Tulare County details dozens of water projects, warns of stalled work in Earlimart

Denise England, grants and resource manager for the Tulare County Resource Management Agency, told the Tulare County Water Commission on July 14 that the county is managing dozens of disadvantaged-community water and wastewater projects funded by state and federal programs and that several projects risk delays or lost funds if work does not accelerate.

"We have several different programs. The longest standing is the disadvantaged community integrated regional water management involvement program, otherwise known as the DACI program," England said, adding that the program initially provided about $8,400,000 in implementation funding in two tranches.

The update described a mix of completed, active and planned projects across Tulare County. England said the county received an expedited Prop 68 drinking water grant of just over $13.5 million to drill a new water supply on property the county purchased from the Cutler-Orosi Joint Unified School District and to construct a distribution connection between East Orosi and the Orosi Public Utility District (PUD). The county has administrator funding through the State Revolving Fund (SRF) for East Orosi operations and received a separate gap grant of $199,631 for shortfalls between collected rates and operating costs.

England listed other project amounts: a Matheny Tract clean water SRF construction project near $25 million to connect 145 homes and three commercial…