Natalie Willis, Reporter, Valley Ag Voice
Water coalitions from the Central Valley joined the Irrigated Lands Regulatory Program Stakeholder Meeting on July 26 to discuss upcoming deadlines for the annual monitoring plan.
The ILRP was formed as a preventative measure against agricultural runoff as well as to aid the management of groundwater regulations. Water coalition groups throughout the Central Valley work with growers to provide the regional water board with monitoring plans and various surface water reports.
According to the Sacramento Valley Water Coalition, the regional water board adopted several regulatory requirements for discharges from irrigated land extending from the Oregon border to the northern tip of Los Angeles County.
Water coalitions are required to submit the annual monitoring report with deadlines throughout August. The reports include substantial grower input on nitrogen levels and anonymous field-level reporting of management practices.
Nicole Bell from the Kern River Watershed Coalition Authority provided a broad update on all of Kern County’s water coalitions, explaining that the annual monitoring reports and groundwater trend monitoring efforts will be completed by the end of August.
“For the first time in many years, Kern County is actually taking water samples other than on the Kern River,” Bell said.
GROUNDWATER PLANS FOR BASINS
The Department of Water Resources approved groundwater plans from 10 basins on July 28, while the Kern Groundwater Authority continues to work through discrepancies in its groundwater sustainability plan.
The Kern Groundwater Authority meeting on July 26 provided an update on GSP revisions, explaining that KGA managers meet every Friday to address modifications.
Six subbasins in the Central Valley were rejected, deemed inadequate, and sent to the State Water Board for intervention—the Kern Subbasin, Tulare Lake Subbasin, Kaweah Subbasin, Delta-Mendota Subbasin, and Chowchilla Subbasin.
Currently, the DWR has made determinations for 46 groundwater basins of which 40 were approved, leaving the remaining six in the Central Valley.
