2022 Fiscal Year Updates

At the June 17th board meeting, the South Fork Kings Board approved the budget for the 2022 Fiscal Year. Here are a few items to note from that discussion.

Board levies $9/year assessment

The South Fork Kings GSA Board approved a resolution pursuant to South Fork Kings GSA’s 2018 Proposition 218 election, which authorized the Board to levy a five-year assessment up to the maximum of nine dollars and eighty cents per acre per year for SGMA implementation. The Board authorized an assessment of landowners for $9.00 per acre for fiscal year 2021-2022.

Board approves Geosyntec’s work orders for Fiscal Year 2022

Amer Hussain, a Geosyntec representative, presented task orders for the year as outlined by the Fiscal Year 2022 budget. Over the course of the year, Geosyntec will be performing the following task orders:

1. Project Coordination/Meetings.
2. Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR) Pilot Test- Geosyntec will finalize the ASR report to be submitted to the Regional Water Quality Control Board and Division of Drinking Water.
3. ASR CEQA Document- A programmatic Environmental Impact Report under CEQA will be drafted and submitted to the Regional Water Quality Control Board.
4. Groundwater Monitoring Program- This work will involve collecting semi-annual water level measurements, reviewing and evaluating GSA thresholds and objectives, and upholding commitments to monitoring programs as stated in the Tulare Lake Subbasin’s Groundwater Sustainability Plan (GSP).
5. Database management.
6. Grants- Geosyntec will research, manage and coordinate funding opportunities that South Fork Kings KGSA may qualify for and pursue.
7. Project Design- Geosyntec will prepare and plan initial conceptual plans for project(s) and provide description of project(s) for the Tulare Lake Subbasin Annual Report.
8. Surrounding Basin Coordination.
9. Monitoring Well- The GSP identified five data gaps and outlined that five wells would be installed over time to gather that data. Geosyntec will coordinate the installation of a B-Zone well within a beneficial location to the GSA.

Separately, Geosyntec requested additional funds of $15,000 for the work they did to prepare the Water Year 2020 Annual Report on behalf of the Tulare Lake Subbasin. Additionally, Geosyntec also requested funding to prepare Water Year 2021’s Annual Report. Geosyntec anticipates that the Tulare Lake Subbasin will receive their comments from DWR on their GSP and then have 180 days to respond to these comments. Geosyntec is tasked with responding to these comments.

SFKGSA is only responsible for 15% of the fees charged to the Tulare Lake Subbasin for Annual Report work.

The Board approved these items.

Land IQ will provide important data to calculate groundwater extraction in the region

A one year contract with Land IQ was also approved by the South Fork Kings GSA Board. Land IQ will provide South Fork Kings GSA with evapotranspiration data, precipitation data, and land-use/crop data at a parcel level. This data will then be used to calculate groundwater extraction information.  Amer Hussain explained that in these calculations, surface water that is brought into the region will have to be subtracted. Land IQ will be directly contracted with South Fork Kings GSA to carry out this work.