Location: Castroville, California
Problem: Castroville needed to access funding for water and wastewater improvements.
Solution: RCAC conducted an income survey in Castroville, which demonstrated that it is eligible to apply for grant funding.
Castroville is a farming community in Monterey County that has struggled to obtain grant funding for its water infrastructure and other facilities. The town’s community services district provides potable water and wastewater services to homes and businesses—a population of about 7,200 with 2,200 service connections. The district receives 100 percent of its water from groundwater that is at risk for seawater intrusion.
Until 2016, Castroville was ineligible to apply for various federal and state government funding because, while most residents are low-income, the 2011-2015 American Community Survey (ACS) indicated the town’s median household income (MHI) was above the federal threshold. The ACS, however, notes sampling constraints and an often high margin of error for smaller geographies. The margin of error for Castroville was plus/minus $5,893.
City leaders decided to challenge the data and asked RCAC to conduct an independent door-to-door survey, which ultimately demonstrated that Castroville is in fact a severely disadvantaged community. RCAC conducted the independent MHI in order to establish an MHI for the community, which will remain in effect for the next five years.
RCAC staff, according to Castroville’s general manager, J. Eric Tynan, “was instrumental in not only guiding us through the study but also bringing the study to a successful conclusion. For a small rural community, with limited resources, I cannot express enough how important this study was for our community and our district.”
Castroville has since submitted applications through both the California State Water Resources Control Board Prop 1 and through Greater Monterey County Integrated Regional Water Management for funding to complete water improvements. RCAC’s MHI will help ensure that this community has the funds needed to improve its infrastructure and provide safe drinking water to its residents.
