Carpinteria Basin Groundwater Sustainability Plan

The Carpinteria Groundwater Basin is a high-priority basin with significant agricultural land use and indications of incipient sea water intrusion. GSI led a multidisciplinary team to develop the GSP for this basin, which included performing hydrogeologic analysis, developing sustainable management criteria, leading public stakeholder meetings to convey technical information, and creating the final GSP for submission to California’s Department of Water Resources (DWR). GSI selected monitoring networks (including representative monitoring sites), developed sustainable management criteria (minimum thresholds and measurable objectives) and worked with basin stakeholders during public meetings and workshops to achieve consensus on GSP goals that will help achieve sustainability in the Basin by 2044. The GSP was successfully submitted to DWR in January 2024 and is currently under review.

GSI’s work involved:

• Leading a multidisciplinary team of experts to develop a thorough and compliant GSP that will help the Carpinteria Basin achieve sustainability by 2044.
• Selecting monitoring networks.
• Developing sustainable management criteria.
• Communicating complex technical information at public forums.
• Writing multiple chapters and producing the final GSP document for submittal to the DWR.