By Sonia Lemus, SJV Water
Meetings & agenda packets:
- Shafter-Wasco Irrigation District, May 14: CLICK HERE
- Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority, May 14: CLICK HERE
- Arvin-Edison Water Storage district, May 13: CLICK HERE
Shafter-Wasco opts to pay for new well
The Shafter-Wasco Irrigation District board voted to pay $50,000 toward the cost of a new drinking water well that had been dewatered since 2016.
That’s about half the cost of the estimated $90,000 needed to replace the well. The rest, $45,000, is expected to come through Self-Help Enterprises, a nonprofit organization that helps provide valley residents with clean water when their wells go dry.
Groundwater agencies, including the Shafter-Wasco Irrigation District Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA), that are members of the Kern subbasin group contracted with Self-Help to provide families with emergency bottled water and work on longer term fixes if over pumping is shown to have damaged drinking water wells.
In this case, Shafter-Wasco General Manager Kris Laurence said the dysfunctional well was not technically the GSA’s responsibility as it failed before the GSA was even created.
However: “I think it sends a strong message to the state (Water Resources Control )board that we are serious about mitigating and taking care of the various communities that are within our borders. My recommendation is that we approve up to $50,000 and we work with self help to get the new well drilled, especially given the position we are in with the state board.”
Board member David Bloemhof agreed but questioned if this would set a precedent.
Lawrence said the precedent had already been set through the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act and that, in the future, the GSA would pay for all dewatered wells if it were at fault.
Bloemhof asked if the GSA would get funding to cover the cost of new wells in the future.
No, Lawrence said, costs will be covered entirely by the GSA and perhaps neighboring GSA’s if they were also found at fault.
For this first well, Shafter-Wasco will provide Self-Help with the money and recommend a contractor. Self-Help will manage the rest.
Board members asked that the GSA let Self-Help know how they want the funding to be used, including how to drill the well in the most economical manner, such as reusing salvageable materials from the previous well.
Indian Wells Valley discusses bills
In a legislative update discussion, board member Chuck Griffin, the Indian Wells Valley Water District representative on the authority, reiterated his opposition to Assembly bills 1413 and 1466.
A lengthy discussion was held on these bills during a special meeting of the Kern County Board of Supervisors May 5. Supervisors declined to support the bills, which had been brought to that board by Supervisor Phillip Peters who also serves on the board of the Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority.
Both bills involve how courts handle adjudications, which are lawsuits to establish how much groundwater is available to pump in a region, who has rights to it and how much those rights holders can pump.
AB 1413 would require courts to use the sustainable yield figure (how much groundwater is available to pump) established by a region’s groundwater agency.
AB 1466 would, among other things, require courts to obtain a report of all groundwater users in a basin from the groundwater agency so that all water rights are considered, including smaller “de minimus” pumpers.
The Indian Wells Valley Water District has filed an adjudication action in that region.
“If this bill passes as written it takes the right away from anybody in a basin, managed by SGMA, to ever challenge what that groundwater authority establishes as their recharge rate or their sustainable yield,” Griffin said.
That is incorrect, said Phil Hall, attorney for the authority.
“You still have the ability to go out and sue. What you don’t have is the ability to drag everybody else in, take people that cannot afford to be part of your litigation and strip their water rights away because that is what happens.”
Griffin argued that the water district doesn’t want to take away rights from de minimus users.
Hall and outside attorney Michael Mckinney both protested, saying the water district’s attorneys hadn’t done anything to either exclude small pumpers from the adjudication or provide them counsel.
Griffin said he’d bring that up with the water district board.
Griffin and fellow board member Peters each urged the other to listen to differing opinions in order to discern whether they were being “fed misinformation.”
“I can’t see why anyone would oppose them on either side because it just brings a clarity and time frame to operate in that benefits both sides,” said Scott Hayman, chair of the authority.
Arvin-Edison opposes bill
The Arvin-Edison Water Storage District board also discussed AB 1413 at the end of a report on the Kern groundwater subbasin.
It was not received positively.
“It’s their [the Indian Wells Authority] problem, they’re trying to make it all of our problem and it’s only going to hurt us,” said Edwin Camp, president of the Arvin-Edison board.
Arvin-Edison voted to oppose AB 1413.
Both bills have passed their respective committees and are awaiting votes by the full Assembly before heading to the Senate.
How to attend:
Arvin-Edison meets at 12 p.m. on the 2nd Tuesday of each month at its office, 20401 E. Bear Mountain Blvd., or online via Microsoft Teams
Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority meets at 11 a.m. on the 2nd Wednesday of each month at Ridge Crest City Hall located at 100 W California Ave., Ridgecrest. You can also watch online via their Youtube channel Live Stream.
Shafter Wasco meets at 9 am on the 2nd Wednesday of each month at its office, Corner of Highway 43 and Kimberlina Road
