It will be a year of big aspirations for solving Salinas Valley water woes.

How many committees and subcommittees does it take to make peace in the world of Salinas Valley water politics?

The staff members leading the Salinas Valley Basin Groundwater Sustainability Agency are betting they have an answer: six subbasin committees, two technical advisory committees, two committees partnering with other groundwater sustainability agencies, one board of directors plus one newly formed advisory committee.

That new advisory committee met for the first time on Thursday, Dec. 18, its 13 members seated in a horseshoe shape. Piret Harmon, the general manager of SVBGSA, gave them their marching orders: “You are thinking about what’s best for this agency and for the whole valley.”

Almost immediately after her introductory remarks, the kumbaya moment was over. “If you think this committee is going to run over one of the subbasin committees, you’re crazy,” said Roger Moitoso, a vineyard manager and representative from the Upper Valley Aquifer Subbasin to the advisory committee.

The idea that the people gathered around the table might reach consensus – they include representatives of the six subbasin committees – seemed almost instantly out of reach. But Harmon kept her message positive. Because, as she told the advisory committee, “A decision needs to be made 12 months from now. The clock is ticking.”

Zooming out to that decision and that clock: The SVBGSA was formed in 2016, the local response to the state’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act that took effect in 2015. Now, approaching a decade into its existence and after sinking $20.3 million of grant funds into various studies, and with sustainability plans written up, it is onto the action phase – actually deciding which projects to implement in order to achieve sustainability goals by 2040, the state’s deadline.

“Any major public works project takes years and years,” Harmon notes. “We are feeling the pressure.”

This year is when the rubber meets the road in approving those projects. Hydrogeologist Derrik Williams of Montgomery and Associates, a consultant to the SVBGSA, explains the possibilities in the simplest terms. “We really only have two knobs to turn,” Williams says. “Either putting more water into the ground, or taking less out.”

“I don’t think this community can afford to do nothing.”

What those two knobs look like in practice and in cost is another matter, and that’s where the advisory committee comes in. (They next meet at 2pm on Thursday, Jan. 22.) This year, staff of the SVBGSA will dive into feasibility studies on a variety of projects that achieve one of those two knobs to varying degrees. They will attempt to quantify the projected benefit – and cost – of each project.

Potential projects include major public works undertakings, like a series of wells to serve as an extraction barrier addressing seawater intrusion near the coast, plus a desalination component. One option is to utilize surface water from the Castroville and Eastside canals. Another possibility is aquifer storage and recovery, reinjecting water underground.

Another potential component is “demand management,” code for reducing pumping. (That last item involves no new infrastructure, but its impact could be big in another way; agriculture consumes 90 percent of the area’s groundwater, compared to 10 percent for domestic use.)

Whatever the combination of projects is, Harmon told the advisory committee, “It’s not going to be cheap. We have solutions, but they’re going to cost some money.”

The advisory committee (and ultimately the board) are supposed to deliver a plan that can be funded and implemented and deliver real results.

But who pays how much – and who benefits how much from which project – is already contentious.

Nancy Isakson, representing a group of agricultural users called the Salinas Valley Water Coalition, told the committee: “Cost is a factor, but the cost of doing nothing will be greater, and I don’t think this community can afford to do nothing.”

If they do nothing – or if they do something but it gets dragged down in court – the decision gets handed over to the state. That means decision-makers would be wise to think of Harmon’s advice and to think not just of themselves, but the whole.

SARA RUBIN is the Weekly’s editor. Reach her at sara@montereycountynow.com