By Don A. Wright
The State Water Resources Control Board, State Board, held a hearing concerning placing the Kern Subbasin under probation for not having an adequate Groundwater Sustainability Plan, GSP under the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, SGMA. The hearing was held Thursday, February 20, 2025 at the California EPA building in Sacramento and online. It was scheduled to commence at 9:00am. It was a very long meeting and the original report was correspondingly long, fear not we’ve broken it down. This is part three of three parts. Part two ended with comments from Non-Governmental Organizations, NGOs, and a late afternoon break. This section begins with more testimony before the Board.
Yet More Panel Comment
Before the break State Board Chairman Joaquin Esquivel asked if any of the six remaining panels could consolidate their presentations in the interest of time, to please do so. In true State Board hearing fashion – the panels went ahead and spoke but the first one did limit itself to one speaker and the comments were not overly long. The panel represented the Metropolitan Water District, Santa Clara Valley Water District and Zone Seven, all big water bankers in the Kern Subbasin, all spoke in lock step to not place the subbasin on probation.
Semitropic WD had a panel of Chairman Dan Waterhouse, General Manager Jason Gianquinto and two others. Gianquinto informed the board Lost Hills has its wells in Semitropic. He also said Semitropic owns a majority of the overdraft in the subbasin. He said Semitropic realized adaptive management is the route for the area to attain
sustainability. Susan Paulson, engineer, showed some slides that illustrated what Table A State Project water comes into the district under different hydrological years. Other slides showed pumping and recharge rates. She said landowner water budgets show how pumping will be ramped down to zero by 2040. Then the talk got into computer modeling. Short story version – following the plan will achieve sustainability.
Dr. Richard Howitt spoke next saying water in the San Joaquin Valley is directly linked to jobs and the local economy. He did a study of what will happen if the State Board chooses probation. It’s not a pretty picture. The quicker the ramp down of pumping the quicker the economy gets smelly; loss of 17,000 jobs and more than $5 billion in economic activity. He called probation an expensive charge against the disadvantaged communities.
Waterhouse spoke and said the GSP achieves sustainability by 2040, as required under the law. An acceleration would impose tremendous economic costs on the subbasin.
Board member Laurel Firestone spoke for the first time saying she wanted to hear more about the economic impact to the community in the way of fees for wells and wetlands. Gianquinto said Lost Hills lies outside the Semitropic boundary but its pumps are in the district. Semitropic landowners pay assessments, based on the number of acres of parcels. For the Lost Hills land an agreement reached was to lock in a 350 acre annual fee, the
average annual usage and bank some State Water Project supplies. Firestone said she’s interested in finding that every opportunity for engagement and reliable supplies for DACs takes place. Gianquinto said Semitropic only charges Lost Hills assessments and not for the water pumped out.
Firestone wanted to know more about the wetlands that rely on groundwater pumping. Gianquinto said there are 7,000 acres of wetlands privately managed within Semitropic. The wetlands are valuable and don’t use much water but they aren’t managed by the CDF&W, which isn’t subject to SGMA. He said it’s a balancing act.
The Kern Subbasin GSA urban water folks came up to speak. Baraza, of Arvin CSD spoke again saying 11 urban water conveyors sent a letter of support to the State Board in support of the Kern Subbasin GSP. He spoke for five cities requesting no probation be implemented. Arvin is a very disadvantaged community yet sits on the GSA board – kind of sheds a different light on the claims that DACs have been cut out of the process.
Christina Budak manages water for the City of Bakersfield. She said Bakersfield, 9th largest city in the state, gets 30 percent of its supply from three surface water treatment plants and 70 percent from recovered groundwater. Consolidation with two DACs is already underway. Probation would place a tremendous financial burden on housing costs in the area. The City of Bakersfield is immersed in the GSP planning process, working collaboratively with all the GSAs it interacts with.
Tamara Johnson, California Water Service director of operations. She comes from Bakersfield and lives there now. Johnson presented graphs that showed better management, supply procurement and recharge has been able to improve the amount of usage per resident. She urged continuing the hearing until June.
Roberto Martinez, Water Manager City of Wasco said water conservation is a big part of its SGMA plans as there is no surface water available. He urged continuing the hearing.
Bob James, City Manager Shafter, said his city doesn’t have surface water supplies either. Conservation is practiced year round and has reduced pumping to levels below those of 10 years ago. Probation will negatively impact residents and the quality of life in the area. There have been significant efforts and results in preparing the GSP and he urged continuance.
The Kern Fan Water Banking panel consisted of Tom McCarthy, Executive Director Kern County Water Agency making a comment. He said all the plans in development for the banking are being implemented and have been for more than a decade. He said the subbasin coordination and the coordination with State Board staff has been nothing short of amazing. Probation would be a major hindrance to further successful sustainability.
Jeoff Wyrick, GM Henry Miller Water District said the district fallowed 60 percent of its land in coordination with the other GSAs in the area. He asked for continuation of the hearing.
The last panel was a wetlands panel. Three young people were in the room, and Steve Miller was online. Xeronimo Castaneda, Jeffrey Shu and Ellen Wehr sat at the table. Miller couldn’t unmute. Wehr said she has Miller’s comment and can submit it. The Tulare Basin Wetlands has the Kern Wildlife Wetlands and some of this has relied on pumping to keep the land wet. This land is by law required to remain wetlands. Wehr said the Semitropic’s GSP would place supplies for the wetlands in doubt.
Castaneda said he works for the Audubon Society and one in four birds have been lost in this state. He said as a child he watched the birds fly over the Valley while travelling to see his grandmother. He said wetlands can transform the area with an oasis. He asked this key part of the migratory bird flyway be preserved. He said there are examples of wetlands being preserved by pumping even in the face of SGMA.
Shu had the unenviable task of speaking next and my backside was very tired so I tuned out and stood up to walk around and missed what he had to say. In my defense were into seven hours of testimony by then. Wehr is an attorney for California Waterfowl and she said there are other wetlands being taken care of by pumping in the San Joaquin Valley.
Esquivel said this is an important opportunity to include wetlands preservation. D’Adamo is vice chair and she had to leave. This was also the last of the panels.
Dr. Nataly Escobedo Garcia of the Leadership Council For Justice & Accountability was able to get online. I believe she gave witness against the Tulare Lake Subbasin lawsuit (see page 32) on the side of the State Board Yes, I believe she is that very Dr. Garcia. She said all the work Kern Subbasin has done is good but way over do time-wise and probation needs to be imposed.
The State Board Comments
Firestone was the first Board member to speak saying the GSP is close and there has been intense work taking place to get the plan resolved. She said we need to keep the momentum going and don’t have to make a decision [on the GSP] today. She pointed to wetlands and DACs needing improvement in the GSP but there have been huge strides in well mitigation and public water systems. She said this is significant to have the partnership with Self Help Enterprises and that seemed to weigh the scale for her to go for continuance. She said today gave her optimism.
State Board member Sean Maguire spoke for the first time and thanked everyone and said this is what SGMA going forward looks like. All the while moving forward. He was skeptical of subbasins with many GSAs being able to come together but Kern is doing so. There is still much work to be done but he’s heartened by the reports and commitments to continue collaborating. Continuing the hearing is a reasonable request and he wants to see the Kern Subbasin get back to DWR. He also mentioned the incredible turnaround by the subbasin of the staff report. He’d like more information about the good actor requests and why that should or shouldn’t be included.
Board Member Nichole Morgan spoke for the first time today also. She thanked everyone for speaking up on the matter. She also thanked those willing to engage with others and believes the time this takes will benefit California. She said working together gets the best results. She wants more discussion on wetlands and community engagement and saw the hope of this coming forth.
Esquivel said continuation is not delay. Taking this time to get the best shot of completion is important. He reiterated a statement he’s made in the past, “The State Board isn’t looking to collect GSAs.” He asked for suggested language to beef up community engagement be considered for the continuation resolution.
Attorney Mr. Rose (apologies I didn’t catch his first name and the State Board website stated there are 40 attorneys on staff) gave the board an updated resolution going line by line on changes to the seven pages of whereas and therefore in the resolution. Most of it was corrections but for the Therefore paragraph Four, which did beef up the community outreach facet of the document.
Esquivel asked for comments and we got one in Spanish that was translated but in a very thick accent. I guess they asked to make more public comments. They were translated from Spanish by and said the subbasin must be placed in probation but if not make sure their community be better informed.
Yurosek responded to the additions to the resolution saying they look forward to working with staff on this and would like some refinement on the additional language. Esquivel thanked him and asked the other board members for input. Maguire wanted to be sure all the steps are met between now and June. Firestone said it is important to bring in people who work with communities brought in for cocreation of plans, the wetlands and small water systems. She wants more NGO involvement and not necessarily a new a whole new document.
At 6:07pm the Board finally voted on the alternative resolution to continue the hearing to June 20th and today’s meeting adjourned. Nothing left to do but the four hour drive home. I was fortunate to ride with Fresno County farmer Steve Jackson. Having someone with knowledge, discernment and consideration of the hearing was helpful and certainly made the miles seem shorter. We stopped at an In-N-Out Burger somewhere, maybe Stockton. We found it unusual that both of us were complemented on our appearance by other patrons. I guess there are worse ways to end the day. Go be good to yourselves and each other.
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