Agencies race to fix plans to sustain groundwater levels
plans include the Tule, Kaweah, Kern County, Delta-Mendota and Chowchilla subbasins. Local agencies overseeing the subbasins are scheduled to appear before the state water board later this year and early next year to learn if the board will place them under probationary status. With dairies located in affected subba- sins, Geoffrey Vanden Heuvel, director of regulatory and economic affairs for the Milk Producers Council, said he has been following the SGMA process. “The first lesson that subbasins ought
to learn is you have no chance if you don’t submit an updated groundwater sustain- ability plan,” Vanden Heuvel said. He add- ed, “All of the problems in the subbasins are fixable, but people have to be motivated to solve them.” The Tulare Lake Subbasin, which cov- ers Kings County, was placed under pro- bation April 16 after the state water board agreed with staff that the plan submitted by agencies failed to show how actions would address critical overdraft by limiting
By Christine Souza
sustainability plans evaluated, the state water board has moved to implement the 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, or SGMA. Last month, the Tulare Lake Subbasin became the first subbasin in the state to be placed under probation. Other critical- ly overdrafted subbasins with inadequate
Water allocations get a slight boost as reservoirs rise State and federal water agencies last week announced additional allocations for farmers and other users, citing improv- ing reservoir levels amid spring snowmelt. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said it is increasing promised water deliveries from the Central Valley Project for agricultural contractors south of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River to 40% of requested supplies, up from 35% pledged last month. But the Westlands Water District, which serves 1,000 square miles of farmland in Fresno and Kings counties, criticized the water-supply pledge as insufficient. “With the state’s reservoirs and snow- pack at above-average levels and much of the state out of drought conditions, this meager increase in allocation continues to present unnecessary and unjustified hard- ships for the hard-working people of our District,” Allison Febbo, Westland’s general manager, said in a statement. “Water from the Central Valley Project is the lifeblood of our farms and communities that rely on the crops they grow.” Karl Stock, director for Reclamation’s California-Great Basin region, said the “gradual increase” in allocations was based on improving hydrologic conditions, which the agency continues to monitor. “We realize that our contractors were hoping to see a greater amount of water, and we understand how critical irrigation is to California agriculture and the sur- rounding communities,” Stock said in a statement. “However, continued uncer- tainty in long-term hydrology and regula- tory constraints necessitate Reclamation’s approach with available water supplies.” The California Department of Water Resources said it will increase water de- liveries to 40% of requested supplies from the State Water Project, up from a pledge of 30% last month. DWR said the allocation decision was based on an 800,000 acre-foot increase in water storage at Lake Oroville and the latest snow survey data from key April 1 measurements. By April 28, the lake was at 126% of historical average and 97% of capacity. Seeking to prevent the California State Water Resources Control Board from stepping in to regulate groundwater in critically overdrafted subbasins, local agencies are working to correct deficiencies in their plans to protect groundwater. With groundwater sustainability agencies formed and groundwater WATER GROUND
See GROUNDWATER, Page 15
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May 1, 2024 Ag Alert 3
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