Carpinteria water district outlines advanced purification project; neighbors oppose Meadowview drilling site

The Carpinteria Valley Water District on Aug. 25 told the Carpinteria City Council the Carpinteria Advanced Purification (CAP) project is intended to increase drought resilience by treating wastewater and recharging the groundwater basin. Bob McDonald, district general manager, said construction bids were issued and the district expects construction to begin in January 2026.

“It's a rain‑independent supply,” McDonald said, describing how treated wastewater will be advanced treated and injected into the basin for extraction through municipal wells. He said the project is designed to yield about 1,000 acre‑feet per year — “a little bit over one‑third of our current demand” — and to reduce wastewater discharged to the ocean.

On financing, McDonald said the district has secured roughly $26 million in funding and expects an additional $10 million, bringing grant support to about $36 million; the remainder would be financed by a low‑interest state loan. “We need to recover about $4,000,000 a year,” he said, explaining the board’s decision to put capital costs on the property tax roll and operating costs on water bills while a cost‑of‑service study determines the final rate structure.

Council members pressed for details about construction impacts and monitoring. McDonald said monitoring and multiple regulatory checkpoints are built into the project, and described mitigation for drilling noise: temporary 24‑hour drilling at well sites with perimeter sound walls to meet municipal thresholds. He said injection wells will be paired with monitoring wells to meet regulatory spacing and performance requirements.

Public comment focused on siting. Scott Grieve, president of the Linden Meadows Homeowners Association, said homeowners do not oppose CAP in principle but strongly oppose placing a drilling site on Meadowview Lane. “We have a petition…56 signatures of people that are residents of The Meadows opposing the placement of the well on Meadowview Lane,” Grieve said, adding residents were given limited notice and that a prolonged 24‑hour drilling period would affect property values and sales.

McDonald said the district analyzed six candidate well sites in the EIR, negotiated with landowners (including a Catholic church), and, in response to neighborhood concerns, moved some monitoring wells to an agricultural parcel outside the city. He told council the injection‑well drilling itself is expected to take approximately one month per injection well (24‑hour drilling), with monitoring‑well work scheduled into 2027.

Council members requested maps of monitoring checkpoints and asked that staff provide clearer information on the sampling locations and the process for ensuring injection water quality before it enters the aquifer. The presentation was informational; no council action was required.