Anger showed at Tehama County well registration program workshop
“A workshop on Tehama County’s well registration program drew many residents to the Red Bluff Community Center Wednesday evening, with some loudly voicing their concerns and anger. Before residents could ask questions about the program, Public Works Deputy Director Justin Jenson reviewed the program and how the county got to this position. The Tehama County Flood Control and Water Conservation District adopted a resolution requiring all wells in the county to be registered and all qualified APNs to pay $0.29 per acre per year to the cost of the registration program. Jenson said a fee would be assessed to all APNs large enough to cover the billing cost. This fee is assessed regardless of property use and will initially be used to set up a well registration program. … “ Read more from the Red Bluff Daily News.
Farmers race to sink water into ground after storms
“Growers in the San Joaquin Valley are hurriedly building temporary groundwater sinking basins to take advantage of inexpensive, uncontrolled seasonal water. And they are racing to replenish underground water supplies that could carry them through drier years ahead. In Tulare County, farm manager Zack Stuller’s phone started ringing nonstop in late December, after a series of intense storms fueled by atmospheric rivers walloped California, dumping snow in the mountains and rain in the lowlands. Clients of Stuller’s farm management and land development business took note of conditions in the San Joaquin River and Kaweah River watersheds and anticipated an opportunity to conduct on-farm recharge—if they had a place to put it. “Everyone is scrambling,” Stuller said as he surveyed a recent project in Exeter. “We weren’t prepared for this much water, and we can’t build them fast enough.” … ” Read more from Ag Alert.
San Joaquin County regional water partners’ first aquifer recharge and groundwater test a success
“Water agencies in California’s Central Valley and East Bay took a major step forward in February on a joint pilot project to diversify water supplies, enhance drought resilience and restore a depleted aquifer through groundwater recharge. For the first time, the East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) extracted groundwater banked deep below farmland in San Joaquin County into the utility’s Mokelumne aqueducts, which convey surface water from Pardee Reservoir in the Sierra Nevada foothills to customers in the East Bay. This extraction was a key step for DREAM – short for Demonstration Recharge, Extraction and Aquifer Management – a pilot project involving EBMUD, North San Joaquin Water Conservation District, San Joaquin County, and Eastern Water Alliance. The unique urban-agricultural partnership is designed to improve water supply reliability for both San Joaquin County farmers and EBMUD customers in Alameda and Contra Costa counties while recharging the critically over-drafted Eastern San Joaquin County Groundwater Basin. … ” Read more from the County of San Joaquin.
Eastern San Joaquin groundwater plan gets a thumbs up
“The California Department of Water Resources has recommended the approval of the Eastern San Joaquin Water Authority Groundwater Sustainability Plan. San Joaquin County officials said the recommendation is a significant step toward ensuring the region will have enough groundwater by 2040. “DWR’s acceptance of our groundwater sustainability plan is a tribute to the hard work and historic collaboration among 16 diverse Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSAs) that joined together to build consensus around realistic and common-sense solutions with the unified goal of sustainability,” San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors Chairman Robert Rickman said in a Friday media statement. … ” Read more from the Lodi Sentinel.
Westlands Water District receives recommendation for approval to advance groundwater storage and sustainability efforts
“Today, the Department of Water Resources (DWR) announced the recommendation of approval for the Westside Subbasin Groundwater Sustainability Plan (Westside GSP). Westlands Water District (District) is proud to have a plan for management of groundwater that provides a detailed blueprint for achieving long-term groundwater sustainability in the heart of the San Joaquin Valley’s prime farmland while avoiding undesirable impacts to the Westside Subbasin and to infrastructure critical to California. “We are grateful that DWR staff believe the District has taken sufficient actions to address the deficiencies DWR previously identified, and are now preparing to recommend approval,” said Jeff Fortune, president of Westlands’ Board of Directors. … ” Read more from Westlands Water District.
Tulare County Groundwater Sustainability Plans deemed inadequate – aquifer risks being taken over by the state
“The Department of Water Resources (DWR) today, March 2, announced their decision on the groundwater sustainability plans for 12 critically overdrafted groundwater basins in Central California. Of the 12 basins, DWR declared that six did not submit plans that demonstrate they will reach sustainability by 2040. Two of those basins are in Tulare County and cover a majority of its aquifer. The only basin recommended for approval was Kings Basin which covers mostly Fresno County and only a small part of Tulare County. If Tulare County GSAs can’t come up with a workable plan to achieve sustainability, the management of Tulare County’s groundwater might be taken over by the state. The two sub-basins that did not win DWR approval are the Kaweah sub-basin and the Tule sub-basin. … ” Read more from the Valley Voice.
Paso Robles farmers ask for fair water rules after supervisors repeal planting ordinance
“The San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 on Tuesday to repeal the planting ordinance for the Paso Robles Groundwater Basin before it could take effect on March 1, as farmers called for a more fair approach to managing the resource. For the time being, it means SLO County will return to its 2015 permitting rules for sowing crops irrigated by basin groundwater using an exemption limit of 5 acre-feet of water per year, rather than the increase to 25 acre-feet approved by the conservative majority in December. According to the restored rules, the county can only issue a planting permit to farmers if the crops are water neutral — meaning the new crop uses the same amount of water as the previous crop on that land, with an exemption of a maximum additional 5 acre-feet of water per year, according to Planning Division manager Airlin Singewald. … “ Read more from the San Luis Obispo Tribune.
Cuyama Valley groundwater plan approved. What does this mean for Big Carrot?
“The embattled Cuyama Valley groundwater basin now has a state-approved plan that aims to create a sustainable source of water mainly through groundwater pumping reductions. On Thursday, the California Department of Water Resources approved the groundwater sustainability plan drafted by the Cuyama Basin Groundwater Sustainability Agency, a joint powers agency comprised of Kern, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura counties as well as the Cuyama Community Services District and Cuyama Basin Water District. The plan was required under the California Sustainable Groundwater Management Act because the Cuyama basin is considered critically overdrafted. … ” Read more from the San Luis Obispo Tribune.
Ridgecrest: Groundwater Authority board approves spending $7.8 million to plan importing water project
“At the regular board meeting for the Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority on February 8, the IWVGA board approved the authorization of three contracts to prepare for the water importation system they plan to use for bringing the IWV groundwater basin into sustainability. The three contracts total to $7,867,312. These contracts are largely made possible by a $7.6 million dollar grant which IWVGA secured from the California Department of Water Resources in May of 2022. The grant is for the implementation of projects to help achieve a sustainable groundwater supply for the region, and work on these projects must be complete by June 30, 2025 unless agencies are successful in extending the deadline. … ” Continue reading at the Ridgecrest Independent.
Ridgecrest City Council to hear about groundwater less often
“If it seems like the agenda for Wednesday’s City Council meeting is missing something, maybe that’s because it is. For the first time in many meetings, the council will not be hearing from Council Member Scott Hayman, the city’s representative to the Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority today. Hayman has routinely delivered a groundwater update as part of every meeting. This practice is changing after an informal discussion at the most recent council meeting. Mayor Eric Bruen suggested the item be dropped from some agendas after Hayman gave his groundwater update Feb. 15. “Do we need to have water on the agenda every time?” Bruen asked, adding “We’ve hee’d and haw’d with this.” … ” Read more from the Ridgecrest Independent.
Ridgecrest: IWVGA enters agreement with Navy, BLM
“The Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority on Feb. 28, 2023 announced that at its February meeting, the GA approved a joint defense agreement with the United States concerning the general groundwater adjudication filed by the Indian Wells Valley Water District. The agreement recognizes “common and shared interest in the outcome of the adjudication” for IWVGA and the United States (Navy and BLM). Note that in this context the word “defense” refers to legal defense, not Department of Defense. The agreement allows the parties to share information, including data and technical information and to discuss strategies concerning the adjudication “privately and confidentially pursuant to available legal privileges,” according to a groundwater authority news release. … ” Read more from the Ridgecrest Independent.