The Central Coast Groundwater Coalition (CCGC) was founded in July 2013 to represent landowners and growers who operate in Monterey, San Benito, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties, as well as the northern portion of Ventura County in Region 3, CCGC is a non-profit 501(c)5 mutual benefit organization whose primary function is to fulfill groundwater quality regulatory requirements in the Irrigated Lands Regulatory Program (ILRP) of the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board.
In January 2013, a group of agricultural interests began developing a coalition monitoring plan in response to ILRP requirements for groundwater monitoring. The agricultural groups included Grower-Shipper Association of Central California, Western Growers and the Farm Bureaus of Monterey, Santa Cruz, Santa Clara and San Benito counties. The plan was adopted by the Regional Water Board on July 11. A key component of the plan is sampling drinking water wells for CCGC members. On June 25, 2015, CCGC submitted to the Regional Water Board a groundwater characterization report that included comprehensive contour maps that illustrated groundwater quality throughout the region in 2013 and 2014.
CCGC is managed by a 10 member board of directors made up of landowners and growers from the region. The Executive Director, Parry Klassen, is a fruit grower who also manages the East San Joaquin Water Quality Coalition (www.esjcoalition.org) based in the Central Valley. Funding to fulfill ILRP requirements comes from member dues and private contributions.
For 2018, CCGC Board of Directors set the annual dues of $750 per membership (no per acre charges). Members will be responsible for covering well sampling costs by either contracting with CCGCs existing technical services firm (MLJ, LLC) or contracting with other firms approved by the Regional Water Board. Members are encouraged to sign up all ranches in CCGC to enable the coalition to demonstrate 100% compliance to the Regional Water Board for its members.
Participating in the CCGC has multiple benefits for member landowners and growers. The organization combines the resources of its members to achieve economies of scale to comply with the regulatory requirements of the Regional Water Board. For all reports developed as part of ILRP requirements, CCGC uses experts in groundwater to produce accurate, science-based information.
Should domestic well monitoring find levels higher than standards for the tested parameters, the CCGC will notify member landowners or growers. This information is also provided to the Regional Water Board. CCGC provides members with an annual report summarizing the information collected as well as summaries of revenue and expenditures. CCGC also informs the Regional Water Board when the member provides a replacement water source or discontinues use of a well for drinking water purposes.
The first undertaking of CCGC between 2013 and 2015 was characterizing the rural drinking water supply and shallow groundwater aquifer in the CCGC region. In addition to using data from member wells, CCGC gathered publicly available data generated by the counties and data submitted by landowners and growers who perform individual monitoring as part of the current ILRP. Information collected on tested wells include depth to groundwater, well perforation levels where available. For many wells, quality parameters are collected such as nitrates and total dissolved solids (TDS). In the groundwater characterization report, this information was compiled and analyzed to produce maps showing areas where groundwater quality exceeds drinking water limits for nitrates. This information enabled CCGC to develop an accurate groundwater characterization in 2015 which provides growers, regulators and the public with a better understanding of local aquifers and geology in the region.