By Don A. Wright
The Kern Non-Districted Land Authority held its Monday, August 24, 2026 meeting at the Kern County Water Agency in Bakersfield on a balmy 104 degree afternoon. Instead of spending more than $5 per gallon of gas and baking in Bakersfield I decided to bake in Fresno County and attend online.
The Meeting
Things got rolling at about the scheduled 2:00pm there was a brief glitch in the audio but something like that doesn’t stop a room full of engineers and the problem was soon solved. CEO Jenny Holtermann called roll and there was a quorum. Next we all saluted the flag of the finest nation on earth. Public input, there was none, and approval of the July meeting minutes were next. They were approved.
Finances
Holtermann gave the financial report and the accounts payable. She said they received a $350,000 grant payment. Good for them. Of course, they had to pay a lot of this to
consulting engineers and such who had been standing around drumming their fingers in anticipation. The State of California (or the feds for that matter) are not known for distributing grant funds with any sense of urgency. The board accepted the report and that made for happy consultants.
Exec Direct Report
Holtermann reported there was a lot of work on filling data gaps in July. Originally SGMA was visioned to spend the first couple of years identifying the data gaps and filling them. The gap of usable data of what’s happening underground in California was and is still huge. Close your eyes and focus. You can almost hear the echo coming from Sacramento circa 2014, “I’ve got an idea! We’ll write a groundwater law with almost no unintended consequences.”
They also reviewed the Land IQ analysis, landowner GIS coordination and the demand management ad hoc committee. Holtermann also gave the Kern County LAFCo (Local Area Formation Committee) a primer on SGMA and how it is impacting Kern County.
The Kern Subbasin SGMA managers met and went over data gaps and technical analysis. On the very bright side of things Holtermann was accepted into the Ag Leadership Program. Congratulations and good for her.
Technical Assistance
The engineering firm Provost & Pritchard delivered a proposal to consult on groundwater allocation implementation. Holtermann said this was approved in the budget for $40,000 to complete Phase III of the project but the actual proposal must be approved. The board did so.
Aquilogic Inc. sent a proposal for a subsidence exceedance investigation near the California Aqueduct. The cost is $15,000 split between KNDLA and the West Side Water Agency. She was asked how long this study will take and the answer was six weeks or so. This too has been included in the budget. The board approved. Next was a short update on the DWR Grant Administration and that has been taken care of.
Holtermann said more well monitoring is needed. KNDLA can either get volunteers from landowners willing to allow their wells to be monitored or drill a well. Remember the land in KNDLA is white area and a decent portion on the eastside is range and grazing land. Holtermann said the only communication she has with the landowners is snail mail or door to door. She sent out a trash can full of letters to solicit help. If they can’t find some volunteers by the end of the year they will have to drill. They also have to pay for the drilling somehow and the new well costs will be on the members.
If no one will allow their wells to be used then perhaps they will allow a monitoring well to be drilled on their property. If not, there isn’t a lot of county easement available so folks will have to get creative. DWR may be willing to grant a little extra time considering the uniqueness of the circumstances in the eastern Valley floor in Kern County.
Legalese
Valerie Kincade gave her update saying DWR has Proposition Four funding for
SGMA implementation. There will be two webinars regarding this in September and Kincade advised keeping an eye on this. The California Water Data Consortium is plugged into this effort. She said DWR is about to present a recharge ready workshop also in September.
The Third Court of Appeals heard from the enviros challenging the GSAs over their GSPs. The court said no, you have to go after DWR since they’ve already approved the GSPs. This will force the NGOs to sue the state instead of the individual GSAs. A vast difference in pocket depth that should provide some protection for landowners.
Kincade said the State Board is reconsidering some SGMA fees. There are two subbasins in probation and one on the edge. Other subbasins have been released from probation back into the tender care of DWR. As long as a subbasin is under DWR there are no State Board fees.
New Biz & Correspondence
Holtermann said there was a request from Self Help asking KNDLA to sign on to a funding request letter to get the state senate to replace the funding. The deadline for signing is September 1st. The idea of signing on sounded good but it wasn’t agendized today and will have to wait until next month. The meeting then went into closed session for only one item of anticipated litigation. That was at 2:40pm. Go be good to each other and yourselves.
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