Watermaster says no to request for more pumping
PALMDALE — The Antelope Valley Watermaster denied a request by a local property owner to continue to pump an additional 215 acre-feet of groundwater to supply an unspecified solar power project for construction purposes.
The decision to send the application back for more information was made amidst concerns about how new groundwater pumping beyond what has already been allocated as part of a December 2015 court settlement may affect the underlying basin.
The Watermaster is the body tasked with overseeing the 2015 court settlement that set limits on groundwater pumping for users across the Valley.
Property owner Robert Banuk was included in the court settlement as part of what is known as the small pumper class, in which private landowners who had historically used groundwater are allowed up to three acrefeet of groundwater per year, primarily for domestic use.
An acre-foot is 325,851 gallons, or approximately the amount of water a typical Antelope Valley household used in one year before the most recent drought reduced usage.
According to the Watermaster Engineer’s report, Banuk’s property west of Rosamond has two wells, a domestic one for household use and an industrial well installed in 2011, which has been used to provide construction water for nearby solar and wind power projects since 2018.
The industrial well produced only a very small amount of water in 2018, then 81.94 acre-feet in 2019, 176.87 acre-feet in 2020 and 39.9 acre-feet as of mid-May this year, according to the report.
The Watermaster had previously granted Banuk permission to pump up to 215 acrefeet of groundwater in 2020 and 2021 to support construction of local solar power projects. He recently requested to continue the additional amount for 2022 and beyond for a similar purpose.
The Watermaster Engineer, which is tasked with evaluating requests for their impact on the basin, determined that the request does not appear to have a significant detrimental impact on the basin, what is described as a “material injury” to the basin.
The report, however, acknowledged concerns regarding increased pumping beyond the court allocations and the Advisory Committee’s concern that the location of the project is not specified.
The Watermaster Board and the Advisory Committee questioned the vague use for the additional water in the request, wanting specifics on the project and its location, as well as how the water would be used.
The Committee noted that the court settlement requires the location of use to be specified in the request, and to confirm that all applicable permits are in place.
“Banuk has said it will be within a fourmile radius of his property, I’m not sure definitive that location has to be,” said Katherine White, of Watermaster firm Todd Groundwater.
Director Adam Ariki of Los Angeles County Waterworks District 40 also questioned if Banuk is licensed to sell water from his land.
“We don’t really know a lot of things about the operation,” he said. “Until these questions are answered … I have a major concern with this.”
Director John Calandri also asked how the Watermaster may evaluate the request without more specifics as to the water’s use.
“If we do not know how may acres (the project) is, we can not make a determination if that’s a reasonable number (of acre-feet requested),” he said. “There’s no way we can ascertain if that’s a reasonable amount or not.”
Watermaster Attorney Craig Parton agreed that the vagueness of the application warrants returning it to Banuk to provide additional information to be reconsidered.
In addition to specifics of location and use, Director Dwaye Chisam also requested the resubmitted application includes confirmation that all land use and permitting regulations have been followed.