wells Archives - SJV Water

Lamont’s water future secured with $25.4 million grant from state drinking water fund

February 13, 2023

• by Lois Henry

Most Lamont residents likely had no idea that a mini hoopla held in the middle of town Monday morning next to a newly constructed well was actually a celebration of their children’s and their grandchildren’s futures. “This is generational,” said Lamont Public Utilities District General Manager Scott Taylor. “It allows us to provide clean and…

Drinking Water • Drought

Water debt doubles for residents of tiny, impoverished west Fresno County towns

October 20, 2022

• by Jesse Vad, SJV Water

Water debt has ballooned to nearly double what it was last year in Cantua Creek and El Porvenir, two small towns in western Fresno County where nearly half the residents live in poverty. The towns were supposed to be getting water from two new wells by now but the project hasn’t been completed so they’ve…

Drought

Kern County reverses course on ag well permitting

June 24, 2022

• by Lois Henry

In a complete turnaround from its stance earlier this week, Kern County late Thursday dropped its requirement that groundwater agencies make certain findings about proposed new agricultural wells before it would consider issuing permits for those wells. The situation had reached a boiling point in the local ag community as the Kern County Environmental Health…

Drought • SGMA

Ag well permitting process still causing confusion in Kern County

June 22, 2022

• by Lois Henry

Kern County hasn’t issued a single agricultural well permit since early April and frustration in the ag community is at a boiling point. Ag well permitting slowed to a crawl up and down the San Joaquin Valley after Gov. Newsom issued an emergency drought order on March 28 that added an extra layer of scrutiny…

Drought • SGMA

How low will it go? Kern agencies worry one district setting groundwater levels too far down

April 16, 2022

• by Lois Henry

Kern County agricultural water districts are giving major side-eye to one of their own over what’s known as “minimum threshold” groundwater levels The grumbling is aimed at the sprawling Semitropic Water Storage District in northwest Kern, where minimum thresholds are set, in some cases, at levels that would allow farmers to pump down the water…

Drought • Groundwater

Gov. Newsom’s drought order brings ag well activity to a standstill in some areas

April 14, 2022

• by Jesse Vad, SJV Water

Valley groundwater agencies are mired in confusion and concern over Gov. Newsom’s March 28 executive drought order, which added new steps for permitting agricultural wells, according to agencies’ staff. As groundwater agency managers scramble to hash out exactly how to comply with the order, well permits in some areas are stuck in limbo leaving well…

Drinking Water • Drought

A glimmer of hope in one small town’s long struggle for clean water

April 12, 2022

• by Jesse Vad, SJV Water

The tiny community of Tooleville on the edge of the valley floor in Tulare County is finally beginning the process of getting clean drinking water from the nearby City of Exeter. And last month, the state announced a proposed standard for hexavalent chromium, which is in Tooleville’s water. Without a safety standard for hexavalent chromium…

Drought

Gov. Newsom’s drought order aims to slow ag well drilling

April 1, 2022

• by Jesse Vad, SJV Water

New wells for agriculture will be more difficult to drill in the San Joaquin Valley under Gov. Gavin Newsom’s recent executive order in response to the ongoing drought. Part of the order prohibits new wells from being drilled without approval from local groundwater sustainability agencies (GSA) first. The GSAs must determine that new wells or…

SGMA

State’s groundwater “cop” hands out more criticism of valley plans

November 19, 2021

• by Lois Henry

Another set of comments critical of how San Joaquin Valley groundwater plans will impact drinking water wells dropped on Friday from the powerful State Water Resources Control Board. The comments focused on plans that cover the City of Fresno and many surrounding towns as well as Visalia and a number of smaller towns in Tulare…

Drought

Another valley town on the brink of going dry

July 23, 2021

• by Jesse Vad, SJV Water reporting intern

The small, rural community of Tooleville is on the brink of going dry after one of its two wells went down Friday morning. It’s the second community in Tulare County to suffer water problems in the last two months as California struggles through the grip of a devastating drought. The only well in the town…