From the Central Valley Salinity Coalition
2025 Is a Milestone Year
2025 marks the 5-year anniversary of the launch of both the Salt and Nitrate Control Programs.
To commemorate the progress of both programs, and to help lay the foundation for future progress, CV-SALTS held an online workshop on June 30, 2025, focused on water quality in the Central Valley. Workshop panelists included CV-SALTS program staff and regulated participants, elected officials, local community leaders, and State and Regional Water Board staff.
The goals for the workshop included:
- Develop a wider recognition of the CV-SALTS program and its effectiveness.
- Build trust in the unique public/private partnership and how it is advancing water quality in the Valley.
- Reinforce and expand local partnerships on salt and nitrate management.
- Lay a foundation for future funding.
The Summit was well received. More than 300 water quality professionals and community leaders from all over the Central Valley participated in the workshop and learned about the local and regional partnerships that are addressing nitrate contamination and long-term salt accumulation. A post-Summit poll revealed that 89% of the participants found the workshop valuable. More than 100 participants stepped forward to contribute to future work.
A video of the Summit as well as other materials can be found here.
Nitrate Control Program
Management Zone (MZs) are formed by regulated nitrate permittees to provide safe drinking water and manage nitrate in specific areas.
With all MZs now conducting outreach, working with local communities, conducting private well water tests, and delivering safe drinking water to households in need, the Nitrate Control Program covers all basins with high nitrate concentrations in the Central Valley.
Since 2020, the MZs have tested more than 2,800 private drinking water wells and are now providing free bottled water to more than 1,900 households whose wells exceed safe drinking water standards for nitrate. For more information on MZ water testing and delivery activities, visit the Nitrate Program Dashboard for the latest results.
You can use this online interactive map to view Management Zones and contact information.
Initially, the MZs offered nitrate testing only, but several of them are currently working with the State Water Resources Control Board SAFER (Safe and Affordable Funding for Equity and Resilience) Program, or taking other steps, to include testing for contaminants other than nitrate.
In addition, the MZs are pursuing longer-term tactics to address the nitrate issue in the Central Valley. They continue to strengthen ties within their communities and collaborate with interested residents and organizations to pinpoint local water quality projects for which they can gather data, build connections between agencies, and facilitate solutions.
Additional information on the Nitrate Control Program is available on the CV-SALTS website.
MZ Highlight – A New Central Valley Water-Focused Jobs Program
Kings Water Alliance Management Zone has secured a grant to establish a new, water-focused information project called The Ripple Effect Initiative. The initiative is intended to help rural communities shape the future of their water supplies by identifying all public water systems within KWA’s 1.5-million-acre service area, identifying jobs that are critical to a range of water organizations, and identifying organizations which provide the training and education required for careers related to Central Valley water needs. This should help create new connections and promote the water sector as a career path, filling gaps in water sector knowledge as some of the most experienced water professionals in the Valley are retiring.
Salt Control Program
The Salt Control Program is a sustained effort to plan, design, and implement strategies that address salt buildup in the Valley.
The Salt Program team has developed two case studies (archetypes) of local, representative subbasins as part of their Priority & Optimization Study. Archetype #1 is in the Delta-Mendota Subbasin. Archetype #2 is in the western portion of the Kings Subbasin.
The goal of the two archetypes is to identify areas in the archetypes where current beneficial uses (agricultural and municipal) are predicted to be adversely impacted by salt buildup in groundwater in the next 50 to 100 years. (Beneficial use impacts are determined to exist where salt concentrations will exceed salinity planning targets that are protective of salt sensitive crops and/or drinking water.) The team will be submitting an archetype report at the end of 2025.
The methodology used in the archetypes will be used to expand the analysis to the entire Central Valley. The results from that analysis will be used to begin to prioritize and optimize salt management solutions as part of an overall plan for the Central Valley.
As it conducts this work, the Salt Program team is establishing relationships and coordinating data collection and modeling with local water managers and agencies to ensure accuracy. Building a robust collaborative network is essential and will continue as the program moves forward.
Valley-wide analysis of the long-term accumulation of salt and potential impacts to agriculture and drinking water.
Additional information on the Salt Control Program is available on the CV-SALTS website.
In other news …
The Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board will consider adopting a proposed amendment to the Water Quality Control Plan for the Tulare Lake Basin (Basin Plan Amendment) that would remove the Municipal and Domestic Supply (MUN) and Agricultural Supply (AGR) Beneficial Uses from areas near the South Belridge, Monument Junction, and Cymric Oil Fields in Kern County near the community of McKittrick, California.
The proposed Amendment will be considered for adoption at a hearing on 11-12 December 2025. There is a public comment period from September 16, 2025 to October 31, 2025. Click here for more information.
