General Manager’s Note from the Spring Newsletter
We have finished the first quarter of 2024 and I wanted to provide the latest updates to North Fork Kings GSA landowners. Our top priority is maintaining our approved status with the State, the CA Department of Water Resources (DWR), which we will achieve by addressing the corrective actions they submitted with our Groundwater Sustainability Plan approval letter. Those actions focus on 3 important items:
- Domestic Well Mitigation,
- Confined Aquifer Study, and
- Interconnected Surface Waters.
These items need to be addressed by January 31, 2025, and are crucial to maintaining local control over SGMA regulations. Some neighboring GSAs will be before the State Water Resources Control Board in April for failing to meet DWR’s requirements. While we sympathize with our neighbors, it is not a process we want to endure.
The studies and implementation of the 3 items is going to come at a cost. The Domestic Well Mitigation program itself needs a
dedicated funding stream through at least 2040. The Board of Directors is fully committed to utilizing reserves to keep landowner assessments low, but we will need additional funding to carry out the program to 2040. At the March Board meeting the board voted to conduct a Prop 218 election that will conclude with a Public Hearing at the June 26 Board meeting.
The GSA plans to hold multiple workshops to go over the Prop 218 proposal and the 5-year budget of the GSA. There is no silver bullet solution to groundwater sustainability. The GSA is studying as much as we can to provide quality analysis at an effective cost. I invite you to stay engaged and learn more by signing up for our email list (you can do so at northforkkings.org), attending an upcoming workshop, or giving us a call. Please reach out if you have questions or would like to discuss the election and our priorities as a GSA at (559) 632-7032.