By Lisa McEwen, SJV Water
Central Valley growers fed up with reduced water allocations and pumping penalties are seeking answers from state Water Resources Control Board officials at a workshop Thursday in Visalia.
The Punjabi American Growers Group, formed in 2020, is sponsoring the event, where the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) and its implications for farming operations are on the agenda.
All farmers are invited to attend.
“We are answering questions on behalf of our members, but this really needs to be done by the state,” said Jasbir Sidhu, co-founder of the Punjabi American Growers Group. “Since SGMA passed, the outreach has not been done and a lot of people have questions and concerns. What we’re trying to do is build a bridge between the government and farmers.”
The workshop will be attended by Water Board Vice Chair Dorene D’Adamo. It will also include a panel presentation by Natalie Stork, assistant director of the Water Board’s Office for Sustainable Groundwater Management, and Zach Mayo, senior engineering geologist. A question and answer period will follow.
Sidhu explained that Punjabi landowners, many of whom grow permanent crops such as almonds, walnuts and pistachios on groundwater-dependent parcels in the Central Valley, are frustrated by conflicting messages and a bleak financial outlook for their farming operations. He estimates that 20% of the state’s almond crop, covering about 700,000 acres, is grown by Punjabi Americans, who originate from the Punjab region of India.
At a June 27 Kaweah Subbasin probationary workshop in Visalia, growers voiced frustration that no Punjabi language interpretation services were available.
“This workshop is in response to the Punjabi growers’ request for interpretation and more information about SGMA,” said Edward Ortiz, state Water Board public information officer.
Since SGMA passed in 2014, Sidhu said, groundwater dependent farmers were encouraged by various state-funded programs to invest in microdrip irrigation systems.
“Why would one hand of the state be funding these programs when the other hand knew it was not sustainable? Where was the guidance and communication to farmers to not plant almonds?”
Some experts estimate that more than 900,000 acres will need to be fallowed to comply with SGMA’s mandate of balanced aquifers, with Kings, Kern and Tulare counties taking the brunt.
Six San Joaquin Valley subbasins were pegged as having inadequate plans to bring aquifers into balance and were brought under oversight of the Water Board, SGMA’s enforcement arm.
Two subbasins, Tulare Lake and Tule, have been placed on probation, which requires wells registration, metering and fees of $20-per-acre foot pumped paid to the state. That’s on top of fees farmers pay their groundwater agencies and water districts.
Of the other four subbasins under Water Board scrutiny, the Kern, Chowchilla and Delta-Mendota subbasins will have probationary hearings in 2025. The Kaweah Subbasin hearing was canceled Nov. 15 after groundwater sustainability agencies submitted management plans that earned a temporary pass.
Sidhu invites all growers to attend Thursday’s workshop, noting a unified voice is important.
“Probationary meetings are not a platform to push anything constructively,” he said. “I’ve got guys asking me what they should do. We are trying to figure out the survivability of the family farm before corporations take over and this thing becomes a desert.”
SJV Water is an independent, nonprofit news site covering water in the San Joaquin Valley,www.sjvwater.org. Email us at sjvwater@sjvwater.org