By Lisa McEwen, SJV Water
The Porterville Irrigation District board of directors voted unanimously to launch a second version of its own groundwater sustainability agency Tuesday, May 13.
“The only logical choice we have is to form our own GSA and move forward with our own plan,” said grower Armando Leal.
This the latest in a string of steps for the district, which voted in late September to break away from Eastern Tule GSA following the state Water Resources Control Board’s decision to place the Tule subbasin on probation for lacking a groundwater plan that would bring aquifers into balance by 2040.
Hoping to escape the metering requirements, well registration, and pumping fees that come with probation, Porterville ID and several other districts bailed out of Eastern Tule.
Porterville ID initially agreed to partner with the City of Porterville to form a new GSA citing overlapping boundaries, the city’s proven track record on fixing domestic wells and its storage capacity at Lake Success east of town.
The city is also the irrigation district’s largest surface water customer, contracting for domestic supplies from the Friant-Kern Canal.
But that plan blew up last month, when city and district officials, and farmers, cried foul over transparency and power plays on the composition of the five-member board.
“As much as Friant Water Authority wants to say they’re God and they’re going to tell us what to do on our GSP, I am fighting that.”
Sean Geivet, Porterville Irrigation District General Manager
The new Porterville Irrigation District GSA board will be made up of the same directors who serve on the Porterville ID board. But the GSA is creating a stakeholder committee that General Manager Sean Geivet said would be made up of landowners, quieting a concern that farmers expressed at previous meetings.
Along with forming its own GSA, the board approved hiring consulting firm Luhdorff & Scalmanini to write the agency’s groundwater sustainability plan (GSP). Geivet said the goal is to submit it to Water Board staff by Oct. 1, the start of the new water year.
Because of its surface supplies brought in via the Friant-Kern Canal, the board believes Porterville ID will be shown to be “sustainable,” meaning its growers aren’t pumping more groundwater than is being recharged. It hopes that will earn it an exclusion from reporting and fees mandated under probation.
Dairyman and grower Matt Kidder questioned if the groundwater plan would be on time and address subsidence, or land sinking, and impacts to area disadvantaged communities.
Geivet shot back: “As much as Friant Water Authority wants to say they’re God and they’re going to tell us what to do on our GSP, I am fighting that. Our water budgets will prove that we are sustainable.”
Geivet, who also runs neighboring Saucelito and Terra Bella irrigation districts, was referring to a decision by the Friant Water Authority to pin the costs of subsidence damage to the Friant-Kern Canal caused by overpumping on the three districts.
A fourth water district, Tea Pot Dome, settled with Friant. That settlement agreement allows Friant access to landowner pumping data and a voice in their rules and regulations, policies that govern how groundwater is managed.
Meanwhile, Geivet’s districts have filed a string of lawsuits against Friant, claiming extortion and bullying.
