By Lisa McEwen, SJV Water
Growers hoping for a lifeline as groundwater pumping restrictions tighten learned how to apply for state funding to find other uses for their irrigated farmland during a seminar in Tulare County Tuesday.
The funding is part of a $1.5 million pot from the Kaweah subbasin Multibenefit Land Repurposing Program (MLRP). Growers and others can apply for between $50,000 and $200,000 to fund land transition projects through Aug. 31.
“It’s hard to farm with the amount of water the state says we can use,” said Dee Dee Gruber, who attended the seminar with her husband, Tom Gruber, and about 25 others.
The Grubers’ pumping allocation left them with few options, Tom said.
“It was just enough to keep our trees alive, but we didn’t have a crop to sell. The walnuts were too small.”
The Grubers farm in the Kaweah subbasin in northern Tulare County, which is overdrafting by about 160,000 acre feet a year. That’s not allowed under the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA).
But without more surface water, the only option is to cut groundwater use, meaning between 35,000 and 40,000 acres will have to come out of production. That’s 12.4% of the subasin’s total farmed acreage.
Finding other, profitable, uses for all that land has been daunting and is the focus of MLRP funding.
“This is the obstacle everyone is facing and that’s why we’re here,” said Emily Boettger of Sequoia Riverlands Trust, who led a small group discussion during the seminar.
The trust is a “core team” member for the Kaweah MLRP effort, the eyes and ears on the ground connecting with landowners. Other members include Self-Help Enterprises, which provides technical assistance to applicants, Kaweah Delta Water Conservation District, East, Mid and Greater Kaweah GSAs, Valley Eco and SEEN, or SocioEnvironmental and Education Network.
“The goal is to set people up with a shovel-ready project,” said Reyn Akiona of Valley Eco, a consulting group that manages MLRP projects for the Kaweah and Merced subbasins.
This pot of $1.5 million is a portion of the $10 million grant awarded to the Kaweah subbasin from the Department of Conservation in 2022. Some has already been spent on five projects in various stages of progress.
Land transition projects are one of several strategies being employed by water managers throughout the San Joaquin Valley to try and bring aquifers into balance by 2040, as required by SGMA.
“Somehow, we have to reduce consumption by that amount,” Mike Hagman, East Kaweah GSA manager wrote in a text message in reference to the 160,000-overdraft. “Certainly more intensive crops or multi-cropping will have to be reduced.”
That’s where Tom Gruber finds himself.
He used to flood irrigate corn and alfalfa, but switched to less water-intensive nut crops, irrigated with an expensive drip system. Now, without enough water to raise a crop, the third-generation grower asked if MLRP funds could be used toward loans.
The answer was no, but Gruber was encouraged to connect with a core team member to look at options for his farmland including groundwater recharge, habitat restoration and a host of others.
Projects are scored on specific criteria, and the more boxes checked, the higher the priority for funding.
Criteria include:
- Water quality and supply
- Benefits to disadvantaged communities
- Improving agricultural economic resiliency
- Regional ecological benefits
Other criteria include geographic prioritization, especially for projects in groundwater-dependent areas, cost-effectiveness and regional coordination.
More information is available at kaweahmlrp.org.
