Califonia: Water Worries in Paso Wine Country

(Wines&Vines) -Residential and agricultural wells in San Luis Obispo County are going dry at an alarming rate, triggering an at-times acrimonious debate among growers, vintners and rural residents about who’s sucking up all the water.

Earlier this month, the county’s Board of Supervisors voted to enact an emergency ordinance prohibiting the drilling of new wells to give local officials and residents time to draft a strategy to deal with the overdraft problem.

Groundwater levels had been steadily declining in the area for decades, but the problem became precipitously worse in recent years. The rapid decline in well levels coincided with a surge in large vineyard plantings. Some local residents are blaming growers, arguing excessive irrigation is to blame for the water problems. Growers, however, point out that wine grapes are now vital to the economy of Paso Robles and the greater Central Coast region, and vines use far less water and provide far greater value than other crops.

Well worries

Phillip Hart is the owner of AmByth Estate located east of Templeton, Calif., where he tends 20 acres of dry-farmed, Biodynamic vineyards. He said he chose to dry farm because he strongly believes the practice makes better wine.

Hart has a home on the property and a 540-foot well at the top of a hill. He said he had been changing the well filters every couple of months, but now he has to change them every two weeks since the water became considerably dirtier quite quickly.

The change in his water happened after several hundred acres of vines were planted near his property. Hart said he has concerns about his well, and he knows many people in the area blame wineries and growers for the water problem. The issue has even divided the wine community to some degree; owners of some smaller vineyards see the sprawling plantings by large companies—often from outside the region—as to blame. “I definitely think there’s some anger,” Hart said. The grower said he sees both sides: growers who chose to irrigate to ensure a return on their vineyard investment and homeowners worried about losing their water. “At some point everybody has to realize there just isn’t going to be enough water,” he sad.