Why There’s No “Creek” in the Soquel Creek Water District

Here in the mid-coast area, many people know that the Soquel Creek Water District provides clean, high-quality drinking water to residents in Aptos, La Selva Beach, Opal Cliffs, Rio Del Mar, Seascape, Soquel, and parts of Capitola.

But many may not realize that – despite the District’s name – the Soquel Creek Water District – does not get this water from their namesake. Not one drop!

In fact, the District’s sole source of drinking water is the Santa Cruz Mid-County Groundwater Basin, not the Soquel Creek. This underground basin is also shared with the City of Santa Cruz, Central Water District, small mutual water companies, and several thousand private-well owners.

So why name the District after Soquel Creek? Formed in 1961, the District launched primarily as a local flood-control agency. Its original focus was on the Soquel Creek drainage area as it flows from the hills down into the ocean, where Capitola State Beach is now.

This came about after unusually heavy rainfall in late 1955 caused Soquel Creek to severely flood, resulting in significant damage to the unincorporated communities along the creek, and Capitola (as well as part of Santa Cruz). Equipment and facilities of the small Monterey Bay Water Company that served the area were also damaged.

This flooding led to the formation of the Soquel Creek County Water District (later the term “County” was dropped). Its early work on flood control is a much longer story! But suffice to say that the District soon evolved (starting with the purchase of the Monterey Bay Water Company) into a provider of drinking water to the expanding community.

Today, through our 16 active groundwater wells, we pump nearly 3 million gallons of fresh water each day, to serve about 41,000 residents. Besides 21,000 households, our customers include businesses, schools, churches, government offices, parks, and more.

A team of nearly 50 employees are dedicated to the District’s mission of providing a safe, high-quality, reliable, and sustainable water supply to meet the community’s present and future needs, in an environmentally-sensitive and economically-responsible manner.

But providing that water is a lot more than just pumping it out and delivering it. In addition to the core activity of operations and maintenance of our water delivery systems, the District’s staff includes people handling water conservation and education programs, customer service, finance and business services, human resources, and special projects/communications.

Plus, the District’s essential responsibility is to explore additional water supplies to ensure a sustainable water supply for the future health and vitality of the community.

This is important because the State of California has designated the Santa Cruz Mid-County Groundwater Basin as “critically overdrafted,” meaning we’re pumping out more water than the basin can naturally replenish through rainfall. This causes both a shortage of available water, (especially during a drought), and seawater moving inland and contaminating our only water supply. In fact, seawater intrusion has been documented at several locations of the groundwater basin and is continuing to move inland.

The District is exploring several options to address this problem with the Community Plan—a proposed path to a reliable water supply. Visit the District’s website for more information on related programs and projects that could impact your future water supply.