July 20, 2015 (Paso Robles, CA) – Citizens Advocating for Local Management of the Paso Robles Groundwater Basin (CALM) announced today the results of their ten-question survey of individuals who own property over the Paso Robles Groundwater Basin. Seventy percent of those who responded said that management of the Basin by a local water district is their preferred choice. The survey was sent to over 2,000 individual landowners in the Paso Robles Groundwater Basin on May 28th with the purpose of creating a benchmark to identify the level of support for the local water district.
“The total response rate was large enough to give us a high level of confidence that it reflects the feelings of the population sampled,” said Hilary Graves, a member of the CALM steering committee. Randy Diffenbaugh, also a CALM steering committee member said, “While we are encouraged by results, we feel there is still a lot of work to do to educate landowners on why local control of our groundwater is better than allowing the county or the state to manage this resource for us.”
The ten-question survey was emailed to landowners via Survey Monkey to gain a better understanding of the community’s opinions regarding the creation of the water district over the Paso Robles Groundwater Basin. The survey, with the response percentages for each of the questions, can be viewed on the CALM website.
CALM is currently working to educate property owners about the upcoming decisions regarding management of the Paso Robles Groundwater Basin. “Education on this issue should be of vital importance to all of us so that we can make an informed decision as to why local control is the best management solution for us as landowners,” said Graves.
About CALM
CALM is a grassroots group of citizens who feel that local management of our groundwater basin, in the form of a water district with a hybrid board as proposed in AB2453, is the best way to provide fair and equitable management of the groundwater for our community. To learn more about CALM or to join us as a supporter of our educational efforts please visit our website at calmthebasin.org, or contact us at info@calmthebasin.org.
