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Madera County GSA committee recommends MOU with Valley Water Collaborative to coordinate domestic well testing and replacement water
Summary
The committee recommended that the board enter into an MOU with Valley Water Collaborative to coordinate water-quality testing and replacement water for domestic wells in the Delta Mendota Subbasin; committee vote was 2–0.
MADERA, Calif. — The Madera County Groundwater Sustainability Agency’s Delta Mendota Subbasin committee on Aug. 31 recommended that the GSA board enter into a memorandum of understanding with Valley Water Collaborative to coordinate domestic well water‑quality testing and replacement water supply services.
Jacinta Cabral, water resource specialist, told the committee the MOU would formalize data sharing and reduce duplicated efforts among the 23 GSAs in the Delta Mendota Subbasin. She said Valley Water Collaborative is a nonprofit that conducts nitrate and other contaminant testing and provides replacement water deliveries when domestic wells exceed California’s maximum contaminant levels. Cabral said the subbasin’s 2024 Groundwater Sustainability Plan (GSP) includes a domestic well mitigation policy and is currently under review by the State Water Resources Control Board.
Cabral told the committee there are currently no domestic wells located on lands covered by the Madera County GSA’s portion of the Delta Mendota Subbasin and that the county GSA has no funding source available for well mitigation at this time. The MOU includes terms to avoid duplicative testing, share data, strengthen subbasin domestic well mitigation practices, and to develop future agreements on funding for testing and replacement water. Cabral also noted the MOU touches implementation of management zone plans.
During public comment, Ralph Pisteresi urged the GSA to design any mitigation program so funding is sustainable, to involve fee payers in program administration, and to limit administrative overhead. Director McCauley said the Department of Water Resources recently released draft best‑practice guidance on domestic well mitigation and encouraged comments to DWR; staff agreed to share the DWR draft and the adopted Delta Mendota mitigation rules with Mr. Pisteresi.
A motion to recommend that the board enter into the MOU passed on a 2–0 vote (Directors McCauley and Gonzales voted yes). The committee noted the county GSA expects to be the last of the 23 GSAs to sign and that staff will gather the remaining signatures as the final step.
