The evolution of the Eastern Tule Groundwater Sustainability Agency continued Thursday, as outgoing – and outspoken – board member Matt Leider attended his final meeting sporting a new hat emblazoned with the words “Tea Pot Dome GSA.”
For those who follow the ebb and flow of groundwater agencies in the Tule subbasin, Leider’s hat was a not-so-subtle parting shot that marked an ending and a beginning: his final stint on the dais for Eastern Tule and the launch of the Tea Pot Dome Water District GSA.
Leider was often at odds with his fellow Eastern Tule board members and did not keep his concerns a secret.
“I don’t know why we’re sitting here massaging this thing knowing damn well the state told us to do this,” a clearly exasperated Leider said during a meeting last June. “We’ve literally been told a gazillion times now to meter everything in the subsidence zone.”
Both Tea Pot Dome and the Vandalia Irrigation District left Eastern Tule voted in June to leave Eastern Tule and take control of their landowners’ destinies as the embattled Eastern Tule fielded accusations connected to its groundwater accounting policies.
Critics, including members of the state Water Resources Control Board, questioned whether Eastern Tule gave landowners too many groundwater credits, allowing them to continue overdrafting groundwater, which, in turn, has caused subsidence that is sinking the Friant-Kern Canal.
The entire subbasin was placed on probation Sept. 17 by the state Water Board, and during the hearing, board members called Eastern Tule’s water accounting practices “alarming.”
Friant Water Authority sued Eastern Tule for failing to pay what Friant says is its share to repair the canal, which had lost more than 60 percent of its carrying capacity because of a 33-mile sag through Eastern Tule’s boundaries caused by over pumping.
Tea Pot and Vandalia will be officially withdrawn from Eastern Tule on Nov. 30, according to attorney Alex Peltzer. The boards of each agency will likely release draft versions of their new groundwater sustainability plans at meetings on Wednesday, Nov. 13, and plan to adopt them in late December or January.
“Since they are both in balance or in a surplus water balance situation (which will be described clearly in the GSPs), like Delano-Earlimart Irrigation District GSA, they will be seeking an exclusionary determination from the Tule Subbasin Probationary Order early next year,” Peltzer said.
Delano-Earlimart and Kern-Tulare Water District GSAs were exempted from the reporting and fee requirements under probation as the Water Board found those agencies in balance.
