Madera County residents plagued by dry wells surprised, and hopeful, that new recharge basin will help in dry times

When longtime Fairmead resident Vickie Ortiz heard the neighboring Madera Irrigation District wanted to meet with her community advocacy group, she said, “Sure, we’ll meet with anybody.”

One of Fairmead and Friends’ biggest concerns is water. 

Community members, including Ortiz, noticed water tables dropping in the 432-home enclave as almond orchards started popping up around it five to 10 years ago. Then in the devastating 2020-22 drought, domestic wells dried up, leaving residents mostly dependent on one county-operated well.

Residents spent two years working with Madera County under a Climate Resilience Challenge grant seeking solutions. 

That effort concluded in 2024 without any actual projects, though it positioned the community to apply for grants for future projects, such as a stormwater basin, said Stephanie Anagnoson, director of Madera County’s Department of Water and Natural Resources.

So, Madera Irrigation’s news that it was buying a 60-acre orchard, tearing out the trees and building a water recharge basin just south of Fairmead — all on its own dime — was a bit of a shock to residents. A pleasant one.

Ortiz likened the experience to walking into a surprise birthday party.

“We didn’t have any idea, no background at all, of where it was going to be, why they were doing it,” Ortiz said. “Within the next two weeks, they pulled out those trees.”

Madera Irrigation later filled two of the basin’s three ponds to test it and invited the Fairmead group to a grand opening in August.

“We told them you’re the first organization that said you’re going to do something and you did it,” Ortiz said.

And so far, neighbors say, so good.

Yvette Cooper-Smith, a Fairmead and Friends board member who lives steps from the recharge basin, said construction was quick and tidy. 

“There was a ‘Zzzzzz,’ the whole time, every day,” Cooper-Smith said. “You could hear buzz sawing, the sawdust. And then, in another few months, they dug the trenches and they put a chain link fence all the way around, which is good for me. It looks nice and clean.”

A similar project in Tulare County took nine years. The Tulare Irrigation District built a 21-acre recharge basin in Okieville, funded with a state grant. 

Dina Nolan, Madera Irrigation’s assistant general manager, said the new recharge basin has the capacity to hold 115 acre-feet, with room for expansion. 

But she doesn’t yet know how much the basin will recharge every year because that depends on factors including soil type, soil saturation and when water arrives.

How much water could replenish the water table under Fairmead is also still unknown, at least until there’s enough water to keep the basin full. That could happen this winter if the El Niño weather pattern brings storms to California, as predicted.

“That’s really when we can see the full effect of these recharge basins,” Nolan said. “The goal really is to try to keep it here and recharge our aquifer.”

Removing the orchard also helps the aquifer, Nolan noted, because it eliminates about 150 acre-feet of groundwater demand, the amount needed to irrigate the trees every year.

Madera Irrigation District, like most San Joaquin Valley water districts, is under the gun to bring aquifers into balance by 2040 per the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act.

The district bought the property for $900,000 in 2024. One of the factors it considered was  its proximity to canals and disadvantaged communities. 

Nolan said the total cost to build the basin was about $1.75 million, including the property, all paid for with the district’s own funds. 

She said building recharge basins is a key strategy in Madera Irrigation’s groundwater plan, which was timed to be done from 2020 to 2040. The district’s goal was to build 90 acres of recharge by 2030. They’ve completed 215 acres.

“So, we’re pretty proud about that,” Nolan said.