SLRMWD approves water monitoring

The board of the San Luis Rey Municipal Water District approved a water quality monitoring program for groundwater in the district’s area.

The board’s February 21 approval will allow the results to be used for future actions. “The idea was to establish some baseline information regarding what is actually in the basin,” said San Luis Rey Municipal Water District president Vic Pankey. “We’re trying to get information that we can rely on in the future,” Pankey said.

The information about current water quality will allow for actual assessment of any degradation. “What we’re trying to do is get information sampled and handled in a way to make it acceptable to any challenges,” Pankey said.

In addition to the effects any residential development would have on the basin water quality, the planned Gregory Canyon landfill might impact the groundwater, so the water district sought data before the landfill, the planned Rosemary’s Mountain quarry, and residential development affected the basin. “We want to get that before some of those other things happen,” Pankey said. “We’re trying to get to the point where we have something that says ‘this is what it’s like now.’”

The data will be documented after analysis, which will take place possibly on a quarterly or annual basis. The district plans to conduct future samples and watch for trends.

“It kind of dovetails with what the City of Oceanside is doing,” Pankey said.

The San Luis Rey River runs from Lake Henshaw to the Pacific Ocean, and the City of Oceanside is monitoring its portion of the river. “They want to know what’s going on upstream as well,” Pankey said.