By Lisa McEwen, SJV Water
A proposal to change the guidelines for California’s $90-million farmland retirement program has literally stopped numerous projects in their tracks.
“Right now, all implementation projects are basically stopped,” said Reyn Akiona of Valley Eco, a consulting firm overseeing state-funded farmland conversion projects in the Kaweah, Tule and Merced subbasins. “No tractors are moving until we get guidance on this piece of language.”
The proposed language change in the Multibenefit Land Repurposing Program involves a core issue, groundwater recharge and extraction.
The state Department of Conservation, which oversees the program, put out a proposal to change project guidelines adding that: “Where it is determined, as part of the implementation project review process, that a project provides direct groundwater recharge benefits, it is the responsibility of the groundwater sustainability agency (GSA) to ensure, under their existing authorities, that this water is not made available for extraction.”
In the case of numerous ongoing projects where agencies are working with landowners to retire farmland and convert it to recharge basins, habitat or other uses, that section appears to mean the groundwater savings or increases can’t be pumped up for any use. Not for farming, nor, arguably, to make sure the habitat has enough water, nor for disadvantaged communities, according to water managers concerned with the proposed language changes.
Previously, guidelines for funding from the Multibenefit program prohibited agencies from using it to buy water on the open market for recharge. In that case, the groundwater would belong to the state, which water managers understood and agreed with.
This proposed guideline change, however, seems to indicate that any action by agencies using Multibenefit money that results in increased groundwater, would place similar restrictions on that water, which water managers disagree with.
The department is accepting comments on the proposed changes through Thursday at mlrp@conservation.ca.gov. It will issue revised draft language Feb. 28.
“We are working closely with our grantees to minimize disruption and uncertainty as we go through this process, and don’t expect this change to negatively affect any existing projects,” a Conservation spokesperson said, adding later in an email that the department is not proposing retroactive changes nor to rewrite existing grant agreements.
So far, 12 different projects around the state, including six in the San Joaquin Valley, have received funding totalling $75 million, which was finalized in 2023.
“No tractors are moving until we get guidance on this piece of language.”
Reyn Akiona, consulting firm Valley Eco
The proposed changes, which came out after funding was awarded, have caused confusion and worry among recipients.
Akiona told the Kaweah Delta Water Conservation District board that unless the change is clarified, “it will strip projects off the table in the Kaweah Subbasin and throughout the state.”
The district received a $10 million grant when the Multibenefit Land Repurposing program was launched in 2022 and has five projects in various stages of progress.
Mid-Kaweah GSA manager Aaron Fukuda told his board on Tuesday that if the language remains in place, he anticipates the Kaweah subbasin will remove all its projects from consideration.
It’s unclear what that could mean for the subbasin’s recent probation reprieve.
The Water Resources Control Board canceled the Kaweah subbasin’s Jan. 7 probation hearing because it was satisfied water managers were addressing dropping groundwater levels, water quality and land subsidence, in part by working together on new projects, such as those funded by the Multibenefit Land Repurposing Program.
Projects funded by the program are key elements in many groundwater subbasins’ plans for how they will bring aquifers into balance by 2040, as required by the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act.
For instance, $1.5 million was set to help fund a 59-acre project known as “Flying Dragon,” in the East Kaweah Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA) that would take out 40 acres of citrus trees to build groundwater recharge facilities and increase habitat conservation. East Kaweah GSA had partnered with Sequoia Riverlands Trust, a non-profit focused on land preservation.
The state money was going to pay for environmental impact reports, development of the conservation space in preparation for placement into a conservation trust, and some earth-moving work.
That’s all on hold now, said East Kaweah GSA General Manager Mike Hagman.
“After the approval of the project, a change in leadership has now interpreted things differently,” Hagman said. “They have basically said that water placed on land that goes through or uses state funding can’t be credited toward individuals. Their view, if I understand it correctly, is that these dollars would then be a gift of public funds.”
Former Conservation Director David Shabazian retired in August 2024. Jennifer Lucchesi was appointed as Director on January 6, 2025.
Willing landowners are a critical part of the Multibenefit Land Repurposing Program. In exchange for giving up their farmland, they typically gain groundwater credits to help balance their operations.
Without that, or some other incentive, landowners may not be eager to get involved, wrote Sequoia Riverlands Trust Executive Director Logan Robertson Heucker, in an email.
“If the Multibenefit Land Repurposing Program is not successful because landowners decline to participate, we will lose a key tool for helping subbasins reach sustainability.”
Representatives of subbasins that received the state funding sent a letter to the Department of Conservation stating the proposed guideline change “jeopardizes the ability to achieve recharge and severely limits the efficacy of MLRP as a method for achieving regional sustainability.”
Projects are planned or ongoing in the Kaweah, Tule, Westside, Madera, Merced Salinas Valley and Pajaro Valley subbasins.
“I’m optimistic, I try not to worry about these things that could be disastrous until they’re disastrous,” Akiona said. “I’m still hopeful that the department can find some language that will allow us to operate the MLRP program and do recharge work.
“My fingers are crossed.”
