SACRAMENTO, California — State water regulators on Friday canceled their scheduled vote to take over groundwater planning for an agricultural region of the San Joaquin Valley, saying they needed more time to review whether they even needed to take over after local officials made their plan more stringent.
The decision by the State Water Resources Control Board to cancel its Jan. 7 vote to put Tulare County’s Kaweah subbasin on probation marks the first time the state has backed away from a region it’s identified as not doing enough to stop groundwater levels from falling.
Groundwater provides around 40 percent of California’s water supply, and even more so during drought years, but it has declined for decades in California’s most agricultural areas because of overpumping.
State and local officials are ramping up their efforts to stop groundwater levels from dropping further by 2040 as required by the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act from 2014, but haven’t always been on the same page. The board has previously voted to take over groundwater planning in two neighboring regions, the Tulare Lake and Tule subbasins, although a judge paused the state’s fees and monitoring after a lawsuit by local farmers.
