The Pajaro Valley Water Management Agency recently awarded more than $68 million in contracts to begin construction of the long-planned College Lake Integrated Resources Management project. The project has been 30 years in the making and aims to rebalance water levels in the critically overdrafted Pajaro Valley Groundwater Basin and protect fish species in the region. Planners anticipate a spring groundbreaking and a construction effort that will be completed within 22 months. … The renowned agricultural industry in South County has long relied on the basin to water its crops, but water is being drawn out quicker than it can be naturally replenished. This allows coastal seawater to move inland through the soil where it could spoil the freshwater if too much of it permeates the basin’s porous border.