By Lois Henry, SJV Water
The only San Joaquin Valley water storage project to qualify for Proposition 1 funding recently got another $22 million from the California Water Commission.
The Kern Fan Groundwater Storage Project, a joint effort between Rosedale-Rio Bravo Water Storage District and Irvine Ranch Water District, initially received approval from the commission for $89 million.
After $459 million of Prop. 1 funding promised to the Los Vaqueros Reservoir expansion project was dropped back in the kitty in 2024, Rosedale and Irvine applied for more funding.
The project was awarded another $22 million in August bringing its total Prop. 1 funding to $111 million. The project has also received $8.6 million in federal funds.
The project, expected to be completed in 2030, envisions taking excess water from the California Aqueduct – or other sources including the Friant-Kern Canal or Kern River – during wet years and banking it across about 1,300 acres of recharge ponds near Enos Lane and further west.
At full build-out, it’s expected to be able to store 100,000 acre feet.
About 25% of that water would be reserved for the Department of Water Resources to use, “by exchange,” for pulse flows to benefit fish species during low water years in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The water wouldn’t be pumped north. Instead, it would be sent to other users and a like amount would be used, in exchange, for species in the delta.
Proposition 1 included $2.6 billion for water storage projects but those projects had to also benefit the delta. The pulse-flow concept was one of the main qualifying factors for the $224 million Kern Fan project. Those are the 2024 costs, which have increased since the project was first proposed back in 2015 and was expected to cost $171 million.
At their July meeting, commissioners called the Kern Fan concept “unique” and said it was “…exciting to see an actual project underway.” Commissioner Andrew Mackler praised managers for their “tight budget controls.”
One phase of the project, about 500 acres of recharge ponds near Enos Lane, has already been completed and the large water year in 2023 allowed the project to actually bank 8,000 acre feet on a pilot basis.
“So, we’re not just in construction, we’re already operating,” Dan Bartel, General Manager for Rosedale, told commissioners at the July update meeting.
One of the most significant challenges facing the project may also have found a solution, that is getting water from the aqueduct to the recharge ponds.
The project initially anticipated construction of a new turnout into the aqueduct and about 10 miles of new canal built parallel to the existing Cross Valley Canal, owned by the Kern County Water Agency.
A new turnout may not be necessary after the agency agreed to work on a feasibility study to see if the Kern Fan project could receive water from its existing turnout.
“We would still have two canals side by side,” Bartel told commissioners. “But the advantage of using an existing turnout is a huge cost savings with a lot of mutual benefit.”
The project may also downsized the number of new recharge basins by incorporated existing basins that haven’t been able to take on water without conveyance, explained Fiona Nye, the project manager.
“We’re looking at how to maximize what we already have,” she said at the July Water Commission meeting.
“The commitment to keeping costs down is heartening,” said Commision chair Fern Steiner. “And your creativity is to be admired.
