Three years before the California drought became a crisis, national berry giant Driscoll’s, on the Central Coast, knew it had a major problem with water.
It was disappearing. Water rights lawsuits had become commonplace, water rates were rising again and the precious liquid seemed to be vanishing before growers’ eyes. Groundwater, which provides all of Pajaro Valley’s water, was being pumped at twice the rate the aquifer could provide – the equivalent of about 12,000 acre-feet a year. The problem was especially dire for coastal growers whose overdrawn wells were being contaminated by saltwater intrusion from Monterey Bay.
Driscoll’s didn’t just watch the water go down the drain.
In 2010, it partnered with local landowners and growers, the Resource Conservation District of Santa Cruz County and other groups to launch a bold public/private partnership, the Community Water Dialogue, to solve the valley’s water problems. The group had three defining goals when it started: protect the valley as an important agricultural resource, diverse strategies that would require costs and sacrifices by all to restore the aquifer and a solve the problem locally rather than pushing for ‘outside’ fixes, such as a new pipeline to import water.