1. Members sought more time to review projects before an August board target. The advisory committee is working toward a July recommendation. Staff plans to ask the Salinas Valley Basin Groundwater Sustainability Agency Board to select a preferred portfolio of projects and management actions in August 2026, earlier than the fall timeframe previously discussed. Periodic evaluations and Groundwater Sustainability Plan (GSP) amendments are due to the Department of Water Resources in January 2027. Staff said draft amendments need a 90-day public comment period beginning in September. Members said the sub-basin committees had not yet reviewed the proposed project bundles and wanted meaningful opportunities to advise their representatives.
2. Project affordability remains unresolved. Salinas Basin Water Alliance representative Chris Bunn cited BGR feasibility-study estimates of $42 million in annual debt service and $151 million in annual operations and maintenance, totaling approximately $193 million a year. Members questioned whether projects could be funded and called for an affordable Plan B. Their per-acre calculations were illustrative, not proposed charges: one example spread roughly $200 million annually across 18,000 acres, producing more than $11,000 per acre per year. Speakers warned that an unworkable approach could lead to adjudication or state intervention.
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