The Kern Groundwater Authority Groundwater Sustainability Agency held its board of directors meeting on Wednesday, April 25, 2018 at the Kern County Administration Building in Bakersfield. Chairman Dennis Mullins called the meeting at 8:00 am. There was a quorum, no public input, the minutes were approved and Dick Diamond, General Manager North Kern Water Storage District gave the treasurer’s report. He did such a good job the board approved the report without comment. The NKWSD auditor, BHK’s CPA gave the audit report. It was a clean report. He said Provost & Pritchard will now keep the books. I didn’t catch the guy’s name, Jeff something, but he spoke quickly, indicating he respects other peoples’ time. I rate auditors more by the brevity of their oral reports as opposed to – I guess their accounting abilities. But in all these years I’ve never been present when an auditor gave a bad report. The board approved the audit report.
Patty Poire, KGA reported the Todd Groundwater Modeling work is beginning and that is being managed by the Kern River GSA so there needs to be a coordination on how to pay for it. There are other facets to this situation beyond cost sharing. There are participation percentages and such. The amount of acreage each GSA is financially responsible for is a bit of a moving target. Poire said a cash call would be appropriate at this time as it’s a 50 percent of costs. Adjustments can be implemented in the second payment. Steve Collup, Arvin Edison WSD asked when Lamont moved from the KGA to the KRGSA would it be a different charge. Poire and attorney Valeri Kincaid said it’s based on a per acre so the costs would be the same either way. If I understood correctly the KGA is also on the hook for a $44,000 pier review charge. I guess they hired someone to look over Todd Groundwater’s work.
Terry Erlewine, GM KGA spoke a bit about the progress, also known as the forward work plan, KGA has made. He said from now to the end of the year the focus will be the guts of the GSP. There is a lot of behind the scenes work going on. Each chapter needs to be developed by the individual members while KGA keeps track of scheduling and coordinating the chapters into a whole. This needs to be pretty much finished by the end of the year. The first half of next year will be DWR’s review and then by July the public review so the plans can be submitted by January 2020. DWR had said they are looking for high level, conceptual plans by 2020. Refinement over the course of the next 20-years is expected. Director Andrew Pandol, Kern Tulare Water District asked about the public outreach needed as the plan is being developed. Erlewine said Poire is in charge of this matter and that will be addressed. He also said DWR held a workshop yesterday where it was said DWR isn’t looking for consensus in a coordinating agreement. It’s looking for cooperation.
Mullins asked Poire to update the board on workshops. She said KGA and KRGSA have been working closely to avoid creating confusion. She said Cawelo WD held a GSA meeting for its landowners and it went well. There will be a meeting tomorrow night in Shafter that has been widely publicized in the local ag community. She said KRGSA will be participating and she urged the WD and IDs to participate as well. Other KGA accomplishments were mentioned in the packet.
The firm GEI has been developing a basin setting narrative. Larry Rodriguez was going to give this report but wasn’t available so Mat Mayry filled in. Mayberry explained this was gathering data about the Kern Sub Basin. The meeting then adjourned.
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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.
