Groundwater Conservation Support

The Cuyama Basin Water District (CBWD) is a California water district formed in 2017 with a primary purpose of operations in compliance with the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA). The District encompasses an area of approximately 83,000 acres within Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, and Ventura Counties, and is located in the Cuyama Valley which lies in the Coastal Range between the Southern San Joaquin Valley and the Central California Coast. Major crops in the valley include carrots, grapes and alfalfa. Despite the presence of significant agriculture, the Basin receives no surface water imports and historically relies on groundwater pumping to meet demands. The hydrogeology of the Basin is further complicated by the presence of 3 geological faults.

I served as the lead technical support for the District to aid with SGMA compliance policy analysis, helping analyze and understand periodic updates to their groundwater model, and fundamental questions involving sustainable agriculture practices in an arid environment with no surface water.

My work includes:

Forensic analysis of a finite element model used to inform policies focusing on groundwater extraction cuts in the Basin.
Optimized model runtime from 27 hours to 3 hours by tweaking hyperparameters.
Implemented real world groundwater extraction data from growers in the finite element model to better represent water usage in the Basin.
Modeled the impact and influence of faults on the transport of groundwater and implications on groundwater sustainability.
Helped create and present results of technical analysis to the Board Members of CBWD on a monthly basis.