State takes over farm groundwater use
Despite pleas from farmers, California water regulators on Tuesday took the extraordinary step of assuming oversight of groundwater pumping in a swath of the state’s agricultural heartland, a first-of-itskind move intended to shore up diminished groundwater reserves.
The Tulare Lake subbasin, a hydrological region between Fresno and Bakersfield that is now officially on “probation,” has seen its aquifers run low, wells run dry and land sink as a result of overpumping. Some areas have dropped nearly 6 feet over the past decade.
The unanimous vote by the
State Water Resources Control Board to intervene in the subbasin marks the first enforcement action under the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, or SGMA. The 2014 legislation seeks to restore the many overdrafted aquifers in California. While pumping from rivers and reservoirs has long been regulated, pumping groundwater generally has not been.
The groundwater act gives communities 25 years to begin sustainably managing their aquifers and urges local water leaders to take the lead. But it calls for the state to step in if sufficient progress isn’t made. The state water board determined that the groundwater management plan required of the Tulare Lake subbasin did not offer an adequate path for aquifer recovery.
“I’m not happy about having to do this,” said Dorene D’Adamo, vice chair of the state water board, before voting to put the subbasin on probation after a nearly 10-hour public hearing in Sacramento.
“But I have hope because I think we’re going to see improvement.”
Groundwater in the subbasin, which is about 837 square miles, is managed by a handful of newly established water agencies that opposed the state intervention.
They, alongside the farmers they represent, asked for more flexibility and more time to develop a groundwater plan.
“Don’t allow SGMA to kill and destroy our lives,” said Doug Freitas, a third-generation grower in the region who said he feared that the landmark groundwater regulation would drive up costs for farms and put many out of business.
More than four dozen people spoke at the hearing, most protesting probationary status for the subbasin.
Some, though, advocated for the state’s involvement with the aim of keeping domestic wells in the region’s small communities from going dry.
Under probation, large groundwater pumpers in the basin will be required to install meters on their pumps, report how much groundwater they draw and pay fees for pumping.
If regulators don’t see sufficient headway after a year, the state water board could go further and dictate limits on pumping.
The Tulare Lake subbasin is the first of six areas in California to have a probation hearing for failing to submit an adequate groundwater plan.
More than 90 areas, under the groundwater act, have been or will be required to draft plans to ensure the recovery of their aquifers by 2040.