Tulare County citrus farm manager Matt Watkins, an agricultural stakeholder on local groundwater agencies, said recharge basins such as in Lindsay will help balance groundwater supplies.
state as critically overdrafted, or medium or high priority. “We’vebeengiven20yearstoget intosus- tainability,”saidMattWatkins, farmmanag- er forBeeSweetCitrusandvicepresidentof theTulareCountyFarmBureau.“Hopefully, insteadof being cut off fromday one, we’ve comeupwithaplan that’s not just shutting the water off but (is) going to 90%, 80%by rampingdowngradually. “Maybe we sink more surface water or flood-releasewater into the ground, those sorts of things,” he said. Watkins, who serves as an agricultural stakeholder on East Kaweah and Eastern Tule groundwater sustainability agencies, said both must “dial down details of the plans” and show how long-term aquifer healthwill be achieved. To prepare for plan implementation, Watkins said, the two agencies areworking onawaterallocationandaccountingframe- work, whichhe said couldmean increased costs togrowers forpumpinggroundwater. Lindmore Irrigation District, a federal watercontractor intheFriantDivisionwith aClass 1andClass 2water contract, ispart of the East Kaweah GSA, which is located in a subbasin in critical overdraft. LindmoreIrrigationDistrictgeneralman- ager Michael Hagman, who is executive director for the East Kaweah agency, said “SGMA is sort of the compulsory approach todeterminingwhat harms your neighbor. Theplanstelluswhatwewilldotonotharm ourneighbor andbecome sustainable.” Since2007,Hagmansaid, the regionhas receivedonlyabout 80%of normal precip- itation. Coupled with several severe dry years, that depletedsurfacewater supplies and reduced groundwater inflow. “We’re not sustainable in this subbasin thewaywe’reactingnow, andprimarily it’s a function of farming beyond the capacity of the groundwater inflow,” Hagman said. “About 20%of ourproblemispeople toour westbeganfarminggroundthatwasn’tbe- ing farmedbefore, but 80%of ourproblem is overdraft.” East Kaweah GSA’s groundwater sus- tainability plan, which was submitted to the California Department of Water Groundwater Continued from Page 1
Resources by Jan. 31, includes ways to addmore water such as groundwater re- chargeprojectsandincludesmanagement actions such as reducing groundwater pumping or fallowing land. To help replenish groundwater in the subbasin, thedistrict in2016constructeda groundwater rechargebasinnearLindsay, whichrecharges the subbasinwithanyex- cess surfacewater supplies fromMillerton Lake via the Friant-KernCanal. The recharge basin holds 23 acre-feet and has a percolation rate of one-third of a foot per acre. The district plans to con- struct several other groundwater recharge basinson320acresnearLindsey,Hagman said. Thenewprojectwill beable toperco- late 80 acre-feet per day into the ground. “Hopefully, this is oneof the tools toput the East Kaweah GSA into sustainability going forward,”Watkins said. East Kaweah added emergency re- strictions on groundwater pumping last October and set a maximum allocation and a fine of $500 per acre-foot for those who exceed the pumping restriction, Hagman said. The state declared the East Kaweahplanas incomplete, andHagman said the agency and others are working to resolve issues identified by the state. Paige Gilligan, a riskmanagement con- sultant for Risk Mitigators & Advisors in Clovis, who took part in a groundwater seminar at the World Ag Expo, said local agencies submitted 112 groundwater sustainability plans to DWR. State water officials can designate plans as approved, incomplete or inadequate. Of the total plans submitted, 70plans for medium- and high-priority basins, which weredue Jan. 1, areunder review; 34plans are classified as incomplete; and eight plans were approved. Incomplete plans must have issues resolved by July 2022 or trigger management intervention by the StateWater Resources Control Board. “Agencies have 180 days to look at all of these revisions, and people are going to be scrambling andworking together todo so,” Gilligan said. “Until July, it’s probably going tobeprettycrazy in thewater space.” (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.)
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