quickly,” Scheuring said. “This is because in the draft groundwater sustainability plan that was developed, agriculturalists are expected to pay a $2,130 per acre-foot water replenishment fee, which is just not tenable; no farmer can afford that.” He said he expects farmers in other wa- ter-short basinswill hope theirGSPs don’t look the same. “Byproposing thisexorbitant replenish- ment charge to farmers forwater, it iseffec- tively saying, ‘You’re not going to access your overlying rights in thebasinuntil you pay this fee,’ so, inthat scenario, agriculture is largely going to go away in that particu- lar basin. It’s one of the first groundwater sustainabilityplanswe’reseeing that could wholly restrict agriculture in a water-poor area, while ignoring overlying rights and preferring other, non-agricultural users in the basin,” Scheuring said. CFBF and Western Growers sent a let- ter last week to authority chairmanMick Gleason, who is alsoaKernCounty super- visor and former commanding officer of theNavalAirWeaponsStationChinaLake, which is locatedwithin the basin. In the letter, the twoagricultural organi- zations said it was “shocking” the amount of water the authority planned to reserve for the Navy, which they described as “ex- pressly not subject to SGMA or the plan.” The farm groups said the Indian Wells Valley GSA “denies overlying landowner farmers any groundwater allocation at all, unless they pay the authority $2,130 per acre-foot. This egregious plan contradicts the express provisions of SGMA and will decimate agriculture in your basin area.” CFBF and Western Growers urged the authority torevise itsGSP to“fairlyandob- jectively take intoaccount theneeds of ag- riculture, and dispensewith the pretext of reservingwater for theU.S.Navy, since it is not subject to theplan inthe first placeand hasotherwiseopenlyexpressedaneed for Groundwater Continued from Page 1
less than25%of thegroundwater youhave allocated to it.” Scheuringsaidbecause the IndianWells ValleyBasinis incritical overdraft, reduced groundwater use would be required, but he said theGSP has significant flaws. “Asacurrent andprimary landuse, agri- culture should be treated in the top tier of wateruse, due to itsoverlyingwater rights,” he said. Both the Mojave Pistachios lawsuit and a separate suit from Searles Valley Minerals—a large employer and holder of the most senior water rights in the ba- sin—criticize the IndianWells Valley GSP for prioritizing water for the naval air sta- tion at the expense of other water users. Scheuring said theNavymaintains fed- eral reserved water rights, which means the naval air station “has this right to draw from the water underneath it, not only for current needs, but potentially future needs.” Eric Garner, an attorney representing Searles Valley Minerals, said its lawsuit
focuses on the water-replenishment fee, which would hike the company’s water costs by 7,000%. “Arbitrary taxes and fees that ignore historic water rights threaten to wreak havoc on businesses and industries,” Garner said. “The outcome of this litiga- tion will have far-reaching implications for every groundwater agency and every business that holds a water right in the state of California.” Inan interviewlastweekon theMaven’s Notebook water podcast, Garner said SGMA “states in multiple places that lo- cal agencies could not determine water rights, so water rights determinations are reserved for the courts.” CFBF environmental policy analyst Justin Fredrickson said SGMA prohibits groundwater sustainability agencies from determining underlying water rights, but also requires GSAs to bring their basins into balance during a 20-year period. SGMA grants the GSAs broad authority to do so, Fredrickson said, including the coverage for a specific dairy operation, farmers may use a recently updated on- linedairydecision tool, which is intended to assist with calculating total premium costs and administrative fees associated with participation in DMC. Both the de- cision tool and an informational video are available at dairymarkets.org/dmc. Improvements to the decision tool, made in cooperation with representa- tives from the University of Minnesota and University of Wisconsin, include historical analysis that illustrates what DMC indemnity payments might have been, had the program been available during the previous two decades. The analysis indicates that during the course
authority to limit extractions through fees, regulations and allocations of total avail- ablewater. Meanwhile, the state Department of Water Resources has been conducting technical reviews of GSPs submitted to the department earlier this year, includ- ing that submitted by the Indian Wells Valley authority. DWR has two years from the time GSPs were submitted tocomplete its evaluation and assessment of the plans. DWR infor- mationofficer JoyiaEmardsaid theagency remainsonschedule tomeet that timeline. For plans to be approved, Emard said, they “cannot haveany significant deficien- cies inany of the 10 criteria, including that GSPs consider the interests of beneficial uses and users in the basin.” GSPs for the remaining high- and me- dium-priority basins are due to DWR by Jan. 31, 2022. (Chr i s t ine Souza i s an ass i s tant editor of Ag Alert. She may be contacted at csouza@cfbf.com.) of time, DMC payments made to pro- ducers exceed premiums paid. Officials said the decision tool enhancements provide amore comprehensive decision support experience for farmers consid- ering DMC. In addition to DMC, USDA offers a variety of programs for dairy farmers, including insurance, disaster assistance and conservation programs. Most re- cently, the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program 1 provided $1.75 billion in di- rect relief to dairy farmers who faced price decl ines and additional mar- keting costs due to COVID-19 in early 2020. Now, sign-up is underway for the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program 2, which provides another round of as- sistance for dairy farmers and other eli- gible producers.
Sign-ups start for 2021 Dairy Margin Coverage The U.S. Department of Agriculture has begun accepting applications for the Dairy Margin Coverage program for 2021 enrollment.
Sign-up runs through Dec. 11. DMC is a voluntary risk-management program that offers protection to dairy farmers when the difference between the all-milk price and the average feed price, or mar- gin, falls below a certain dollar amount selected by the farmer. DMC payments triggered for seven months in 2019 and three months so far in 2020. More than 23,000 dairy opera- tions enrolled in DMC in 2019 and more than 13,000 in 2020. To determine the appropriate level of
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14 Ag Alert October 21, 2020
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