Groundwater Continued from Page 1 state department of water resources SGMA management office, told the California State Board of Food and Agriculture last week that 65 plans for 63 medium- and high-priori- ty groundwater basins were submitted in January 2022 and are being evaluated. For 21 of the most critically overdrafted ba- sins, DWR evaluated 46 plans submitted in January 2020. Of these, Gosselin said, the department approved plans for eight basins. Plans for 12 basins were found to be incomplete. The department deemed the plans for the Tulare Lake subbasin inadequate. For incomplete plans, Gosselin said agencies have six months from the date of the determination to resubmit and address inconsistencies or methodologies, such as issues related to subsidence, water qual- ity, drinking water impacts, depletion of interconnected surface water and lack of coordination among plans. “We are in the process of unpacking those (plans resubmitted in late July) and evaluating whether they met the deficien- cies or not,” Gosselin said. “There is no statutory deadline for us to complete the review, but we’re intending to do the lion’s share of it by the end of the calendar year. Some of the multiplan basins are probably not going to get a determination done until the first quarter of 2023.” The Tulare Lake subbasin, which cov- ers most of Kings County, was dropped to inadequate status because the two submitted plans did not have a required coordination agreement, Gosselin said. Plans found to be inadequate fall under the authority of the California State Water Resources Control Board. Gosselin said the state water board “asked us to complete our evaluation and to notify them whether the basin addressed all the deficiencies or not. In the meantime, the board notified us they would sit tight and not hold hearings and wait until they received notification on that plan.” Dusty Ference, executive director of the Kings County Farm Bureau, said the inadequate determination by DWR comes as no surprise.
“The GSAs in the Tulare Lake subbasin had agreed on an updated plan after they were all essentially deemed incomplete back in January. When the GSAs needed to adopt their updated plan to address those deficiencies, one GSA accepted everything with one addition,” Ference said, adding that the addition means that the basin no longer had a coordinated plan. “We thought we had a plan that made sense to most growers; it was going to hurt a little bit, but everybody could live with it, and then boom—everything comes to a screeching halt,” he said. As SGMA plays out, Ference said, “Farmers are frustrated, they are worried, and they don’t know what to do.” He said with agriculture driving 25% of the county’s By Christine Souza Direct losses for California agriculture due to drought over the past two years are $3 billion, with $1.7 billion in losses this year and $1.3 billion in 2021, according to initial estimates from a study by the University of California, Merced. “Every drought is different,” said water resources management professor Josue Medellin-Azuara, who presented the initial study findings at a meeting of the California State Board of Food and Agriculture last week. “In this drought, from 2019 to 2022, the deficit concentrates in the northern portions of the state that are usually more wet and supply water to other areas of the state in the form of exports.” California is in the middle of one of the hottest, driest three-year periods on re- cord, Medellin-Azuara said, adding “this drought has been warmer and drier.” As many as 752,000 acres of farmland could be fallowed this year because of wa- ter shortages, he said.
workforce, those in agriculture remain con- cerned about rural communities. Gosselin said DWR has awarded $400 million during the past two years to help local groundwater agencies comply with SGMA requirements. Last May, each of the critically overdraft- ed basins received $7.6 million to imple- ment SGMA. The state is also advancing actions and projects, such as groundwater recharge projects. “We have a vested interest in ensuring that with the rains that are hopefully start- ing outside the window now and through the winter, that those projects that come in, we’ll be able to capture that water and start recharging basins,” Gosselin said. For projects that bolster the state’s water
supply and related infrastructure, Diedrich said, many farmers are concerned that there may be only a few wet years between now and the 2040s, when groundwater agencies must achieve sustainability. Diedrich said the state must be ready to capture excess flood water. He said agen- cies “are trying to develop projects locally, but these will be a very small amount com- pared to the amount of water that we need. “We’re talking about new canals and conveyance on top of new water rights,” he said. “It’s a very long-range project, longer than the amount of time we have to comply.” (Christine Souza is an assistant editor of Ag Alert. She may be contacted at csouza@cfbf.com.) place to place and changing varieties in some cases to drought tolerant, but I think by the time horizon of SGMA, maintaining a healthy mix of permanent and perennial crops will help increase resilience at the local level,” he said. “We need to seize op- portunities to capture excess rainfall and flows and get those in the ground for facing future droughts.” Medellin-Azuara said crop insurance could also provide some relief for affect- ed farmers. Don Cameron, chair of the state board of food and agriculture, who farms in Fresno County, expressed a need to protect farmers and the food supply provided by California agriculture, adding that insur- ance does not cover many commodities. “California is very unique,” Cameron said. “Many of the crops either aren’t covered or don’t have preventative planting provisions.” (Christine Souza is an assistant editor of Ag Alert. She may be contacted at csouza@cfbf.com.)
Study: Drought toll for farms is $3 billion The report also shows extensive losses in the food-processing sector, with ini- tial estimates reaching nearly $6 billion in 2021 and 2022, and more than 12,000 lost jobs.
CDFA funded the report, which is antic- ipated to be released in the coming weeks. Medellin-Azuara said groundwater pumping increased in the Sacramento Valley this year, noting that the region ex- perienced less water and extensive fallow- ing of rice ground. The study found that groundwater pumping increased in some areas of the San Joaquin Valley. The cost to pump groundwater is estimated to be $123 mil- lion this year, compared to $184 million in 2021. Medellin-Azuara said drought raises challenges for the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, which requires that local agencies bring ground- water aquifers into balance by the 2040s. “We’ve been very innovative in adapting our crop mix and transferring water from
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November 9, 2022 Ag Alert 11
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