The SGMA Weekly

Talks on a local alternative to a state pumping moratorium near the Friant-Kern Canal are faltering, and Lower Tule River Irrigation District is drafting a switch to pumping-based groundwater accounting. Eastern San Joaquin capped domestic well mitigation payments at $30,000 per eligible claim, Metropolitan is weighing $70 million to leave State Water Project water in the Delta, Vina rejected tigh...

This week, a Central Valley salt program's modeling identified 25 groundwater agency areas, covering about 2.2 million acres, where salinity is projected to affect farm water within a century. DWR found one subsidence deficiency in the Merced Subbasin's plan, starting a 180-day clock, and Salinas Valley's preferred portfolio models a preliminary 10% cut in farm water demand. Plus North Kings well...

Pleasant Valley's groundwater agency adopted its plan on September 30, but the fight over the existing 90/10 allocation returns in October. We also cover the $3.5 million DWR's draft guidelines set aside for small GSAs (comments due at noon October 7), Stanislaus County's plan to give Non-District East growers an accounting platform before enforcement, and Porterville Irrigation District's count o...

California is now under a statewide state of emergency for the developing El Niño, and Friant Water Authority has moved its canal outage up to late October to get ahead of possible flood operations at Millerton Lake. We also cover Pleasant Valley's proposal to allocate groundwater by acreage days before its plan hearing, Fox Canyon's $11.5 million in assessed late-reporting penalties and the autom...

Two of California's largest water agencies just stepped back from the state's uncompensated Colorado River conservation commitment, the State Water Board put a date on the Tulare Lake interim plan along with a pumping fee that would climb from twenty to thirty-five dollars an acre-foot, and the two permits that made fast winter recharge possible have quietly expired. We also cover a tight delivery...

State Water Board staff have proposed an interim plan for the Tule Subbasin whose first phase would halt pumping on every acre within at least two miles of the Friant-Kern Canal — and the agencies that would live under it have about seven weeks to put a local alternative in front of the Friant Water Authority. In Kings County, a judge told growers they're likely to win on the merits, then applied...

Greater Kaweah wants to buy the water leaking out of district canals and use it to retire the Tier 1/Tier 2 overdraft allocation — this week we hear how that concept is landing at Lakeside Irrigation District and Kaweah Delta WCD. A newly protected toad has stalled a FEMA-funded flood barrier as forecasters warn of a possible Super El Niño, McMullin Area GSA awards its $22.8 million flood-capture...

The pumping restriction taking shape along the Friant-Kern Canal isn't theoretical anymore — one Tule subbasin board member already has 4,500 acres out of production. This week: DWR tells the California Water Commission that every supply project together still won't close the valley's gap; a $730,000 small-farm fallowing fund near Paso Robles has fewer than 10 applicants; Metropolitan rereads the...

The strongest El Niño since tracking began may be forming — and Central Valley districts are telling growers to get fields ready before the first storm. Plus: Greater Kaweah's concept to stop allocating "paper water," State Water Board extraction invoices land with a 30-day clock (and a petition playbook if you were billed for banked water), a $200 million cost break moves the B.F. Sisk Dam raise...

The state's opening offer for one stretch of the Tule Subbasin was zero pumping. Plus: a Tehama County fee ruling starts landing on Sacramento Valley boards, a $25 million federal banking award with a September deadline, golden mussels at O'Neill, and what the Colorado River's final EIS actually says. Full recaps at WaterOne.ai .

Pleasant Valley GSA adopted a $50-per-acre-foot extraction fee after a majority-protest hearing drew just 28 protests out of 333 possible votes — while a California appeals court struck down a neighboring county's groundwater charge as an unconstitutional tax, for the precise reason that it was not tied to pumping at all. We walk through what separates a fee that survives from one that doesn't, ah...

Groundwater charges are moving off agency invoices and onto county property tax bills in three basins at once — and when a fee is secured against the land instead of sent as an invoice, the leverage changes. Delta-Mendota reported it has roughly four inches of subsidence allowance left before its 2040 threshold, a cushion meant to last until 2040 that it's on pace to spend by 2028. Plus: metering...

South Fork Kings GSA makes what its board calls its most important hire yet — an independent watchdog for the groundwater model that sets allocations — while warning that a failed funding vote could put the state in charge. Plus: the City of Tulare's wells are digging a hole that gets worse rain or shine, the Friant system's golden mussel bill comes into focus, and Chowchilla's rock-filled recharg...

Pixley's subsidence warning lights doubled in a single year — just days before State Water Board leadership sits down with Tule Subbasin GSAs in Visalia to lay out its interim plan roadmap. Meanwhile, the Modesto Subbasin's east side edges toward "undesirable results" territory with 30%+ pumping cuts on the table, more agencies max out their fees, and a proposed data center that could out-drink an...

Lower Tule River Irrigation District staff put numbers on possible pumping cuts — 0.6 to 0.9 acre-feet per acre in the worst-affected subsidence zone — while Pixley consultants peg overdraft at roughly 1 acre-foot per acre per year. McMullin Area GSA hits reset on its Expansion Project with August 5 as the key checkpoint, and Corning Subbasin GSA raises fees to the maximum its existing Prop 218 as...

After years of slow restoration, federal dollars are about to meet dirt on the Friant-Kern Canal. This week's SGMA Weekly covers four Must Knows and three Trends from the past week of California water-agency board action. In this episode: • Friant Water Authority locks in a real groundbreaking date for the $200M Friant-Kern Canal subsidence fix — Phase 2A bid period July–August, October constructi...

This week the Department of Water Resources is treating subsidence as "irreparable harm" requiring immediate action — a stance shift surfaced at three different boards this week (Chowchilla, North Kern, Omochumne Hartnell). The California Water Commission lifted Sites Reservoir's conditional funding ceiling to $1.36 billion as a September water-rights decision looms. The State Water Board is float...

A California court enters Phase 2 of the Indian Wells Valley safe-yield trial — testing how a court-adjudicated number will line up against a GSA's SGMA sustainable-yield. Kern Subbasin moves to a stricter "critical head" subsidence standard tied to DWR's January 2026 BMPs. Plus: Tule advances a 20-year land repurposing program, Salinas weighs a deep-aquifer pumping moratorium, and the well-regist...

McMullin Area GSA's Proposition 218 election just passed in a landslide to fund a $56M flood capture expansion. The Bureau of Reclamation announced $176M in fresh Aging Infrastructure awards for the Delta-Mendota Canal and O'Neill Pumping Plant, with a $37.5M Kiewit contract approved to start the first canal subsidence fix. And a federal letter to DWR just opened up the larger ~$3B California Aque...

Federal canal-repair money just hit California in a big way: $200M to Friant-Kern, $235M to Delta-Mendota, and $50M to the San Luis Canal — totaling $485M+ in OBBB / Bureau of Reclamation investments discussed across this week's board meetings. Meanwhile, the snowpack supplying it all just collapsed to 3.5% of normal in the Tuolumne basin — a depth-of-collapse not seen since 1977. And Oakley exten...

DWR raised the State Water Project allocation from 30% to 45% on May 15 and Reclamation lifted the CVP South-of-Delta agricultural allocation from 20% to 25% — but statewide groundwater storage still declined by roughly 1.5 million acre-feet in Water Year 2025, with 83% of extractions concentrated in the San Joaquin Valley. Pajaro Valley, Omochumne Hartnell, and Mound Basin all surfaced selective...

The State Water Board's Tule interim plan is taking shape — staff revealed it could limit allocations to native safe yield only (under 0.25 AF/acre) with a 2-mile pumping moratorium and $20/AF probationary fees. Plus: four Valley GSAs hired Ewell Group to formalize a ~100,000 AF banking deal with the Metropolitan Water District; DWR Director Karla Nemeth departs July 2 to run ACWA; and golden muss...

The State Water Board's denial of the remaining Tule Subbasin exclusion requests is opening into a deeper audit — state officials are now questioning local agencies' 34-year rolling precipitation averages, native sustainable yield calculations, and recharge-credit treatment, which could force structural changes to Basin Safe accounting in coming years. Porterville staff also reported the state is...

Four Valley GSAs are in early talks on a Kaweah-Tule groundwater banking concept with Southern California water partners — potentially bringing significant new wet-and-average-year supply into the southern San Joaquin. DWR also outlined nearly $400 million in Proposition 4 groundwater funding with no bond cost share required (draft guidelines fall 2026; applications early 2027). And the Turlock ba...

The State Water Resources Control Board voted 5-0 to deny all eight Tule Sub-basin GSA exclusion requests, citing water-budget gaps over 50 percent of total diversions, subsidence risks, and weak well-mitigation programs. In response, eleven of thirteen GSAs committed to developing a single unified GSP. DWR's April 1 snow survey came in at the second-lowest on record (only 2015 was lower), and the...