For the first time, producers in one of California’s most severely water-stressed areas will have to report how much groundwater they’re pumping. For generations, they have been free to draw water from wells located on their land without informing the state.
The state Water Resources Control Board ordered landowners in parts of the San Joaquin Valley around Corcoran and Pixley to submit detailed reports by Friday.
The Tule and Tulare Lake groundwater subbasins were placed on probation by the board in 2024 because they were not doing enough to control excessive pumping, which had caused levels to drop. By collecting data, the agency is preparing to charge landowners a fee — $300 for each well plus a $20 usage fee for each acre-foot of water.
“You can’t manage what you can’t measure,” said Natalie Stork, director of the state Water Board’s Office of Sustainable Groundwater Management.
He said stronger efforts to protect the remaining water would be based on these reports.
Large agricultural operations have reshaped this part of the San Joaquin Valley over the past century. Tulare Lake was once the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi River, but it was drought to irrigate cropsand has occasionally reappeared flood waters return.
On and around the dry lake bed, water from wells flows into fields of tomatoes, cotton, almonds, grapes and other crops.
According to state estimates, the two areas combined could lose about 213,000 acre-feet of groundwater in 2025 — about 45% of Los Angeles’ annual water use.
As the water level is falling, the land is sinking. Since 2015, the ground in parts of the Tulare Lake area has fallen by more than 6 feet, while part of the Tule area has fallen by more than 7 feet.
The sinking damaged a section of the Friant-Kern Canal, a major water conduit for farms, reducing its carrying capacity and requiring $326 million in repairs.
State regulators have told managers of local water agencies they need to do more to tackle the problem of overpumping and slow land subsidence. He warned that hundreds of domestic wells could dry up.
More than 2,000 landowners had to report their groundwater use during the past year by the May 1 deadline. Parts of the Tule field as well as small well owners have been exempted.
“Reporting data is something we have to get used to,” said farmer Garrett Gilcrease, president of the Kings County Farm Bureau. He said the state is submitting the data through online system Was “cumbersome and complicated”.
Kings County Farm Bureau filed suit to challenge Tulare Lake is seeking to place the area on probation, and to stop the state from charging fees, which are intended to cover costs related to state monitoring.
But Gilcrease said many farmers are concerned about paying so much at a time when their businesses are already hurting. low crop prices and other factors.
“It’s getting close to depression,” Gilcrease said. “Now we are in a time where there is not a single crop that makes money.”
California, among the western states, was late to these measures, but is now implementing its groundwater management law.
Below 2014 LawLocal agencies must explain how they will deal with overpumping by 2040. Gilcrease said growers would like to see regulation gradually phased out.
He said, “If we hit it the way they want to now, it’s like breaking a fly with a hammer.” “It’s going to destroy the industry, and a lot of people will be hurt so badly that they’ll have to close up shop.”
The area’s largest landowners include farming giant JG Boswell Company and grower John Vidovich, who runs Sandridge Partners Company. There are also small farmers growing pistachios, almonds and other crops.
In the Tule region, farmers are reducing pumping under rules set by local agencies, leaving some fields dry and fallow.
“It’s a painful process to go through,” said Steve Jackson, a farmer who is working as a consultant helping other growers submit their water data. “Many farmers are being asked to make major changes to their operations.”
In areas of the Central Valley where the state has found groundwater is in “severe overdraft,” many local agencies are already tracking how much water comes out of wells, using meters at the wells and estimates from satellite data.
Ahead of this week’s deadline, State Water Board staff held meetings with landowners to answer questions.
While the 2014 law put local agencies in charge of groundwater management, it also called on state water boards to step in when they fell short.
So far, it has offered mostly leniency, ending probation in four areas, most recently Delta-Mendota Subbasin. State officials said enforcement measures are no longer needed after agencies improved my plans.
“They’ve made tremendous progress. It’s night and day,” said Eric Ekdahl, the board’s chief deputy director. “The state intervention has been successful, and we are confident that it will continue to be successful.”
