SLO County water ordinance not extended

October 2, 2013
Debbie Arnold

Debbie Arnold

The San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors voted on Tuesday against extending an urgency ordinance that prohibits new development and the planting of crops in the Paso Robles Groundwater Basin area unless proposed projects save as much water as they use.

Due to the death of Supervisor Paul Teixeira in June, all four sitting supervisors need to vote in favor of extending the ordinance for another two years. It is currently slated to end on Oct. 11.

Supervisors Bruce Gibson, Adam Hill and Frank Mecham were in favor of the two-year extension.

Supervisor Debbie Arnold, the lone vote against the extension, voiced her concern about the impact on working families and the economy. She noted that the county had not done an economic analysis of the ordinance to determine how many jobs would be lost.

The meeting ended shortly after 4 p.m. with the board agreeing to continue the hearing to next Tuesday. If the ordinance is not extended for two years during that meeting, the supervisors will reconvene on Oct. 11, the day the emergency ordinance is set to expire.



Maybe step back from the emotion and ask yourself: Why should our Supervisor’s pass an ordinance that is yet to be defined? They have had 35 days to define vested and we are still waiting. Doesn’t sound like anyone in a hurry to help those dry wells…


It’s a manufactured crisis, just like whatever crisis will be solved by the speedy passage of Obamacare.


What many on this board don’t seem the realize is that the aquifer is not one continuous lake. It ebbs and flows and most vineyards have deeper wells completely separate from the paso basin. You are giving away your property rights not just the vineyards. This is a county power that has zero solutions. There are solutions, and that’s where we should be looking. What we are doing now is deeming many properties worthless no different than Cambria. This will cost jobs and people will suffer because of this ordinance.


If the pumpers draw out enough of the groundwater, all you’ll have are little depressions “separate” from the basin. The basin’s been mapped, the restrictions will cover the basin. We’re not talking about growers outside of the basin.

How about this for a solution:

1) Create an equitable water authority governing the basin

2) Meter every straw which draws from the basin, and force a sequence of pumping cutbacks until the water going in is equal to the water going out. The biggest users create a funding pool to fund the meters and measuring, based on their gross tonnage of whatever they’re growing.

3) Once the usage is stable, then adjust the pumping restrictions with the eventual goal of replenishing the aquifer and reaching a steady state.


Debbie Arnold is a political puppet and it is high time that the hand/s that control her are exposed once and for all!


I believe the term is “strings”


I was thinking more along the lines of a sock puppet where the hand is ……


Debbie Arnold “voiced her concern about the impact on working families and the economy.” Huh? I guess she doesn’t think wells running dry so people’s homes become worthless has an effect on the economy or on the working families living in them. Also, you can tell she was voting for her moneyed handlers when she casts a vote to torpedo something favored by the supervisor whose district is affected (Mecham). That is very bad form for a supervisor, and bodes well for isolating her in purgatory for the rest of her term. May she never get a majority for anything she wants!


Google “Resnick” or “Roll International” and learn about Debbie’s fellow constituents, your folksy neighbors, running the wineries with the whimsical and “family” names.


Beautiful ! Totally in the “We told you so !” file .

A know-nothing shill will ALWAYS back their big-money bosses over any other parties…including constituents.

Now, certain North County residents can swallow Ms. Arnold’s platitudes with trucked in water put in their newly installed tanks.

Or, maybe they’ll prefer wine !