Back at the end of August I wrote about a big decision that was going to be made about a particular regulation regarding the outflow of fresh water to the ocean through the delta. You can read the details here or watch an interview I did on the issue here.
The good news is that the regulatory agencies suspended the Fall X2 regulation on October 1 and since that time there has been significant improvement in the export of fresh water to Central and Southern California. The experience of having the regulatory agencies actually adjust their plans in a positive way gives some hope that “adaptive management” of the water projects really can work to both improve the environment and provide critically needed water supply to California’s people, farms, communities, wetlands and habitats located outside of the delta.
The other positive news is that going into the new water year, our major reservoirs are all at or about their historic averages. You can see a visual of this here.
On the local groundwater front, the news is less positive. The Tule Subbasin was placed on probation by the State Water Resources Control Board in September. A major concern of the State Board and the Friant Water Authority and the Bureau of Reclamation is the impact of groundwater pumping-caused subsidence that is damaging the Friant Kern Canal. A major construction project to build 10 miles of adjacent canal was just finished a few months ago but subsidence is continuing and threatens the effectiveness of the fix. There is also a financial dispute between the Friant Water Authority and the Eastern Tule GSA (ETGSA) which has groundwater regulatory responsibility over the land adjacent to the Friant Canal. This dispute has caused a rift within the Friant Water Authority between the water agencies that are part of the ETGSA and the other Friant Water Authority contractors. At the moment there is no clarity on how this works itself out.
Meanwhile, the Lower Tule River Irrigation District GSA and the Pixley Irrigation District GSA, also part of the Tule Subbasin, have a large dairy presence. Both of these GSA have an opportunity to be excluded from some of the probationary mandates. But the restrictions and limits these GSAs are having to place on themselves in order to satisfy the State Board are significant and immediate. The Pixley GSA just put 44 square miles of their area into a special category because of significant subsidence that has occurred since 2020. This designation will require comprehensive metering, potentially leading to severely restricted groundwater pumping in this area. Here too, there is not much clarity on how this gets resolved short of taking a lot of land out of production.
The Tulare Lake Subbasin covering most of Kings County was placed on probation last April. The Kings County Farm Bureau sued the State Board claiming various defects in the process the State Board used. The Superior Court Judge presiding over that case issued a Preliminary Injunction on September 12, 2024, that essentially stopped the imposition of probation on the Tulare Lake Subbasin. Since that time, the State Board staff has cut off all communication with the five GSAs that are part of the Tulare Lake Subbasin. The State Board has indicated that they plan to appeal the judge’s decision, but an appeal has not yet been filed as of this writing. What we do know is that a Preliminary Injunction suspends probation until there is a court trial which is likely many months, if not longer, away. Prior to a trial there would likely be document discovery and depositions of State Board officials. Of course, the appeals court could do something different as well. So here again, there is a lack of clarity on the path forward.
On a more positive note, the Kaweah Subbasin located just north of the Tule Subbasin and also a large dairy area, has developed updated Groundwater Sustainability Plans that the Kaweah Subbasin officials believe addresses all of the identified concerns of the State Board with their original GSPs. Folks in the Kaweah are guardedly optimistic that they may avoid probation with these updated plans. Time will tell. The Kaweah Subbasin probationary hearing in front of the State Board is scheduled for January.
Geoff Vanden Heuvel
Director of Regulatory and Economic Affairs
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