 14. “To get to sustainability by 2040, it takes a huge project.” The equation is simple in theory. New water can only be created in a few ways: rain, desalination and recycling. And seawater intrusion can only be staved off in a few ways: by reducing groundwater pumping or injecting water back into the aquifer. Most proposed projects rely on some combination of both. That framework forms the basis of nearly every proposal under consideration: finding water that is available, reliable and ideally, cost-effective. “Demand management,” or reducing groundwater use, is viewed as part of the end-solution, but not sufficient on its own. Several systems already divert water from the Salinas River and deliver irrigation water to agricultural areas impacted by seawater intrusion. The SVBGSA has built upon those existing systems to develop what Piret Harmon, the agency’s general manager, calls a “menu” of projects. Each is evaluated based on how effectively it meets “minimum threshold” goals for stopping seawater intrusion and raising groundwater levels. One existing example is the Castroville Seawater Intrusion Project (CSIP), which already delivers recycled water to farmers, supplying water to roughly 12,000 acres of farmland in northern Monterey County. Castroville has long been viewed as ground zero for seawater intrusion. A 2026 civil grand jury report noted that the number of active wells dropped from 22 to nine over time as saltwater contamination forced users to abandon their wells. In the late 1990s, CSIP was launched to reduce freshwater pumping in one of the county’s most productive agricultural regions. The project supplies treated wastewater by Monterey One Water, a regional treatment plant located in Marina, to growers for irrigation. Now, a proposed expansion—the New Seawater Intrusion Project (NSIP)—could push that model further inland. The concept would build a new distribution system, supplying recycled water to agricultural land between the existing CSIP service area and the City of Salinas, along with some urban users. But that comes with a price tag. Capital costs could reach beyond $700 million for a project that doesn’t solve seawater intrusion. “Understand that all models are compromises,” Weeks said, “at least with some relative tool that allows us to evaluate them. They’re not perfect.” Another proposal focuses on capturing excess water in wet years and storing it underground for later use, a process known as aquifer storage and recovery. Estimated capital costs range from $278 million-$383 million, without solving seawater intrusion, and is also dependent on rain. The Castroville and Eastside Canals would similarly use Salinas River water to recharge groundwater basins by injecting water back underground. The goal is to raise groundwater levels in the 180/400 and Eastside Subbasins, slowing seawater intrusion while supporting groundwater recovery in the deep aquifers. Hurdles abound with this concept as well. Capital costs range from $195 million to $1.3 billion, the project does not meet the minimum threshold for seawater intrusion, and is dependent on rainfall. It also requires significant changes to a water permit that restricts water storage. “The permit says you can divert 135,000 acre-feet, which is a crazy amount of water, way more than anyone needs,” says Chris Bunn, a grower and president of the Salinas Basin Water Alliance, a group formed in 2020 for growers to engage with public policy involving groundwater supply. Bunn also sits on the SVBGSA advisory committee and is on the board of directors for the Monterey County Farm Bureau. “But you can’t store it. You have to [use] it within 30 days, so The Salinas Valley Basin Groundwater Sustainability Agency and Monterey County Water Resources Agency held a joint workshop on May 18 in Salinas. About 95 percent of groundwater used in Monterey County supports agriculture, with over 200,000 acres of land in cultivation in the Salinas Valley.
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