By Don A. Wright
The first regular Board meeting of the year for Tri-County Water Authority was held on Thursday, January 4, 2024 both in-person at its Corcoran headquarters and via Zoom.
Attending in person in Corcoran gives you a fleeting feeling of what life must have been like during the time when the Valley was in that phase between when settlers arrived and when they actually settled, but not quite tamed.
The growers were still in a generation of expansion, the kids worked the land with the parents. The grand and great grandchildren had not yet grown up comfortably wealthy, attended law school and fled to the Bay Area to clip bond coupons. The TCWA offices in Corcoran are upstairs, small to the point of cozy and lined with books. Its downtown is still active and there are all the appearances of civic life being lived.
The San Joaquin Valley was populated by thriving communities with pride and character of the American spirit. But things were different in those days. California was still operating to achieve the ideals of liberty. The state’s water infrastructure was keeping pace with its population. Farmers were driving the economic engine of agriculture in those days. They had the challenges of weather, pestilence and labor – like today. But they didn’t have to fight a Hobbesian parasitic government/non-government organization cabal, run away regulation and a hostile press.
The Meeting
The meeting was called to order by President Cory VanderHam at 1:00pm or so
and the consent calendar approved, which included minutes and financial matters. Myron Schotanus was sworn in as the at large representative for the Southeast Management Area of TCWA. The officers were elected and I don’t think there were any changes from the previous year.
Mike Cuttone, CPA gave the audit presentation and there were $3 million more in pumping extractions in 2022 than expected. Jackson said that budget category was based on the dry year estimate and will be adjusted. The board approved the audit and hired Cuttone & Mastro for the 2023 audit.
Task Orders
Next Geosyntec engineer Amer Hussain gave the board an update on what his firm considers necessary task orders. He said there are place holders to compensate for changes. He said if you don’t need a task it won’t be charged and he was happy to go line by line if desired.
Jackson said there will be a substantial rewrite of the Groundwater Sustainability Plan. The first go around was more than $750,000 to write the GSP and that is just the TCWA portion. You may recall the State Water Resources Control Board staff expressed its desire to have their bosses place the Tulare Lake Subbasin on probation at an upcoming April hearing. That would lift $30 million from the local ag economy immediately in fines with a 25-percent late fee – per month. With that sword hanging over their heads and realizing
this is going to be an engineering heavy task, the board approved the Geosyntec task orders.
The board also set the date of April 4th for a public hearing to review the GSP revisions for the Tule Lake Subbasin. It also directed staff to send out updated 90-day notices.
Comments
The next item was fairly technical in nature. Lower Tule River and Pixley IDs sent a lengthy comment letter critical of the Tulare Lake Subbasin GSP to the State Water Resources Control Board. The issue is LTRID and PID are in the Tule Subbasin. Angiola Water District, located mostly in the Tulare Lake Subbasin, has a pumping field located in the Tule Subbasin. AWD is a member of Tri County. LTRID and PID claim the pumping of Angiola’s well field is causing subsidence in the Tule Subbasin that isn’t being addressed in the Tri County portion of the Tulare Lake Subbasin GSP.
What’s a comment letter without a response? TCWA wrote the State Board a much shorter letter that points out: One, there is an agreement in place between LTRID/PID and AWD concerning the well field and pumping that was established in 1957. Another 10-year agreement was reached between the three entities in 2013 that yielded Lower Tule and Pixley $3.5 million as mitigation fees. Two, the pumping is taking place outside of the Tulare Lake Subbasin (I think the inference here is that issue should be addressed in the GSP of the subbasin where the pumping is taking place. I could be wrong.) And, three Tri County isn’t a party to any of these agreements and doesn’t want to be sucked into that dispute.
The Cal Strategies report was given by David Armanasco said there’s not much to report. The state legislators tried to meet yesterday but a protest prevented them from doing so.
Tulare Lake Subbasin
Hussain gave the Tulare Lake Subbasin update saying the State Board hearing date is still April 16th. The meeting on the Tule Subbasin side has been postponed from May to September. The State Board is starting to realize how difficult this process will be and how much work will be required. This also gives the Tule side a little more time and a look at the process the Tulare Lake side will go through.
Hussain said the Tri County WA GSA has appealed to the “Good Actor” clause of SGMA. He said TCWA is doing everything necessary to comply with the law. The State Board staff didn’t make it clear how this could come about. That stated position is without an approved
GSP there is no Good Actor opportunity. But if the GSP is passed why would there be a need for a Good Actor?
Jackson said TCWA has less than 5,000 acres in the Tulare Lake Subbasin, there is very little pumping and no subsidence. Hussain said State Board staff in fairness, has never done this before and is having to make it up as they go. He met with them yesterday and found some of the items he thought resolved were reversed. He advised pushing back in the documents as the staff isn’t strong on technicalities. Staff said minimum thresholds should be higher and “aspirational.” We all aspire for more rain sounds like a good strategy. Jackson said writing an aspirational plan isn’t a realistic plan.
Hussain said the goal is for the rewrite to be finished by the end of this month and reviewed for a March submission before the April hearing. Jackson urged the board to attend all the meetings. I believe it was Hussain who said if some State Board members tour the area and he wants actual growers to be involved and not just staff. That is good advice.
Tule Subbasin
Hussain said Angola WD has been consistently measuring and maintaining data on wells. His argument is the Lower Tule River and Pixley IDs need to beef up their well pumping data. He said this needs to be incorporated into the final document. What is the policy on wells going dry? TCWA is being asked to provide up to $24 million and the policy hasn’t been presented yet.
Next Hussain spoke about subsidence showing a map by Thomas Harder with the worst subsidence in the Tule Subbasin taking place at the northern portion of Lower Tule River ID. He and Jackson have argued subsidence must be addressed over the entire subbasin. He presented a graph showing the correlation between pumping below the clay and subsidence. He presented a graph showing the modeling predictions. Even through there are lies, damn lies, statistics and modeling there is a closer than expected parallel between actual and modeled levels.
Hussain said land use and infrastructure has been studied by Harder. Canals, levees and railroads are some of the critical concerns. The Tule Subbasin design team wants to set up management areas dividing the subbasin in six. He doesn’t believe this is going to be the proper approach as parts are ignored for problems with pumping that doesn’t include the entire area.
Jackson said this plan has already been submitted to the state without review by TCWA. There is a study being done by Delano Earlimart ID to the south to find out how much its neighbors could pump without harming them. That is being conducted by Intera
Engineering or its sub and it was commented it must be nice to stake your territory in that manner.
Flooding is also a concern for the area. Levee improvements on the Tule River and Deer Creek are under consideration. Subsidence can also impact streams like it does canals and reduce capacity causing flooding with less flows. Hussain said a goal to end subsidence is good but expensive. It looked like almost $4 million. He said High on Speed Rail wasn’t so concerned with subsidence as it is with flooding. Again, subsidence exacerbates flooding.
Establishing cumulative subsidence with transitional pumping is built into the model but Hussain maintains all pumping must be included in the model. If I understood, he doesn’t believe leaving out pumping will pass the State Board.
Grants & Legal
Next Hussain said the multi-benefit land repurposing grant for Allensworth is still underway. There needs to be a discussion with the Angola board to move things along. There also needs to be more outreach and education for landowners. Jackson said there will have to be a new Prop 218 election that Provost & Pritchard is working on and there will be new members soon.
There was no legal report by Jason Howard and the board went to closed session at 2:18pm. That was that. Happy New Year and may it be blessed and peaceful.
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TRI-COUNTY WATER AUTHORITY
www.tcwater.org
944 Whitely Ave. Ste. E, Corcoran, CA 93212 Phone: 559/762-7240 DWR# 5-022.12
Tri-County Water Authority is a collaboration of Public Agencies, Water Suppliers, Communities, Cities, County, Environmental Groups, Government Representatives, and a variety of other interested parties. The goal is to identify and implement water management solutions on a regional scale that increase regional self-reliance, reduce conflict, and manage water to concurrently achieve social, environmental, and economic objectives.
Directors & Staff: Cory VanderHam – Chairman, Craig Andrew – Vice Chair, Michael Nordstrom, Wade Magden & Myron Schotanus.
Deanna Jackson – Executive Director, Amer Hussain – consulting engineer, Staci Wilkins – Secretary/Treasurer.
