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Rural Kings County families have a 50-50 chance their well is contaminated with nitrates

• by Monserrat Solis, California Local News Fellow
Editor’s note: Monserrat Solis covers Kings County water issues for SJV Water through the California Local News Fellowship initiative. There’s about a 50-50 chance the tap water that 10,000 rural Kings County residents are drinking is contaminated with nitrates. That’s a type of salt that can be toxic, even lethal to newborns, causing what’s commonly…
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Fresno State study examines how water recharge could help or harm disadvantaged communities on a regional scale

• by Lisa McEwen, SJV Water
A study examining the benefits and drawbacks of building groundwater recharge basins near rural communities is underway in Merced, Madera, Tulare and Fresno counties. The two-year study is a spinoff of an earlier feasibility study focused solely on Fresno County, and both are spearheaded by the California Water Institute at Fresno State University.  “Floodplains and…
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Two sides attempt mediation to settle lawsuit over sinking Friant-Kern Canal

• by Lisa McEwen, SJV Water
Attorneys for the Friant Water Authority and Eastern Tule Groundwater Sustainability Agency agreed to mediation on Friday in an attempt to resolve a dispute over how quickly payment for repairs to the sinking Friant-Kern Canal should be handed over. During a status conference in Visalia, both parties told Tulare County Superior Court Judge Bret Hillman…
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One Tulare County groundwater agency charges full tilt into recharge

• by Lisa McEwen, SJV Water
Farmers and water managers in the Kaweah subbasin are charging headlong into recharge as a key strategy to both keep the state’s hands off its pumping and position growers to better withstand drought years. Fifteen recharge projects have been completed, are in progress or are in the design phase in the East Kaweah Groundwater Sustainability…
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Visalia-based nonprofit swamped by requests for help from San Joaquin Valley groundwater agencies

• by Lisa McEwen, SJV Water
Self-Help Enterprises, a nonprofit that works with rural valley residents whose wells go dry, may need a little help of its own as more and more groundwater agencies are hoping to use it as a pillar in their plans to reach sustainability. The nonprofit already has a $5.8 million annual contract with groundwater sustainability agencies…
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Okieville water recharge project a “poster child” of partnership to protect residential water

• by Lisa McEwen, SJV Water
More than 40 engineers, landowners, water officials and drinking water advocates gathered along the banks of a full, flowing canal in Tulare County Thursday to inaugurate the Okieville Recharge Basin. But the first order of business on the hot summer day was snow cones.  The 21-acre project is a “poster child” of partnership that will…
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State delays Kaweah subbasin’s probationary hearing date by two months

• by Lisa McEwen and Lois Henry, SJV Water
The state postponed the Kaweah groundwater region’s Nov. 5 probationary hearing until Jan. 7, 2025, according to an announcement at a “state of the subbasin” event held June 19 to answer questions about what probation would mean. “We have some good news for you this afternoon and we could all use some good news,” Mark…
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New program to help Kern residents with nitrate-tainted water

• by Jesse Vad, SJV Water
A new water quality initiative in Kern County is gearing up to go live in the next few months to help residents whose water is contaminated with nitrates. The state’s nitrate control program launched in 2021. It offers free well testing and water deliveries for residents whose wells test over the limit for nitrates. The…
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Kaweah managers link arms with Self-Help in new domestic well partnership

• by Lisa McEwen, SJV Water
When the next drought hits and domestic wells start going dry, many rural Tulare County residents will have a sturdy, new lifeline to grab onto. Groundwater managers in the Kaweah subbasin, in the northern portion of Tulare’s flatlands, signed a $5.8 million annual deal with Self-Help Enterprises to provide rapid response and long-term fixes focused…
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