The East Kaweah Groundwater Sustainability Agency held its board of directors meeting on Monday, July 23, 2018 at the Exeter Museum in Exeter. It is a nice, upstairs venue. It looks kind of like a jail and is located right by the water tower so it’s easy to find. Chairman Ed Milanesio called the meeting at a little after the posted 3:00 pm start time due to the need to find a flag to salute. I think it was Provost & Pritchard engineer Matt Klinchuch who brought in a flag from downstairs. Vice Chair Joe Ferrara went and got the password for the guest wi-fi account.
The minutes were approved after it was established Director Tim Gobler was indeed present at last month’s meeting. General Manager and all around nice guy Michael Hagman gave the financial report and I missed a bunch of it because I was trying to share the password and got in trouble to for doing so too loudly. However, I can tell you the board approved the financial reports and it was said by Hagman, a man with a strong accounting background, there isn’t an immediate need for any call for funds.
Next Hagman advised the board to not issue a letter of support for SB623 dealing with CV Salts. He said it didn’t have much to do with the GSA. There is a MOU for Sub Basin Coordination. The proposed modification to the Sub Basin MOU is to remove the technical advisory committee from the MOU. Mark Larsen, former GM of the Greater Kaweah GSA said his GSA has agreed and Paul Hendrix, GM of the Mid Kaweah GSA said his GSA is prepared to approve. But someone, not saying who, didn’t provide the item in the board packet so the board held off on taking action.
Ferrara reported on the Advisory Committee meeting saying Trilby Barton from Provost & Pritchard gave a presentation of her excellent outreach and communications plan. Gobler reported on the Tech Committee saying attorney Ravi Patel discussed channel loss and there was some discussion of fractured wells policy. That stopped things because if a well is in fractured rock it’s not in an alluvial aquifer and therefore not under SGMA. Attorney Alex Peltzer is looking into this and the Tech Committee wasn’t ready to make a recommendation to the board.
Hagman reported he, Director Terry Peltzer and Exeter ID GM Tom Weddle attend the meetings where the three GSAs come together to coordinate the GSP. There are questions about inflows and outflows being addressed. Hagman asked the board to allow him to approve some changes with the GEI engineering consultants up to $50,000. The board agreed to this as it only meets quarterly. GEI needs another $35,000 and Hagman wanted some wiggle room. 2020 is coming first.
Klinchuch told the board about data collection. The EKGSA came into the game with the least amount of gathered data. The Greater Kaweah GSA had the Kaweah Delta Water Conservation District to provide its Water Resource Investigation and Mid Kaweah had Tulare ID and the Cities of Visalia and Tulare’s data to draw from. Director Kuyler Crocker said he is concerned about the time this is taking. The GSP needs this information. Hagman said a big part of the problem is getting the Basin Setting from GEI. He said the GSA is in good shape.*
Next Barton lead the board through the communication outreach efforts. She said NGOs have been engaged in helping outreach to disadvantaged communities. Public presentations and workshops are planned in the near future. The stakeholder survey has received 77 responses from mostly ag and domestic well users. About half of the respondents are aware of SGMA. Hagman said this response is the report card, it is on par with other GSA outreach efforts in the Valley. Barton said there were no obscene responses yet. That made me think about the recent findings that the Russians got on Face Book to rile things up over the election. I had no idea I have so many Russian friends and they could be so disagreeable. I hope Ms. Barton never gets an obscene response. She works hard and certainly deserves respect. There was a question about the NGOs involved in DAC outreach. The NGOs do not receive any EKGSA money and they have to present the outreach material developed by Barton. Hagman has P&P providing an interpreter who will also monitor the message being presented.
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Next GEI has developed a draft of estimated inflow to the Kaweah Sub Basin. The total figure is 702,000 a/f. Hagman said he doesn’t believe the figures used for the east side of the sub basin are as accurate as they need to be. Gobler said pretty much the same. The feeling was GEI extrapolated the figures for the eastside. Hagman said he recommends further discussion in closed session. Hagman gave his opinion on what some of the discrepancy is founded on. He said the Lindmore ID has been living under
SGMA type existence ever since CVP supplies started in the early 1950s. He said baseline should be pre-dam conditions. Crocker asked what the sustainable yield would be based on the draft, even though the draft needs to be updated. I don’t think that number was ever given but I did hear either 4 a/f or .4 a/f but it could have been any other number you like. Hagman said a cone of depression has been filled to the north. The question is: how much of the overdraft belongs to who. Patel asked the board if it wants to go into closed session.
The meeting then went into closed session for one item of potential litigation.**
DISCLAIMER OF RESPONSIBILITY; Waterwrights strives to provide his clients with the most complete, up-to-date, and accurate information available. Nevertheless, Waterwrights does not serve as a guarantor of the accuracy or completeness of the information provided, and specifically disclaims any and all responsibility for information that is not accurate, up-to-date, or complete. Waterwrights’ clients therefore rely on the accuracy, completeness and timeliness of information from Waterwrights entirely at their own risk. The opinions expressed in this report are those of the author and do not represent any advertisers or third parties. *Hmm? **I believe the subject could well be inflows that will impact EKGSA’s share of safe yield.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2018 by Don A. Wright No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of DAW.
SGMA The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act of 2014 calls for the formation of Groundwater Sustainability Areas within Basins and Sub-basins to develop Groundwater Sustainability Plans.
EAST KAWEAH GSA 315 E. Lindmore Street, Lindsay, CA 93247. Telephone 559/562-2534. Mailing address PO Box 908 Lindsay, CA 93247 Meetings are generally the 4th Monday of the month at the Lindsay Wellness Center at 3:00 pm.
Members: County of Tulare, City of Lindsay, Exeter ID, Ivanhoe ID, Lindsay Strathmore ID, Lindmore ID and Stone Corral ID
Staff: Michael Hagman – Executive Director, Ravi Patel – Attorney
