The rights to extract water from the Santa Maria Valley Groundwater Basin have been in litigation since the late 1990s. By stipulation and Court action three separate management areas were establish. The Nipomo Mesa Management Area (NMMA) Technical Group is one of these three management areas established by the Court and charged with developing the technical bases for sustainable management of the surface and groundwater supplies available to each of the management areas.
Each management area was directed for form a group of technical experts to continue to study and evaluate the characteristics and conditions of each area and to present their findings to the Court in the form of an annual report. The NMMA Technical Group is made up of professional hydrologists, geologists, engineers, and local agriculture representatives from ConocoPhillips, Golden State Water Company, Nipomo Community Services District and Woodlands Mutual Water Company. Their task is to collect and compile data for an annual report that is presented to the Court in April of each year.
The goal of the NMMA is to promote monitoring and management practices so that present and future water demands are satisfied without causing longer-term damage to the underlying groundwater resource.
Rob Miller, General Manager of the Woodlands Mutual Water Company currently sits on this technical group.