California water regulators are targeting a second agricultural area in the San Joaquin Valley for failing to take steps to prevent overpumping, which is depleting groundwater and causing land subsidence and damaging a canal that carries water to 1 million acres of farmland and transfers from it to more than 250,000 people.
The state Water Resources Control Board voted unanimously to put the Tule subbasin on probation, which would entail an additional step of state oversight, new water rates and requirements for most well owners to report how much water they withdraw.
“I’m shocked that we’re actually in a crisis situation,” said council Vice President Doreen D’Adamo after listening to hours of testimony from farmers, water managers, residents and attorneys.
State officials have cited deficiencies in local groundwater management plans, including chronically low groundwater levels that are estimated to put more than 550 inland wells at risk of going dry during droughts.
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They also said the plans do not adequately limit over-irrigation, which is causing land to sink in parts of the region. D’Adamo said the damage caused by rapid land subsidence along the Friant-Kern Canal section is alarming and needs to be addressed.
Farms in the region rely on groundwater to irrigate grass, corn, grapes, almonds, pistachios, oranges and other crops. Along with the large extraction of groundwater, layers of sediment and clay sink, causing the ground level to drop.
In an area of Thule’s subsoil west of Tipton, state officials said the ground has sunk more than six feet since 2015.
As of 2015, about 3.5 feet of land subsidence has been measured in parts of the Friant-Kern Canal. Built by the federal government in the 1940s and early 1950s, the 152-mile canal carries water from the San Joaquin River from Friant Dam near Fresno to Bakersfield.
Jason Phillips, executive director of the Friant Water Authority, which operates and maintains the canal, said the Friant-Kern Canal is “experiencing an alarming threshold that will cause hundreds of millions of dollars in damage.” Land subsidence has significantly reduced the canal’s water-carrying capacity, and state, local and federal agencies are investing $326 million in the first phase of the canal. project to repair part of the canal.
The Friant-Kern Canal is affected by subsidence caused by aquifer depletion.
(Brian van der Bruegh/Los Angeles Times)
Phillips supported the board’s actions and specifically blamed one agency in the subbasin, the East Tule Groundwater Resiliency Agency, for failing to adopt adequate plans to limit pumping and stabilize the land. He said continued burying in the area now threatens to derail recent repairs and investments, including $83 million in state taxpayer funds.
Federal officials urged the State Water Board to take steps to limit land subsidence and protect the canal, which has lost more than 60 percent of its original capacity in its middle section.
David McCray, an attorney for the U.S. Department of the Interior, said the remediation project took “years of planning, cost hundreds of millions of dollars and was severely impacted by inadequate groundwater management.” “Without serious action to correct the subsidence, the Friant-Kern Canal and more than 250,000 Californians and more than 1 million acres of farmland will be adversely affected at significant cost.”
Government employees reviewed groundwater plans which was developed by seven local agencies and found that the plans fail to address, among other problems, chronically declining groundwater levels, degrading water quality and continued subsidence of underground land. They cited estimates that, on average, pumping water in the area would reduce the water used by half a million households each year.
Rogelio Caudillo, general director of the East Tule groundwater agency, asked the state board to delay decommissioning the area. He said his agency has made progress on plans to limit pumping and prevent land subsidence, and is taking steps to protect drinking water wells.
But board member Laurel Firestone said the agency’s pumping restrictions “are not being implemented quickly enough.”
“It seems like a slightly more aggressive program is needed,” he said.
At the end of a daylong meeting Tuesday, council members voted to intervene to enforce the requirements of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, or SGMA. The law, passed in 2014, requires local authorities to develop plans to prevent overpumping. In many regions, agencies must meet sustainable groundwater management goals by 2040.
In Let’s go under and under It is one of six areas in the San Joaquin Valley where officials have deemed local plans inadequate, and is the second to be put to the test.
After the board took it over first vote to intervene In April of this year, farmers in the neighboring Tulare Lake watershed filed a lawsuit to overturn the decision, calling the state’s demands unreasonable and harmful to the local economy. The case is in Kings County Superior Court. delayed the will of the state and suspended the requirement that producers report how much water they pump.
In the Thule region, rural community water protection advocates supported government intervention, warning that inaction would hurt low-income people, including many farm workers.
Local agencies have been slow to address problems in their plans, said Nathalie Escobedo Garcia, water policy coordinator for the Justice and Accountability Leadership Advisory Group. “It’s the old communities that are really going to pay the price and the cost of continued pumping.”
Those costs, he and others say, occur not only when small domestic wells run dry but also when water levels drop, worsening pollutant concentrations, or when land subsidence damages wells.
The Toole Region has a population of approximately 152,000 and includes the city of Porterville, as well as communities such as Allensworth, Alpau, Ducore, East Porterville and Pixley.
Some Pixley residents told the board they are struggling with deteriorating water quality and rising water bills, which they say is linked to declining aquifers.
“Our water is really bad. It comes out brown. It comes out dirty. There is no pressure,” said Cristina Velasquez, a resident who said her family buys bottled water and no longer drinks tap water, but still has to pay higher prices.
Escobedo Garcia said one reason for the recent price spike was that the subsidence caused the well casing to collapse, requiring costly repairs.
Beverly Whitfield said higher water costs were a financial burden and blamed pumping of water by dairies and other nearby farms.
“Our wells have collapsed. It’s because of overuse,” Whitfield said. “I think we deserve better.”
Recently drinking water sampling In the Tule area, many wells are contaminated with pollutants such as arsenic, nitrate and the carcinogenic chemical 1,2,3-trichloropropane at levels far above safe limits.
The law requires local authorities to prevent “significant and unreasonably poor water quality.” State water officials cited new declines in water quality among them. deficiencies in local plansand recommendations for troubleshooting.
Leaders of Thule’s local institutions recently submitted revised plans. Board officials said an initial review found some issues had been resolved, but major problems remained, particularly continued land subsidence.
Now that the area is tested, most well owners have 90 days to begin recording how much water they withdraw and then report that information to the state.
Many well owners will be required to pay state fees starting in 2026, which include a flat fee of $300 per well and $20 per acre-foot of water pumped.
The State Water Board determined that two local agencies, the Delano Early Mart Water District and the Kern-Tulare Water District, were improperly managing groundwater in parts of the subbasin and exempted them from required payments and data reporting.
Board officials say they will work with local agencies to resolve the problem and end the interference. But if the agencies don’t fix the deficiencies within a year, the board can take drastic measures, including pumping limits and fines for exceeding the limit.
Several farmers expressed concern that government intervention would further complicate their businesses at a time when they are already struggling. low crop prices and declining land values.
“Banks are reluctant to lend,” said Nick Sahota, a farmer with Terra Bella, who says he also speaks for other farmers. “We are going to lose our farms.”
Jim Morehead said he has learned to persevere in more than five decades of farming, but he doesn’t like the challenges that lie ahead.
“Now, for the first time, I see no future for family farming in the San Joaquin Valley,” Morehead said. “With the implementation of SGMA, the value of my land has decreased significantly. After the water policy was changed five years ago, my land lost 70% of its value.”
He said he had to take a third of his family’s farmland out of production and expected further cuts, forcing him to lay off workers.
“I’m not against water regulation, but when I look at the processes in other states compared to California, it seems like they’re giving their farmers more help to be successful,” Morehead said.
Morehead’s son, Justin, said he fears the Pixley community would struggle without local farms.
“Water is the bridge for the San Joaquin Valley. The SGMA process is more than just water policy. It is the economic framework that determines whether rural communities will be viable in the long term,” said Justin Morehead.
He said the groundwater law was being changed “at breakneck speed” without considering the impact on communities.
“What does the future hold for communities like my hometown of Pixley?” he said.
