By Don A. Wright
The following report is short since the meeting was short. So, I’m going to take a minute and tell you what happened to me recently. A tornado hit my place northeast of Clovis near the Friant Kern Canal. First, I want to thank the many of you who kindly called, emailed and texted me with your concerns. No one was hurt, man nor beast, and there was only minimal damage to the two homes on the property.
About 5:00pm Tuesday, April 21st I was taking a nap and the sound of thunder woke me. Then there was the sound of a train with a frozen wheel screeching and rolling past my house. I got up and looked out the window and the world was sideways with all manner of detritus flying past. We lost four large, 50-year old trees, just uprooted and dropped. One was across the driveway, one fell on my mother’s home next door. It was over as fast as it started.
ABC30 came out and interviewed me, as did the Los Angeles Times. Pretty crazy that with the entire earth at its disposal the twister dropped down on our six-stall mare hotel, picked it up completely and threw it 120-yards against some trees. The debris hit the power lines and snapped the pole in two. For as much grief PG&E gets I have to tell you they had a new pole up and power restored by
2:00am that morning. Watching the crew clean up, pull the stump of the old pole and install a new one, reconnect the power lines – it was like watching choreography. Kind of inspiring actually. And they, like the reporters, were very nice and kind. I’m still cleaning up and probably will continue to be running the old chainsaw and tractor for several more weeks before all the damage is cleared.
Now, just between you and me – here’s the part the media refused to report on. I’ve lived in Oklahoma and Louisiana and have seen tornados. Never had one hit my place before but I knew what to do. I immediately gathered up Toto and placed him in a basket. The little feller wiggled out, grabbed my 9 and got off a couple of rounds at
some old cackling hag who was flying by our house on a bicycle. It’s impossible to say if he hit anything but we agreed it was a good preemptive measure.
The Meeting
The Kern Non-Districted Land Authority met on Monday, April 27, 2026 at the Kern County Water Agency headquarters in Bakersfield. Let’s see if I can get this right – the KNDLA used to be the Kern Groundwater Authority which was established before the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act of 2014. The good folks in Kern County have been very involved in their groundwater management before it was cool or state mandated.
Chairman Barry Watts got things rolling about 2:00pm, Executive Director Jenny Holtermann took roll and there was a quorum. A flag salute to the flag of the greatest nation on earth was made, as it should be at a public meeting. Public comment was next. Then the minutes and the financial statements were considered. Holtermann had a good report and it sounded like KNDLA is in a sound financial state. All was approved and there were no changes to the agenda.
Executive Director’s Report
Holtermann reported data gaps are still being filled. Provost & Pritchard and EKI engineering firms are working on that. The Land IQ review and analysis was completed. Like all public agencies the directors have to submit an annual Form 700 report. This is a
statement of financial interests the state requires to be sure the directors don’t get any inside information that could enrich them. Hmm? Occurs to me this might be a good example for congress to follow.
Holtermann then gave the board an update on the demand management program. Demand management means reducing pumping of groundwater. If I understood correctly KNDLA has completed Phase One of this program and that is mostly data collection and outreach. One of SGMA’s major flaws was requiring data that didn’t exist. So it’s a lot of hurry up. Also, next month’s meeting will not take place on the regular scheduled day as it’s Memorial Day. This happens every year so the May/June meeting will be combined on June 15th.
Legal Report
The beautiful and talented Valerie Kincade reported there is more subsidence Best Management Practice meetings with the subbasins and the Department of Water Resources. There will be a meeting Thursday, April 30th at 1:00pm to discuss Prop Four funding.
Kincade reported the State Water Resources Control Board moved the Delta Mendota Subbasin back to DWR from probation. The Tule and Tulare Lake Subbasins had their De minimus pumping report requirements changed from a maximum of three-acre feet to a
maximum of 20-acre feet annually. The State Board isn’t giving exemptions like the growers and Groundwater Sustainability Agencies would like. Be interesting to know the reason why the heavy handed approach is being used.
Correspondence
The Kern Tulare Water District sent a letter to Paul Gosslin of DWR with concerns about the Eastside Water Management Area. Tayler Blakesly spoke for Eastside and said they were disappointed with the criticism. He said demand management strategies are ready for next year and a water district is being formed. The EWMA has been working as hard and has invested as much money as any other GSA in the subbasin. Some landowners have made significant investments in produced water supplies. The water district will provide a legal framework to work with the landowners. It took a year to get the survey approved by Kern County and is now before LAFCo, the local agency formation commission. The letter from KTWD hasn’t been helpful with the county or the state.
Another gentleman, the beautiful and talented attorney Dan Raytis said the survey cost more than $70,000 and the KTWD letter caused a problem with LAFCo. LAFCo isn’t directly involved in SGMA, doesn’t have an in-depth knowledge of SGMA but now it wants to be far more informed and this is slowing things down considerably. He said the new kink in the process is this (if I understand) there has only been one other water district in California that has gone under the formation with the extra LAFCo scrutiny and it was a very complicated matter.
A person speaking for KTWD said their concern is everyone else has completed these preliminary actions and having the rules in place late could mean problems for their area if they aren’t implemented on time. I’m sure it’s a valid response. But I’ll remind everyone the only reason the EWMA was even necessary is because Kern County chose not to be the backstop for white areas as specified in SGMA. The County waited until the very last minute to make this decision back in 2017 if I recall correctly.
The meeting then went into closed session at about 3:00pm. As stated in the intro one hour is short for the typical water meeting. So, that’s what happened this month and go be good to each other and yourselves.
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