State board pauses decision on Kern subbasin; continues hearing after staff warns of remaining plan deficiencies

The State Water Resources Control Board on Feb. 20 voted to continue its hearing on whether to place the Kern County groundwater subbasin under a probationary designation under the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), after staff urged the board that the subbasin still has “‘key deficiencies’” in groundwater-sustainability plans that could justify state intervention.

The board’s action adopts an alternative draft resolution continuing the hearing to a date certain and directing staff to keep working with local groundwater sustainability agencies to resolve outstanding issues. The board’s move came after a full day of staff presentations, technical testimony from the Department of Water Resources and local agencies, and several hours of public comment from tribal leaders, city officials and community members who offered sharply differing views on whether more local time would fix the problems or whether immediate state action is needed.

Staff director Natalie Stork summarized the technical case for state attention: the subbasin’s adopted 2024 sustainability plans still contain unresolved deficiencies in five areas the State identified — coordination among local agencies, groundwater-level thresholds and monitoring,…