The Semitropic Water Storage District board of directors held its regular meeting held at district headquarters May 15, 2019. The meeting was called to order at approximately 12:30 PM by Board President Rick Wegis. The Pledge of Allegiance was recited. A single public comment explaining telemetry and shared data acquisition from private wells for GSA purposes was made. 
The Agenda was approved as were Minutes from April’s Regular Meeting, GSA Meeting and Special Board Meetings. Staff presented financial statements and were approved as were payment of invoices. 
Beth Brookhart Pandol, Executive Director of the Water Association of Kern County, presented examples of “wrapping” District Tank(s) with the message “Magic of Water” targeting younger residents hope to enlighten them on the importance of water on the farms that surround them. Wraps can be viewed on a tall storage tank owned by Arvin-Edison WSD along I-5 in southern Kern County. Reporters note: the wraps are intriguing and certainly grab the attention of long distance drivers along the Interstate. The Board gave a nod for further discussion. 
More than four hundred GSA statements were mailed to Semitropic landowners and other area interested parties requesting responses on GSA matters. Nearly one hundred responses were returned. General Manager Jason Gianquinto explained the GSP is making good progress and the draft has been developed. The concept of a “Glide Path” to meet groundwater 
sustainability by the year 2040 was extensively discussed in a Power Point by Mr. Gianquinto and GEI consultant Larry Rodriguez. The focus of the SGMA Compliance strategy is avoiding undesirable results, generally known as the “six deadly sins”. Certainly it cannot be one size fits all. The district has been conducting remote sensing technologies via two methods to grab ET info for a few years.
On May 22, 2019 Semitropic WSD will convene a Landowner Workshop and present the Draft GSA Plan. The Board went to Closed Session.
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SEMITROPIC WATER STORAGE DISTRICT
1101 Central Avenue, Wasco, CA 93280-0877 • 661-758-5113 • mail@semitropic.com
Board: Rick Wegis – President, Philip W. Portwood – Vice President, Dan Waterhouse – Treasurer, Todd Tracy – Secretary, Jeff Fabbri, Tim Thomson, Tom Toretta
Staff: Jason Gianquinto-General Manager, Bobby Salinas–District Controller, Isela Medina–District Engineer, Executive Secretary-Marsha Payne, Consultant-Will Boschman, Superintendent-John Lynch & Attorney Ernest Conant
About: Semitropic Water Storage District is one of eight water storage districts in California and is the largest in Kern County. The District delivers water to nearly 300 customers for the irrigation of approximately 140,000 acres for agricultural uses. Semitropic also supplies energy to a variety of users and provides groundwater banking and storage services. Established in 1958, Semitropic Water Storage District covers an area of more than 220,000 acres. It began as an irrigation district for the purpose of securing State Water Project supplies to reduce groundwater overdraft. From www.semitropic.com
