Board approves small‑pumper reporting exclusion in Tulare Lake subbasin with export restriction

The State Water Resources Control Board on April 7 approved a staff‑recommended "minimal‑impact" exclusion for small groundwater pumpers in the Tulare Lake subbasin, exempting persons who pump up to 20 acre‑feet per year from the probationary reporting and fee requirements. The board added a restriction at the meeting limiting the exemption to pumpers who do not export groundwater outside the subbasin.

Staff analysis showed about 44 percent of extractors in the Tulare Lake subbasin pump 20 acre‑feet or less and that group accounted for roughly 4,400 acre‑feet in water year 2022 (about 1 percent of basin pumping in the dry year sample). Based on that small contribution to basinwide extractions, staff recommended the exclusion to relieve disproportionate financial and administrative burdens on small and often disadvantaged growers.

Public comment was mixed. Small‑farmer advocates and the UC Small Farms Network supported the exclusion, emphasizing the reporting and fee burdens on tenant, immigrant and specialty growers. Several irrigation districts and Kings County leaders urged caution; they pressed staff to explain the technical basis for carve‑outs around Friant‑Kern Canal areas and warned that excluding users in some GSAs while not in others could complicate local coordination, enforcement and efforts to address subsidence.

Board counsel proposed specific language to address those equity and enforcement concerns by limiting the exclusion to users who both extract ≤20 ac‑ft/year and do not export groundwater outside the subbasin; the board adopted the staff resolution with that amendment in a unanimous roll call vote.

Board members emphasized the exclusion is subject to future revision. Staff will review annual extraction reporting and propose rescinding or narrowing the class of excluded pumpers if the data show the excluded class causes more than a minimal impact on basin withdrawals.

Sources: Staff presentation and public comment at the April 7 State Water Resources Control Board meeting.