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A sign on Tustin Ranch Road at Heritage Park announces the City of Tustin uses reclaimed water to irrigate their public roadways and parks to reduce water usage during a drought in southern California. ////ADDITIONAL INFO: - 04.drought.0922.ks - Day: Tuesday - Date: 9/22/15 - Time: 9:26:17 AM - Original file name: _KSA2461.NEF - KEN STEINHARDT, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER -- DroughtAt last weekend’s Wine & Food Festival in Newport Beach, some sommeliers and other professionals in the wine industry said that the drought had brought unexpected benefits to California’s wine regions.

One common opinion is that with the right varietals, dry (or nearly dry) farming is possible. Jerry Lohr, Justin Smith and other Central Coast winemakers are famously stingy with water. The general consensus about the 2013 and ’14 has been that wise water management, coupled with perfect weather for grapes, have resulted in excellent vintages for many California winemakers, with grapes of remarkable concentration.

But make no mistake — the drought, if it continues, will profoundly affect the wine industry (and, of course, other forms of agriculture, not to mention future development). The situation is especially dire on the Central Coast, where agriculture east of Paso Robles depends on the area’s natural aquifer. Consider this sobering news in the San Luis Obispo Tribune:

A new analysis of the Paso Robles groundwater basin shows that aquifer levels near Paso Robles will drop an additional 70 feet if pumping continues unabated over the next 30 years.

The new hydrological analysis commissioned by the San Luis Obispo County Department of Public Works updates the calculations of how much water was pumped from the basin from 1981 to 2011 and estimates how much will be pumped from 2012 to 2040 under growth and no-growth scenarios.

The no-growth scenario assumes no new pumping from the basin. The growth scenario assumes a 1 percent increase in vineyard, municipal, rural domestic and small commercial pumping.

County supervisors disagree on the severity of the problem but said this week that management of the basin to prevent over-pumping is needed.

“It suggests that if we don’t do something significantly different, there will be very serious problems going forward,” said Supervisor Bruce Gibson, chairman of the board. “Right now we have to deal with the stark reality that we have a basin that is in serious decline.”