Later McNiesh explains that farmers often don't understand the environmental aspects of water storage, especially when dams and redirecting rivers are involved. McNiesh hopes the agency can begin constructing pumping and filtration facilities at Harkins Slough next year, but has had to put the other two projects on hold because of the Coastal Commission's concerns. In 1984 McNiesh, then a soil sciences student, worked on a Pajaro Valley irrigation study which found that local waters couldn't meet south county's growing agricultural needs. State agencies labeled the region overdrafted in 1978, and farmers first noticed saltwater intrusion in the Springfield and Aromas regions in the 1950s. Farmers use about 80 percent of the Pajaro Valley's water, but it's important not only for agriculture.
Water equals big money for engineers, consultants and developers.
Today, the Central Valley Project is still the most mind-boggling public works project on five continents. . . . Besides unfulfilled half-promises of water, the behemoth Central Valley Project has created a market in intercity water dealing. For example, when Santa Barbara doesn't use all the water it has requested during any given year, it can sell the excess to other cities. McKinney, a critic of statewide water projects, likes to point to the town of Solvang as an example of a pipeline gone awry. Solvang City Council members decided to hook up to the Central Coast Aqueduct Project, planned by the Pajaro agency's consultant Lyndel Melton and his former employer, Montgomery Watson.