Abstract
Paso Robles has visions that it would be the southern Napa, a wine-lovers haven. Napa for the Bay area and Paso for SoCal (with a 230 mile drive). This shifted Paso from an ag town to a venue where French Restaurants are normal. The San Luis Obispo County land devoted to vineyards rose from 12,000 acres in 1998 to 37,000 in 2012, tripling in 14 years. The rise vineyards was accompanied with a significant fall in local groundwater levels. From 1981 to 2001, the level near Paso dropped 20 ft, or about 1 ft a year. With considerable irrigation of grapes in place, the water level fell 72 ft between 2001 and 2012, or about 7 ft a year, seven times higher than the previous two decades. Frank Mecham, County Supervisor for Paso Robles, said: “We had all the water needed. Everyone felt that. Everyone had this false expectation that water was like print money – it would continue to be there no matter what. And that was just not the case.” Mecham was told there would not be a water problem for 250 years. This situation is complicated in California (and Texas), where the county has no legal authority to force the vineyards to use less water.
Dianne Jackson’s property is surrounded by vineyards. The steady drone of the vineyards’ powerful groundwater pumps frequently echo through her neighborhood. She bought her home in 2000 and watched as the water level in her well dropped 75 ft. A year and a half ago, her well went dry and she had to pay $28,000 to have a deeper one drilled. Her well was at 350 ft when it went dry. Her new well is at 850 ft with the water quality excellent. “I hope it will last me until I’m dead,” she said.
(David Sneed, San Luis Obispo Tribune, June 17, 2013)
It’s going to get ugly around here in the next couple of decades. The majority of our water is being turned purple and shipped out of county.
(Cam Berlogar, owner of a SLO water business)
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Notes
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A Dobson is the ungainly unit of pressure times distance in milliatmosphere-centimeters of ozone. A Dobson unit multiplied by the number of molecules in 1 cm3 at STP is the number of ozone molecules above 1 cm2 of the Earth’s surface. One Dobson unit corresponds to 2.7 × 1020 ozone molecules/m2.
- 4.
Primary Drinking Water Standards (2013) maximum contaminant level (MCL in milligram/liter) to prevent adverse health effects. Arsenic (0.01), chlorine dioxide (0.8), chromium (0.1), copper (1.3), cyanide (0.2), fluoride (4), lead (0.015) mercury (0.002), nitrate (10) nitrite (1), benzene (0.005), chlordane (0.002), asbestos (7 million fibers/liter).
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A. Gadgil, “Safe and affordable drinking water for developing countries,” Physics of Sustainable Energy I, ed. by D. Hafemeister, et al, American Institute of Physics Conference Series 1044 (2008).
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Hafemeister, D. (2014). Air and Water Pollution. In: Physics of Societal Issues. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9272-6_6
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