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Tulare County drought update: well permits down, 1,746 households enrolled in bottled‑water program
Summary
Denise, an environmental health staff member, presented the drought update to the Tulare County Water Commission, reporting that well permit totals remain on a downward trend and that environmental health has provided a revised slide showing permits back to 2022.
Denise, an environmental health staff member, presented the drought update to the Tulare County Water Commission, reporting that well permit totals remain on a downward trend and that environmental health has provided a revised slide showing permits back to 2022.
The update covered the county’s household water assistance programs. Denise said zero new water tanks were installed in June and that 233 tanks are enrolled in the county’s tank/hauled water program. She added the tank program is slated to be rolled over to the state board, and that Self Help (the current administrator) still anticipates that transfer though timing was “not specified.”
Denise said 1,746 households are enrolled in the bottled‑water program; of those, 222 are drought‑related and the remainder are enrolled for contamination issues. She also reported that two contamination‑related households were enrolled each week through June.
Commissioners asked whether wells addressed by a GSA well‑mitigation program still required local permits. Denise said they do: “Yes, they would still pull a permit in the exact same way.” Commissioners also raised that recent Greater Cahuilla Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA) discussion had identified 32 wells that had gone dry and were being considered for the well mitigation program.
Commissioners requested geographic clustering information for the bottled‑water and tank programs. A staff member who handles GIS data said Tulare County keeps program data in GIS and the office could produce maps showing clusterings; commissioners asked staff to request maps from Charlotte and her team so the datasets (tanks, bottled water, irrigated lands/management zones) could be overlaid.
Denise noted a map that normally accompanies the drought report was not shown at the meeting because of errors; county staff are fixing it.
Commissioners and staff clarified program administration: Self Help currently administers some programs but is not administering the irrigated‑lands program, and some program funding remaining in Self Help agreements is limited. Staff said the state board was planning to take over the tank program administratively, but a schedule was not provided.
No formal action was taken on the drought update. Staff agreed to ask GIS staff about producing overlay maps that include bottled‑water enrollments, tanks, and management zones for future meetings.
