1. Staff presented three groundwater project studies and plan to bring combined portfolios to the May 15 special meeting. The Advisory Committee reviewed feasibility overviews for Brackish Groundwater Restoration (BGR), Castroville & Eastside Canals and Alternatives (C&E), and the New Seawater Intrusion Project (NSIP). Individual concept capital estimates ranged from $32 million for a limited, 18-well expansion of the existing Castroville Seawater Intrusion Project to $1.4 billion for the largest NSIP option; these are not portfolio prices. Staff said no single project meets every groundwater goal across the four subbasins. They plan to bring at least two starting portfolios for committee review, with a recommendation to the agency board sought sometime in July. No project or portfolio was approved.
2. BGR was the strongest studied project option for seawater intrusion, but affordability and implementation remain major questions. The preferred injection-only concept would extract brackish groundwater near the coast, treat it, and inject nearly 47,000 acre-feet per year into the 180- and 400-foot aquifers. Staff said it could meet the seawater intrusion minimum threshold by 2040. Its estimated capital cost is $951 million, and its $3,321-per-acre-foot unit cost includes capital and operating costs. Members questioned whether users could afford it without outside funding. The chair urged staff to include funding among the project timeline milestones. A modeled alternative water-supply concept also met the intrusion threshold, but was not proposed as the preferred project.
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