SGMA Archives - Page 17 of 21

Evaporation adds up. How much? Google it – someday

September 17, 2020

• by Lois Henry

There are lots of new water gizmos popping up these days but there’s only one Google. Which makes the massive tech company’s involvement in a proposed water measurement tool both intriguing and slightly suspicious to some agricultural water managers. The same goes for another partner in the effort, the Environmental Defense Fund, a well-known advocacy…

Drinking Water • State System • Water Banking

Proposed $171 million Central Valley groundwater bank faces TCP contamination

September 11, 2020

• by Lois Henry

A Kern County groundwater bank proposal just at the starting blocks has been hit with 1,2,3-TCP contamination. Irvine Ranch Water District and Rosedale-Rio Bravo Water Storage District had just begun the environmental review process for their joint banking project this past April when TCP reared its head. “It doesn’t appear TCP is an existential threat…

Drinking Water • Groundwater • Water Banking

Tainted valley groundwater could stymie banking deals

September 3, 2020

• by Lois Henry

The big kahuna of California water — Metropolitan Water District of Southern California — has stopped taking supplies from one Kern County groundwater bank because the water is heavily tainted with a cancer-causing agent that is pervasive in Central Valley’s aquifers. While only one banking program has been affected so far, the emergence of this…

Groundwater

Desert water basin hopes to dive into California water market

August 25, 2020

• by Lois Henry

If you’ve got water for sale, the Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority has $50 million to spend. Or, it will once it starts collecting a controversial, five-year, $2,000-per-acre-foot pumping fee that was approved by the authority last week. Specifically, the desert groundwater basin about 100 miles northeast of Bakersfield in the Mojave Desert, is looking…

Federal System • Friant-Kern Canal • Water Banking

California to Friant-Kern Canal: “No $ for you!”

August 24, 2020

• by Lois Henry

Any hope that California might kick in money to fix the sagging Friant-Kern Canal was killed Thursday when a bill that would have provided $400 million toward the effort was stripped of all funding. The bill, SB 559 by State Sen. Melissa Hurtado, D-Sanger, had been stuck in the suspense file (a kind of legislative…

Groundwater • Rivers • State System

Valley farmers look to Kern River tributary to replenish groundwater

July 29, 2020

• by Lois Henry

A Kern County water agency is facing a wall of opposition against its plan to harvest up to 12,000 acre feet of water from the South Fork of the Kern River above Lake Isabella and bring it to valley farms and homeowners in northwest Bakersfield. Mountain residents fear the proposal by Rosedale-Rio Bravo Water Storage…

Federal System

Could “angel investors” buy a piece of the Friant-Kern Canal?

July 18, 2020

• by Lois Henry

An investor funding proposal that could substantially increase the Friant-Kern Canal’s historic flow capacity is gaining interest among the Friant Water Authority’s member districts. In theory, that investor money could bump the amount of water that has historically flowed down the canal on the Central Valley’s eastern flank by up to 800 cubic feet per…

Groundwater

Groundwater plans could cause up to 12,000 drinking water wells to run dry

June 26, 2020

• by Lois Henry

If all goes according to plan — actually 26 groundwater sustainability plans — between 46,000 and nearly 130,000 Central Valley residents could be out of water by 2040, according to a new report released by the Water Foundation. Those sustainability plans are supposed to bring the valley’s depleted aquifers into balance, per the state’s Sustainable…

Federal System • Groundwater

Plans to fix the Friant-Kern Canal moving fast. Funding — not so fast.

June 19, 2020

• by Lois Henry

Planning to fix the Friant-Kern Canal is moving at a lightning clip even as funding to put those plans into action lags. The massive project went from its initial notice on Dec. 3, 2019, to release of the draft environmental impact statement on May 8, 2020 — just five months. Comments on the draft environmental…

Groundwater

Groundwater accountability sparks clash of Central Valley ag titans

June 16, 2020

• by Lois Henry

Two giant Central Valley farming companies are slinging serious mud at one another over groundwater. And, in a rare break with tradition, they’re doing it in public. The fight has spilled out in public comments on the Tulare Lake Subbasin Groundwater Sustainability Plan, which covers most of Kings County. The titans behind the comments are…

NEWS

Evaporation adds up. How much? Google it – someday

Proposed $171 million Central Valley groundwater bank faces TCP contamination

Tainted valley groundwater could stymie banking deals

Desert water basin hopes to dive into California water market

California to Friant-Kern Canal: “No $ for you!”

Valley farmers look to Kern River tributary to replenish groundwater

Could “angel investors” buy a piece of the Friant-Kern Canal?

Groundwater plans could cause up to 12,000 drinking water wells to run dry

Plans to fix the Friant-Kern Canal moving fast. Funding — not so fast.

Groundwater accountability sparks clash of Central Valley ag titans

Subscribe To Our Weekly Newsletter & Get Email Notifications