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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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Kings County judge extends restraining order giving growers more time as they fight state pumping restrictions

• 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. Kings County farmers will have more time to fight requirements from the State Water Resources Control Board to meter their wells and pay extraction fees. A temporary restraining order blocking those measures was extended to Sept. 13 by…
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Westlands uses $1 million in state money to take out orchards, increase recharge

• by Jesse Vad, SJV Water
Westlands Water District has removed 452 acres of almond orchards thanks to a $1 million grant from the state Department of Water Resources (DWR.) It’s one project in an ongoing list aimed at bringing the district’s groundwater into sustainability.  “The district has been acquiring land since 2022 with the goal of reducing groundwater pumping in…
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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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New “seismic” listening technique could help researchers map water movement and moisture levels in the soil

• by Jesse Vad, SJV Water
The constant, rumbling, teeth-gritting traffic on Highway 99 might actually be good for something.  Researchers at Caltech have figured out a way to use vibrations from passing cars to see how much water sits directly beneath the ground’s surface.  In a new paper, researchers used seismic waves from traffic noise coupled with unused fiber optic…
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Extreme, prolonged heat is straining drinking water wells throughout the San Joaquin Valley

• by Jesse Vad, SJV Water
Despite back-to-back good water years, domestic wells are still drying up all across the valley as record breaking heat waves pummel the region.  The state saw slightly above average runoff for the 2023-2024 water year with significant precipitation and major reservoirs largely above average levels. That’s on top of an epic 2022-2023 water year. The…
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