Water Saved by Paying Rancher Not to Irrigate
In an effort to save water, the Cambria Community Services District board has decided to pay $58,420 to a family trust not to grow crops on 14 acres.
The board declared an official water shortage eight months ago.
Chevron has agreed to repay the district for the water-saving measure as part of remediation for MTBE contamination from a Chevron gas station near two district drinking water wells.
The Willis C. Warren Trust operates ranchland irrigated with water drawn just upstream from the district’s wells on a creek. Because the ranchers won’t be irrigating crops, the agreement frees water for district wells in that aquifer.
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