Barbara Sally, 77, describes her departure from Exeter city and Tulare County water politics as “sweet and sour.”
Sweet because fewer meetings means more time to watch her seven grandchildren play sports up and down the state.
Sour because, “I’m going to miss all of the hard-working people, and there’s unfinished business. I just want to see Exeter keep moving forward,” the former mayor said.
In finishing her final term on the Exeter City Council in December, Sally is also wrapping up a six-year stint as a member of the Greater Kaweah Groundwater Sustainability Agency’s Rural Communities Committee. She was appointed to both seats upon the death of her husband, Dale, former General Manager of Exeter Irrigation District.
Since 2018, she has learned just how important groundwater is not only to agriculture but to disadvantaged communities such as Exeter, Farmersville, Lemon Cove and Tooleville.
“There’s a lot of listening involved,” she said of working in water.
During Sally’s tenure as mayor from 2020-2022, a well serving the unincorporated hamlet of Tooleville, about two miles east of town, went dry, a victim of drought and groundwater overdraft.
Noting the emergency, the state Water Resources Control Board issued a mandate for Exeter to consolidate with Tooleville’s water system. That eight-year project is underway at a cost of $10 million, Sally said.
“Everyone in Tulare County has to have a sustainable water supply,” Sally said.
Dry wells also dominated discussions in the Rural Communities Committee, and Sally brought a steady, common sense voice to the table, said Greater Kaweah GSA Manager Mark Larsen.
“Barbara took on her new role with a smile on her face and determination to learn and provide the best representation she could for the city and GSA, and I have always had a lot of respect and admiration for her stepping up as she did,” Larsen wrote in an e-mail.
In particular, the committee’s guidance helped the GSA’s board of directors develop Greater Kaweah’s domestic well mitigation program, overseen by Visalia-based nonprofit Self-Help Enterprises.
That program, which coordinates with the Kaweah subbasin’s two other GSAs, East and Mid-Kaweah, recently was lauded by the state water board.
“What stands out to me is the committee had detailed insight and perspectives that were particularly instrumental in building a strong, realistic policy for managing these well issues,” Larsen wrote.
In fact, that domestic well protection plan, included in the subbasin’s recently revised groundwater plans, played a big role in helping the entire Kaweah Subbasin earn a pass from the state water board on Nov. 15, when its probationary hearing was canceled.
Seeing the plan come to fruition and voting for its approval last month “was exciting,” Sally said, and a cautionary green light from the state was a satisfying conclusion to her volunteering.
“That was my hope for the plan,” she said. “There are a lot of people who have worked very hard for this.”
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