BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — In March, the California Department of Water Resources deemed the Groundwater Sustainability Plan for six groundwater basins across the state to be inadequate. The Kern County Subbasin was on that list.
The Rosedale-Rio Bravo Water Storage District is a part of the Kern County Subbasin, which is managed by the Kern River Groundwater Sustainability Agency. Officials say despite their management plans being insufficient, they are still working to implement their plans at the local level.
"This is too important for us to have this turned over to the state board. We just can't have that," said Kern River GSA Board Member Gene Lundquist.
Turning water management over to the state is one of the next things that could happen if the Kern County Subbasin Management Plans are not approved, according to Kern Delta Water District General Manager Steven Teglia.
"Currently, the Kern Subbasin is one of the 6 area plans or basins that has been deemed inadequate by the Department of Water Resources," said Teglia.
The Buena Vista, Kern River, South of Kern, Olcese Water District, Kern Groundwater Authority, and Henry Miller are the 6 groundwater sustainability agencies that operate in the Kern Subbasin.
Lundquist says all the Kern Subbasin GSAs need to be on the same page.
"We're not coordinated, and I think the law requires that everything be exactly the same. Maybe not exactly, but pretty much. We need to have the same reports, and that's one reason we're in deficiencies," said Lundquist.
According to Teglia, some of those deficiencies include avoiding subsidence, or the gradual sinking of land due to a lack of groundwater, from continuing for different pieces of critical infrastructure.
"We need to have better coordination in terms of the methodologies used to set our sustainable management criteria," said Teglia. "You heard about minimum thresholds? That's an element, that how those were approached and set was a little bit different throughout the basin, so better cohesion on that, I think, is one deficiency."
Teglia says during this interim period of time, they are working to ensure they are addressing those deficiencies.
"The process that we are in right now is there's a transition from the Department of Water Resources to the purview of the state Water Resources Control Board. They have a lot of flexibility. They could provide us with time to address deficiencies. They could go to the next step of actually holding a probationary hearing," said Teglia. "That would require some noticing or time before they could even get to that step."
Chairman of the Kern River GSA Rodney Palla, who has been working with the other GSAs, says they are now ready to move forward.
"We have faced some definite struggles to get this where it's at today, and it's been a real long 30 days, and I think we finally got to where we can start moving again, but it's been a real struggle here," said Palla.
For groundwater in 2023, Teglia says the recent wet weather has allowed the Kern GSA to turn wells off, meaning they're relying less on groundwater while recharging it at the same time.
