NIPOMO - The Nipomo Community Services District is asking residents to pay for a $26 million pipeline that will help diversify the community's freshwater supply.
Michael LeBrun, the NCSD General Manager, describes it as, "it's a 26 million dollar capital project and it's to build a pipeline to interconnecting the city of Santa Maria's water supply system to the four major water purveyors on the Nipomo mesa."
LeBrun says the project, while expensive, is badly needed. "We're wholly dependant on the ground water table and that groundwater table moves with the rainfall up and down, but as we have drawn down that groundwater table as we have over the last number of decades, we're threatened by sea water intrusion."
While the Services District says this is the best plan for Nipomo, not everyone in town agrees. Carl Marshall, a Nipomo Resident, says, "it doesn't have to be the pipeline and water from Santa Maria, there are several other very possible sources of water that I would like to consider."
Nipomo landowners will soon get their chance to vote on the project. Ballots will arrive in the mail, with voting set to begin in mid-March. The voting period will last 45 days. Final results will be available on either May 9th or 10th. If the project is approved, LeBrun says construction could begin as early as this September. Completion is expected to take about 18 months, so the project may be ready as soon as June 2014.
