By Joel Hastings
The Madera GSA Committee meeting was called to order at 1:32 p.m. by Supervisor Robert Macaulay, committee chair, in the supervisors’ chambers of the county office building in Madera. Following the Pledge, public comment was invited with local grower Mark Peters coming to the podium. He said an important topic for a future meeting would be the connection among three items – penalties collected for water use above the allowed allocation, carry
over water credits for those who reduce water use by fallowing land and the opportunity to use those penalty dollars for purchasing credits, after the domestic well mitigation program is paid for… in affect, having those who are overusing water pay those who are underusing.
The minutes of the March 3 meeting were approved without comment and then Emily Garcia, senior administrative analyst for the Department of Water & Natural Resources, reported that $122,565 in collected penalties would be transferred internally to accounts allowing payment to the Chowchilla Water District of $107,000 and the remainder moved to the master account. With no discussion or public comment, this action was approved.
To review the Water Year 2025 Annual Reports for both the Madera and Chowchilla Subbasins, John Davids of Davids Engineering came to the podium to review the documents his firm had prepared. He explained the annual reports are required by and submitted to both the federal Bureau of Reclamation and the state Department of Water Resources. Additionally, summary reports are required every five years, with this year being one. He said the requirement is submission by April 1 and the reports had been sent in on March 30 and 31.
He said the reports are to include surface water systems budgets, a summary of the 35 projects from all the GSAs in the subbasins and details on groundwater conditions. He said the domestic well mitigation program underway in Chowchilla might be the very first of its kind in the state. In his presentation, he showed detailed maps documenting the continuing decline of groundwater levels in both the upper and lower aquifers in both subbasins, with more water being pulled out than put in. He said that in wet years the decline slows but that if in the future there were several very dry years, the drop in groundwater levels and land subsidence could be very serious.
There was only a little discussion and because this item was informational only, no action was needed since the reports had been previewed last time and were submitted on a timely basis.
Next up was a proposal to amend the domestic well mitigation program, with the details presented by Jerod Weeks, the department’s administrative services officer. He began with a brief review of the program which is just getting underway. There have been 15 inquiries, seven of which did not qualify, and with three passing initial screening and five more pending. Two well assessments have been completed. To inform the public about the program, there has been a postcard mailing to about 90 percent of the homes in the service area with domestic wells. Additionally, all the details including the required application forms appear on the department’s web site.
He summarized the proposed changes which would allow mitigation to include not only well drilling but also the installation of casing and sanitary seals, electrical wiring for pump control, pressure tank and switches necessary to regulate household pressure and basic plumbing to deliver water to a household. These changes would allow the well to provide “functional domestic water supply” to a residence. The $35,000 limit per well remains in place. With the staff recommendation to approve these changes, the chair invited discussion.
Mark Peters asked about the 200 or so dry wells that the Self-Help organization has been working with.
Speaking online, Ralph Pistoresi said he thought the program was only to support drilling a new, deeper well for an affected household.
Rancher and grower Michelle Lascoigty, at the podium, said she wanted to be sure the $35,000 per well limit was still in place. She went on to say that she thought there was going to be a review of the program financials since the $59 per acre fee had been collected on the 88,000 white area acres, resulting in about $2.5 million collected. She asked if the actual costs justified continued collection of the fee in 2026. Do we need more or less tax money, she asked, and when will financial results be available?
Chair Macaulay said we haven’t really spent any money at this point but we want the tax bills to be as low as possible. Supervisor Jordan Wamhoff, the other committee member, said the process is just beginning and there really isn’t anything to review at this point. Lascoigty continued asking if there would be another $59 collected this year.
Stephanie Anagnoson, department director, pointed out that more wells begin to go dry when the irrigation season starts with resulting groundwater pumping in the summer months.
Online, Christina Beckstead, head of the Madera County Farm Bureau, said her group was concerned about the amounts collected and had submitted a letter to that effect. Also online, Noah Lopez, spokesman for the Madera Ag Water Association, asked if there would be financial analysis prior to 2026 tax billing to see if the amount could be reduced or even paused.
Staffer Weeks said it was expected that information from Self-Help would be received shortly but they have not yet provided dates when wells went dry. He said financial analysis will be provided quarterly with the next one due in May.
Supervisor Wamhoff asked how many wells will actually be drilled this year and Anagnoson said that drillers have committed to putting in 200 wells by the end of the year. She added that in reply to Ms Beckstead’s question, any requests for taxes would be submitted in August.
Chair Macaulay asked that comments be directed to the new rules for the domestic well program. Supervisor Wamhoff said it’s prudent that in addition to drilling a hole, the rest of the infrastructure needs to be installed but with the cost cap staying in place. With a motion to approve, he and Macaulay agreed to submit the proposed changes to the full board at next week’s meeting.
As an information item, Director Anagnoson presented summaries about penalties collected from those whose water use exceeded their allocations. With the reports in the meeting packet, she pointed out that in Chowchilla, penalties amounting to $649,710 had been assessed on 3,597 acres out of a total of 37,998. In Madera, the figures show that out of 88,129 acres, $1,113,061 had been assessed against 6,632 acres. There have been 17 farms penalized all three years. There are 22 farms with two out of three years in penalty and 37 farms with one year.
A number of comments were made regarding the use of the penalty monies collected to reduce the assessment for the mitigation program. Speaking online, Steve Page who identified himself with MAWA asked if there was any option available to use the penalty funds for a ground fallowing program to take acres out of production permanently thereby reducing groundwater use.
John Davids returned to the podium to describe the groundwater demand management and subsidence mitigation program developed for the Chowchilla Subbasin. This is a big deal, Davids said, that must be approved by all the GSAs in in the subbasin. It has been included in the GSP to satisfy the State Board and allow the subbasin to return to oversight by the DWR. It has been approved by the Chowchilla WD and Triangle-T and will be considered by Merced at its April meeting.
He said this program provides a backstop required by the State Board with specific triggers to halt groundwater overdraft and land subsidence. The actions would be local, drawing a contour around an affected area with more than a foot of subsidence before 2030. It would include both voluntary and mandatory measures, such as groundwater extraction fees and limits on pumping. He said currently, stringing together two or three wet years, things look pretty good, as reflected in the annual report described above. Details of his presentation can be found on the department’s website.
He said approval by the committee is needed today with a formal adoption by the GSA board at its meeting next week. Both supervisors approved the plan and it will be on next week’s board agenda.
With no further business, Director Anagnoson gave a brief summary of the agenda and the meeting was adjourned about 2:45 P.M.
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Madera County is comprised of three subbasins, designated by the CA Department of Water Resources as critically overdrafted, and “high priority”: (1) the Chowchilla Subbasin; (2) the Madera Subbasin; and (3) a portion of the Delta-Mendota Subbasin. Each of these subbasins submitted a Groundwater Sustainability Plan (GSP) by January 31, 2020. These subbasins are required to achieve “sustainability” by the year 2040. The method by which sustainability will be achieved will be illustrated in the GSP, which was be drafted in partnership by the irrigation district, water districts, cities and Madera County. The Madera County Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA) is administered by the Madera County Department of Water and Natural Resources: Stephanie Anagnoson, Director, 200 W. Fourth Street, Madera, CA 93637, (559) 675-7703 x. 2265 or (559) 675-6573. The County of Madera Board of Supervisors is the Board of Directors of the GSA for the three subbasins. The current board is composed of five members: Robert Poythress, chair, Letitia Gonzalez, Robert Macaulay, David Rogers and Jordon Wamhoff. Supervisors Macaulay and Wamhoff comprise the Committee..
The Madera Subbasin’s DWR # is 5-022.06
