Residents in southern Tulare County have a final chance to share their thoughts in writing with the state Water Resources Control Board on whether the region should go on groundwater probation. But they need to get their comments to the board by noon May 7. Water Board staff is recommending...

Water systems will need to comply with new rules on contaminants at the state and federal levels after two regulations were approved this month. That could bring challenging costs to water providers. And still, advocates say protections aren’t good enough. On April 17, the state Water Resources Control Board...

Kern River combatants are headed back to court where a local advocacy group hopes to force the City of Bakersfield to goose up flows, which were cut to a trickle leaving piles of dead fish west of Bakersfield. The hearing is set for May 9 at 8:30 a.m. in Division...

Increased water allocations from systems that move water from northern to southern California were met with disappointment and frustration from contractors. Both the Department of Water Resources and Bureau of Reclamation increased allocations this week to 40% of contracted amounts, going up 10% and 5%, respectively. With nearly all the...

Hundreds of landowners in the Tulare Lake groundwater subbasin overwhelmingly rejected proposed pumping fees this week that would have added thousands of dollars on top of fees they’re expected to start paying the state in coming months. The fee showdown at the Mid-Kings River Groundwater Sustainability Agency meeting April...

More than a year after floods devastated the small town of Woodlake in Tulare County, residents finally feel hopeful about the future thanks to new infrastructure projects and an ongoing lawsuit they are bringing against local governments and other agencies. In March of 2023, homes in northwest Woodlake were hit...

Main topic: Concern over proposed new well permitting regulations. Steve Torigiani, the district’s attorney, said Assembly Bill 2079, which would add new requirements to agricultural well permitting, could pose problems for the district. Torigiani expressed three main issues with the bill. First, he said, Kern County would not be...

More than 13 years after buying half of the 2,100-acre McAllister Ranch – a poster child of the 2007 housing crash – out of foreclosure for use as a groundwater bank, Rosedale-Rio Bravo Water Storage District agreed earlier this month to sell its remaining share to Buena Vista Water Storage District.

The State Water Resources Control Board on Tuesday voted unanimously to put the Tulare Lake subbasin on probation during a precedent-setting meeting in Sacramento that stretched over nine hours. “This is a turning point. We are coming to terms with the reality of what this means especially in these areas...

Frustrated with the amount of water dribbling down the western reach of the Kern River, plaintiffs in an ongoing lawsuit over the river filed a motion Tuesday asking the judge in the case to intervene. The motion says the City of Bakersfield has not maintained flows required to keep fish...

Residents in the small town of East Orosi woke up Sunday to backed-up toilets and yards flooded with wastewater. One of the community’s wastewater pumps stopped working, causing sewage backups for two days until workers were able to fix the pump late Monday night. “It’s really bad. Somebody needs...

Four members of the State Water Resources Control Board got an earful on the future of the Tule Subbasin during a public hearing held in Porterville on April 8. A draft staff report released in March recommends probation for the subbasin for failing to get a handle on groundwater overdraft.

There was no shortage of interest in the $90 million in state funding made available through the new Multibenefit Land Repurposing Program, according to the first report released this month on the effort to transition irrigated farmland in overdrafted groundwater basins to less water-intensive uses. The program was created through...

As the date of reckoning for excessive groundwater pumping in Tulare County grows closer, lobbying by water managers and growers has ramped up. The Friant Water Authority, desperate to protect its newly rebuilt – yet still sinking – Friant-Kern Canal, has beseeched the Water Resources Control Board to get involved. Specifically, it has asked board members to look into how the Eastern Tule Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA) has, or has not, curbed over pumping that affects the canal.

Acronyms are so prevalent in the water industry that stringing several together can form an impressive-sounding sentence. That’s exactly what Hanford High School junior Morgan Carrroll did at an April 5 workshop in Sacramento called Water 101 put on by the Water Education Foundation. After winning a game of...

The Tule subbasin is next up to face the state in a groundwater probation hearing. Staff from the state Resources Water Control Board held a public workshop on Friday to go over its recommendations and hear from the public prior to the hearing on September 17. Subbasins put in probation...

After 12 years of planning, gathering funding then completing and re-doing – and re-doing again – environmental studies, the City of Bakersfield has finally gone out to bid for the northern extension of the Kern River Parkway Trail. “I’m very excited, it’s been a long time coming,” Councilman...

The $171 million Kern Fan Groundwater Storage project – with a unique “eco-twist” – received another chunk of public funding just as the first section of the 1,300-acre project had a formal christening on Wednesday. Officials with Rosedale-Rio Bravo Water Storage District, Irvine Ranch Water District...

In late February, the nonprofit Central Valley Joint Venture took a group of environmental scientists, advocates and nature enthusiasts on a tour of successful wetland restoration projects in the south San Joaquin Valley. The tour focused on the efforts to reclaim agricultural land for habitat and the possibility of returning...

Meeting: Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority board of directors. Background: The basin depends on 7,650 acre feet of natural inflow each year but users pump out nearly 28,000 acre feet annually, creating a severe overdraft. As the Authority has worked to comply with the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) to bring the basin into balance numerous legal actions have erupted.