Greater Kaweah GSA sets Groundwater Allocations and Pumping Fees

Greater Kaweah GSA sets Allocations

At the Greater Kaweah GSA’s September 27th Special Board meeting the Board went into its typical closed session to discuss any important decisions. After nearly 2 hours, open session was called and due to some technical mix ups several folks that normally try to attend via zoom were unable to connect. In the meantime Agenda Item 9A  - 2023 Water Year Allocations were announced moved seconded and approved. 

• Sustainable Yield Allocation - 0.83 acre-feet/acre

• Tier 1 Penalty Allocation - 0.83 acre- feet/acre

• Tier 2 Penalty Allocation - 1.04 acre-feet/acre

These amounts total 2.70 acre feet per acre, 0.05 less that what had been previously discussed and what had been posted to the Water Dashboard. Aaron Fukuda, manager of Tulare Irrigation District and Mid Kaweah GSA, protested the methodology of setting the Pumping Cap at 2.7 AF/Acre at last Fridays TAC meeting. What he failed to mention was that Mid Kaweah GSA has set their emergency Pumping Cap at 2.5 AF/Acre, but you may purchase another 1 AF/Acre mitigation tier for a total of 3.5 AF/Acre.

Next Item was Item 9b to adopt a Resolution setting rates for Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 penalty allocations. With little discussion it was moved seconded and passed to set the rates as follows:

• Tier 1 Penalty Rate - $125 per Acre Foot

• Tier 2 Penalty Rate - $250 per Acre Foot

• Tier 3 Penalty Rate - $500 per Acre Foot + loss of following year allocation

These rates came as a bit of a surprise, as throughout all of the previous presentations and even on the dashboard they had been labeled as Tier 1 - $75, and Tier 2 - $125.  By the time all of this was said and done along with a minor rules and regulations amendment open session lasted a total of 12 minutes. Meeting Adjourned. 

What this means to your Farm Now

We have combined the allocations, rates, and rules and regs into a table format to better understand how this plays out on your farm. The meter starts on these allocations October 1, 2022. It would be wise to have meters properly installed on your wells by qualified personnel so you can track your groundwater use. Without this it will be nearly impossible to challenge any data coming from the GSA regarding your groundwater use that may be incorrect. Take pictures of your meter monthly and keep good records of your water use. 

Greater Kaweah Groundwater Pumping Allocation Categories

How this will affect your operations in the Future

Scheduled Rampdown of GKGSA Overdraft

The last column shows the amount of allowable groundwater pumping in Greater Kaweah GSA in future years based on the current adopted Rules and Regulations and Allocations. If you are operating in a portion of the Greater Kaweah GSA without any supplemental surface water your total available water for irrigation of your crops will be reduced to the Sustainable Yield of 0.83 AF/Acre.

Rainfall - the Big Question Mark

Greater Kaweah GSA has to date refused to add rainfall to the rules and regulations as a source of water to be added to your available allocations. Although rainfall is currently shown as a water source on the water dashboard there has been no formal action taken by the board that gives you the rainfall credit. I have had several conversations with staff and members of the technical committee regarding this and still have no clear direction on how this will be resolved. There is 0.2 AF/Acre of rainfall included in the Native Yield calculation of 0.83 AF/Acre according to the Water Allocation Framework. This equates to about 2.4” of rain. In contrast East Kaweah GSA has in their draft Rules and Regulations that are set to be adopted tomorrow 92% of Effective precipitation will be credited against the ET use.

Water Dashboard Screenshot showing Greater Kaweah Precipitation Credits

Give me a call if you have any questions regarding the water allocations and how they apply to you.

Johnny Gailey - 559-906-6229

GKGSA Approves Rules and Regulations for Groundwater Pumping with Delta View Recommendations!

Greater Kaweah GSA has Approved the final Rules and Regulations at the Board meeting on August 15th 2022

The changes that were recommended by DVWA in our public comment letter were for the most part adopted in the final version that was posted on August 24th on the Greater Kaweah GSA web site.

Some of the highlights of the changes that we were requesting are:

• Farm units are now defined - ground with different fee title ownership will not be penalized for transfers if in the same farm unit

• Leased ground can be part of a farm unit

• Flowmeters will not be required for transfers of allocation

• GSA Invoices will have a more flexible timeline for payment than 30 days

• Priority of use once set with remain the same for the water year

These changes will make the Rules much more user friendly for the coming water year with accounting set to begin October 1, 2022.

We will be keeping a close watch on how the water allocations and the rules are affecting our members and advocating for any changes necessary to streamline the process and minimize the adverse effects these rules will cause.

The map shown above hows the Kaweah basin analysis zones that were developed in the update of the GSP submitted on July 27th, 2022. Transfer policy in the newly adopted Rules and Regs are based on these zones. You can click HERE for a more detailed link to the map.

We have created this chart to summarize how the different types of allocated water are handled in the new Rules and Regulations.

Allocation Category Rules for Transfer and Carryover

Over the next 18 years the allocation of Tier 1 overdraft and Tier 2 overdraft will be ramped down to ZERO. The schedule for the ramp down is built into the GSP and is restated in the Rules and Regulations.

Allowable Overdraft

2023-2025 90% Overdraft

2026-2030 70% Overdraft

2031-2035 40% Overdraft

2036-2040 20% Overdraft

If you have any questions regarding the Rules and Regulations or would like to schedule a meeting to discuss your water budget for future years, feel free to call Johnny Gailey at 559-906-6229

Delta View criticizes Greater Kaweah GSA Process for Rules and Regulation Adoption

Comment Letter to the GKGSA board on process used to adopt Rules and Regulations

Delta View Comment Letter to GKGSA on Rules and Regulations

View the original comment letter here

Delta View Water Association Comments on GKGSA 7/22/2022 Draft Rules and Regulations

8/5/2022

To: Eric Osterling and the GKGSA Board and Committee members,

Thank you for allowing time to comment on the 7/22/2022 draft of the Rules and Regulations. This version is a significant rewrite from the previous 1/21/2022 draft version that we had commented on. Understandably with the GSP update occurring simultaneously there was a lot to keep track of for both staff and consultants to the GSA. Due to the significant impact these rules will have on GKGSA stakeholders we ask that the GKGSA Stakeholder Committee be afforded an opportunity to meet and discuss the significant changes that are presented in this update and be able to make recommendations to the board to adopt or amend as they see fit. It would probably be appropriate to include GSA counsel in a Stakeholder Committee workshop as many of the rules have legal impacts for the GSA. 

Delta View Water Association has reviewed the Rules and Regulations and has found several Issues with the draft rules in its current form. Blue text is excerpted from the Rules, and black text is Delta View Comments. 

Article I. General

Section 1.04 Definitions

“Operator” means an authorized representative of an Owner.

“Owner” means fee title owner of land within the GKGSA boundaries

"Transfer” means a voluntary transfer of an allocation from one Owner to a separate Owner

We did not see any provisions that would allow movement of Sustainable Yield, Tier 1, or Tier 2 allocations on the same “Ranch” or “Farm Unit”  across APNs with different “Owners” without triggering the leave behind and transfer restrictions. We feel that some type of landowner authorization form should be made available that gives a farm operator the ability to move water around a single “Farm Unit”. Without this provision leased farms, or even farms all in the same family, but with slightly different “fee title owners” would be put at a disadvantage to farms with many APNs with a single “Owner”. The term “Owner” should be replaced as appropriate throughout the document to “Owner or Operator” to give this flexibility and relieve this inequality as “Operator” is already defined as being an authorized representative of an Owner.

Article II. Groundwater Monitoring 

Section 2.02  Groundwater Use Measurement

“For all wells constructed after the date of the first adoption of the GKGSA Rules and Regulations, flowmeters satisfying the conditions and criteria prescribed by this Section 2.02 shall be the only permissible means for measurement of groundwater extraction.”

Forcing the use of flowmenters as the only permissible use of measurement of groundwater extraction is unreasonable. There are many factors in calculating the ET based on flowmeter data. In and ideal farm where only one well services only one field there you must account for the irrigation efficiency of the system and take into consideration soil type. Factoring in meter error, the multiplied effect of errors in each assumption will most likely result in an error in measurement far greater that the potential error of using remotely sensed ET.  If all users of groundwater are measured by the same method, e.g. LandIQ, the likelihood of error will be far less. The GSA will also need to consider the amount of staff time it would like to devote to policing meter policy which will be paid for out of the farmers pockets vs landIQ data that is already being paid for. 

Article III. Groundwater Accounting/Online Dashboard

Section 3.03 Categories of Water

Effective Precipitation should be listed as the first category of water. It should be the first water applied to offset ET usage, be non-transferable and have no carryover. It is not listed in the categories, although it is referred to in Section 3.04 Priority of use

Section 3.04 Priority of Use

In order to be effective, Owners must elect priorities no later than thirty (30) days prior to the end of each quarter. If the Owner does not timely elect the priority of allocations to be debited by that date, the default priority will follow in order of Section 3.03(a)-(g) above. 

Farmers have enough on their plate that creating a quarterly obligation to another unwanted government agency to select the order of made up categories of water that the well is pumping is ridiculous. This  election should be allowed to happen once a year after the end of the irrigation season when the full water year of ET data is available.

Article IV. Allocation of Water

Section 4.03 Greater Kaweah Agricultural Management Area

(b) Temporary Tier 1 and Tier 2 Allocations

The allocations shall be consistent with the objectives of the GKGSA GSP, and will ramp-down pumping overtime calculated by a percentage of total overdraft as follows:

This table shows the total allowable overdraft ramping down for each period of water years corresponding to the GSP. The problem here is, that in the first time period for example, The average of 40% Tier 1 and 50% Tier 2 would be 45% total not 90% Either both should be 90% or the 2 together should average 90%. The Math is simply incorrect in this table.

  (c) Carryovers and Transfers

(i) Sustainable Yield Allocation

2) Transfer of Sustainable Yield

An Owner may transfer all or a portion of the Sustainable Yield allocation, excepting any portion thereof based upon Precipitation, which has been carried over from a previous year and thereby converted to groundwater credits, provided that the transfer satisfies the conditions below. Transferred Sustainable Yield shall be credited to the transferee’s account as groundwater credits. 

1. The proposed transferee will put the allocation to use within the GKGSA; 

2. The place of use is no further than three zones from where the transferor’s location of allocation; The transfer agreement is memorialized in writing, using a form provided by the GKGSA; and 

3. Owner has elected to use flowmeters to calculate groundwater consumptive use. 

The term “Owner” should be replaced with “Owner or Operator”. “Operator” is already defined and this goes to the point that was made Regarding Article I. “Operator” means an authorized representative of an Owner. 

The portion of the Sustainable Yield that is precipitation should also be allowed to be transferred. This is the portion of precipitation that has passed the root zone and is part of the landowners overlying right to pump groundwater. This portion of the Sustainable Yield would not be included in the 1st category of water that we are calling Effective Precipitation. By definition the Effective Precipitation category would not be transferable. 

Number 3 states that to transfer Sustainable Yield the owner must elect to use flowmeters. We feel that this creates undue hardship on both the “Owner” and the GSA which would have to police the meters. It would make much more sense to replace the word “flowmeters” with “Dashboard” and require that transfers be made via the Dashboard to simplify and automate GSA accounting. 

Seems to be a formatting error here there should be 4 bullet points as there are below.

(ii) Temporary Tier 1 and Tier 2 Allocations

2) Transfer of Tier 1 and Tier 2 Allocations An Owner may transfer 80% of his or her Tier 1 Allocation to another Owner, or 60% of his or her Tier 2 Allocation, if all of the following conditions apply: 

1. The proposed transferee will put the allocation to use within the GKGSA; 

2. The proposed transferee will extract the transferred water within three miles of where the transferor would have extracted the water had he not transferred; and 

3. The transfer agreement is memorialized in writing, using a form provided by the GKGSA identifying the quantity and signed by both parties.

 4. Owner has elected to use flowmeters to calculate groundwater consumptive use.

The same comments apply here as were mentioned above in regards to Sustainable Yield transfers.

Article V. Fees & Penalties

Section 5.02 Groundwater Extraction Fees

The Board may propose fees, including groundwater extraction fees, consistent with Division 6 Conservation, Development and Utilization of State Water Resources Part 2.74, Chapter 5, Section Sections 10730 through 10730.6, and the California Constitution. The Owner shall pay to the GKGSA all Groundwater Extraction Fees within 30 days of the date of any invoice submitted by the GKGSA.

Forcing the Invoice to be paid within 30 days of invoice date will not give the growers the flexibility necessary to choose which tax year that the bill is paid in. This should be changed to reflect that the bill should be paid by the due date. 

Article VI. Surface Water Recharge in the Underground

Section 6.01 Groundwater Recharge

Owners may use existing facilities to store surface water underground within the GKGSA boundaries. An Owner who stores surface water pursuant to this Section may subsequently put such water to his or her own beneficial use within the GKGSA boundaries, or may transfer the water to another Owner for use within the GKGSA boundaries. The use of stored water pursuant to this Section must be achieved utilizing on-farm activities. All water stored pursuant to this Section must be used within the GKGSA boundaries. Each Owner who stores surface water pursuant to this Section shall provide accurate, verifiable records of the quantity and source of surface water stored for recharge, confirmed by the district or entity that supplied the surface water. The Owner shall adhere to any rules promulgated by any district or entity supplying the surface water. Surface water stored and documented in compliance with the requirements of this Section shall be credited to the relevant Owner’s account as a surface water credit. Each Owner shall be solely responsible for locating, purchasing, accessing, or otherwise acquiring surface water for the purposes of recharge pursuant to this Section. This policy applies to all non-districted lands and districted lands which choose to adhere to this Article VI.

This water recharge policy allows for any water recharged in GKGSA to be used anywhere in GKGSA without being subject to Zone distance penalties, leave behind penalties or any other penalties associated with the Carryover and Transfer provisions of the Sustainable Yield. Although this may seem like an incentive to encourage groundwater recharge, it in fact gives huge advantages to those who have access to surface water. Those reliant on groundwater only even if they spend enormous sums on creating water banking projects will legally only have access to refused floodwater to bank. This only occurs every 3 to 5 years on average as you all well know. On the other hand surface water importers and appropriators have access to water every year and could take advantage of this to sell groundwater credits to those who have been pumping that same groundwater for generations. The rules as drafted are clearly in favor of those who “Have” vs. those who “Have Not”!

Either the Sustainable Yield Transfers and Carryover provisions should reflect the same restrictions as the Surface Water Recharged in the underground, or the Surface Water Recharged in the underground Should have the same restrictions on transfer and carryover as the Sustainable Yield. I would say that Landowners with Overlying rights to the Sustainable Yield should have the same rules as Appropriators who recharge that water. 

Should these Rules and Regulations not be adjusted to balance these inequalities I would call on all directors who have interests in Foreign Water or Appropriated Water in the Kaweah subbasin to abstain from voting on these Rules and Regulations as it would clearly be a Conflict of Interest in its current form!

Sincerely 

John A. Gailey III

Delta View Water Association

559-906-6229

deltavh2o@gmail.com

Greater Kaweah GSA Final Draft Rules and Regulations Comments due Today!

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