State Water Board Staff Conditionally Recommends Returning Control of Kern Subbasin to Department of Water Resources

On September 17, 2025, the State Water Resources Control Board will consider placing the Kern Subbasin on Probation. Last February, the State Board considered this issue and decided there was enough progress being made to give the Kern GSAs a little more time. They set a date of September 17 to reconsider the issue.

The Kern Subbasin is by far the largest in the state. It encompasses over 1 million acres and has a complex water system and history, not to mention a large oil extraction industry. There are 20 different GSAs in Kern, and initially, coordination between them was an issue that the Department of Water Resources (DWR) and then the State Board identified as needing to be solved if the Kern Subbasin was going to be successful in reaching sustainability.

The Kern Subbasin is home to some of the oldest water rights and water disputes in California. Because there is very little native groundwater, the huge agricultural productivity of the area was made possible by developing surface water systems. These include full utilization of the Kern River, which in wet years can produce millions of acre feet of supply but in dry years, produces almost nothing. The Kern Subbasin also receives significant Friant water that originates in Fresno and Madera Counties and State Water Project water that originates in Plumas County in the Northern part of California. Almost all of the irrigated agriculture in Kern is in a water district which has the advantage of having access not only to surface water, but also governance and management expertise. Another important feature unique to Kern is the hosting of several large water banks that are utilized by Southern California and Bay Area urban water districts.

The downside of having all of these water districts is that historically they have not always gotten along. But the threat of State intervention, and from my observation, the stepping up of terrific leadership by the various water district elected officials and managers led to unprecedented coordination and cooperation by the Kern Subbasin entities. They, along with an excellent consulting team, addressed all of the issues the State Board staff threw at them. It now appears from the staff report that they are very close to being sent back to DWR.  Below are the remaining conditions the State Board staff are recommending. The Kern entities will have between now and September 17 to address these. My opinion is that having come this far, they should be able to close the gap and get over the finish line. The negative consequences to not only the Kern parties, but really to large segments of the rest of the state that would result from putting Kern in probation, would be a catastrophic failure. It would undermine all of the good work that has been done and put a huge cloud over the status of the nearly 2 million acre-feet of water stored in Kern water banks. The Kern GSAs have done their job. The State Board staff has done its job. The State Board now needs to do its job and send jurisdiction over the Kern Subbasin back to DWR.

State Board Staff Recommendations

“Board staff concludes that the GSAs have substantially, though not completely, resolved the previously identified deficiencies and that with the substantial resolution of deficiencies the GSPs are likely to achieve the sustainability goal for the basin. Therefore, Board staff recommends that the Board return the Kern County Subbasin to DWR for review of the updated GSPs pursuant to Water Code section 10733.4 if the GSAs resolve three of the remaining issues: 

(1) providing an adequate mitigation program for drinking water wells impacted by any constituent for which a minimum threshold is established in the GSPs, including 1,2,3-TCP, where groundwater activities cause concentrations to exceed those minimum thresholds. 

(2) providing an adequate mitigation program for state small water system wells (or domestic wells with more than four service connections) impacted by groundwater management activities; and 

(3) eliminating the Kern Non-Districted Land Authority GSA Joint Exercise of Powers Agreement May 2026 sunset provision, which would result in unmanaged areas of the subbasin that are a potential basis for state intervention.”  

Geoff Vanden Heuvel

Director of Regulatory and Economic Affairs