SJV WATER: More entities fleeing embattled Tulare County groundwater agency

By Lisa McEwen, SJV Water

The embattled Eastern Tule Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA) may soon have only one member entity left.

The City of Porterville and Porterville Irrigation District are set to vote Dec. 17 and Jan. 9, respectively, on a draft joint powers agreement to form their own groundwater agency.

The Saucelito and Terra Bella irrigation districts have also begun discussions to leave Eastern Tule form their own GSAs.

The Kern-Tulare Water District left Eastern Tule in February. And the Tea Pot Dome and Vandalia water districts left last summer.

All those exits would leave Eastern Tule, which covers land where farmers are almost entirely groundwater dependent, with one member entity – the County of Tulare.

What that will mean for the future of Eastern Tule growers is unclear. Other counties, such as Madera, have taken over management of groundwater dependent lands as allowed under the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA).

It’s unknown if Eastern Tule will continue to exist with a single member, but SGMA doesn’t allow any areas of an overdrafted subbasin to be left without GSA coverage.

The separations will also not get the fleeing districts out from under a lawsuit filed by the Friant Water Authority against Eastern Tule. The lawsuit alleges Eastern Tule enacted policies that shorted what it was supposed to have paid toward fixing the Friant-Kern Canal, which is sinking due to overpumping by farmers in Eastern Tule.

“Unfortunately, you can’t get out of it by getting rid of your partner,” said Porterville Irrigation District Board President Erc Borba at the district’s Dec. 10 meeting.

Despite the uncertainties, Porterville ID will likely break with Eastern Tule.

“Unless we get a lot of ‘hell no’s,’ that’s the direction we’re going,” Borba said.

Eastern Tule general manager Rogelio Caudillo did not have any comment on member entities’ discussions or decisions.

The mass exodus comes after the state Water Resources Control Board placed the Tule subbasin on probation Sept. 17 for not having an adequate groundwater plan. It was not protective enough of domestic wells and continued allowing too much subsidence beneath the Friant-Kern Canal, Water Board staff and directors indicated.

Water Board directors also pointed out Eastern Tule specifically for having questionable groundwater accounting policies that one board member said just didn’t make sense.

Probation comes with strict sanctions. Growers must meter and register their wells at $300 each, report extractions to the state and pay $20 per acre foot pumped to the state as well.

The Water Board granted exemptions to two Tule subbasin entities, the Delano-Earlimart Irrigation District and Kern-Tulare Water District GSAs.

When sanctions kick in January 1, 2025, growers in those districts won’t have to report and pay fees to the state.

That is the brass ring Porterville ID and the other districts are hoping to grab by forming their own GSAs.

Some members in the audience of Porterville ID’s Dec. 10 meeting asked if the process could be fast-tracked.

“We are valiantly trying to get you guys out of probation,” board member Brett McCowan said.

Porterville ID general manager Sean Geivet said meetings with Water Board staff have been productive.

“We’re plowing fresh ground but nobody sees any reason not to do it this way,” he said.

A state Water Board staff member confirmed the districts have met with the state but did not elaborate on whether it would result in exemptions from fees and reporting under probation.

From Porterville Irrigation District’s perspective, there are two main benefits to partnering with the city in a separate GSA: increased opportunities for funding and water storage.

With Lake Success located above Porterville, and a portion of the district within the city limits, the proposed partnership will give the district added flexibility for water storage.

“The city is a good partner at taking water and putting it above us rather than outside our boundary,” McCowan said,

From the city’s perspective, a partnership could help with domestic wells.

“The city has been a poster child of well mitigation since the drought and continues to work closely with the state on mitigation,” said Michael Knight, assistant city manager. During the 2012-2016 drought, hundreds of homes in unincorporated east Porterville went dry for months.

Knight said Porterville has advocated for consolidation of small water systems on the perimeter of the city limits that were impacted either by drought or dilapidated infrastructure.

“That’s what I see as an important role with the city,” he said. “We work closely with agencies promoting those efforts and with the state. That would be a high positive in the review of the GSA and implementation of a groundwater sustainability plan.”

Knight added that the city also has its own recharge and other projects that left it with a net positive of 3,000 acre-feet in 2023.

Porterville ID’s Borba said the district wouldn’t officially break with Eastern Tule until September 2025.

SJV Water is an independent, nonprofit news site covering water in the San Joaquin Valley, www.sjvwater.org. Email us at sjvwater@sjvwater.org.