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Tulare County staff reports drop in well permits, raises concern as state takes over bottled-water and tank programs
Summary
County staff told the Tulare County Water Commission that well-permit applications are down year-to-date and that the state is taking over local bottled-water and tank programs — a change that could eliminate a 72-hour response guarantee for households reporting dry wells.
Denise England, Tulare County staff, told the Tulare County Water Commission on an agenda item about drought updates that 160 well permits had been issued through May 31, 2025, with a net of 115 permits after accounting for well destructions. "As of May 31, there were a 160 permits issued, with a net of 1 15 that's taking out the destructions," England said.
England said the county remains in dry conditions but that the situation was not as severe as earlier years. Commissioners asked for an expanded chart that includes 2022–2024 calendar-year totals so the year-to-date trend for 2025 can be compared against the last full year.
England also reported the county had not yet received updated statistics on water tanks and hauled-water deliveries. She said Self-Help Enterprises has been notified by the State Water Resources Control Board that the county-level tank and bottled-water programs will be transferred to the state. "One of the provisions the state board is taking away is the 72-hour response time," England said, noting county staff and others are concerned that the state will not hold itself to that standard and that households could be out of water for longer.
England said the county had "in the neighborhood of 300 tanks" in service and that some drought programs are extending water service in areas identified in the report (identified in the meeting as the West Ocean area and the Avenue 266/Harrison Road area). She described pockets of affected households that rely on private wells and are not near other systems, and highlighted communities discussed in the meeting as having limited long-term solutions, including Hypericum and Dogtown (near the road yard), which do not have nearby systems large enough to serve them.
On specific mitigation efforts, England said a recent Greater Kaweah meeting approved drilling an individual well to address declining groundwater for one community as part of a well-mitigation approach, but she emphasized that the county is not currently implementing a separate long-term county-managed solution for that community.
Commissioners and staff discussed possible longer-term options, including connecting to nearby systems where feasible; England noted that some utilities such as California Water Service have extended service east to certain tracks but that large-scale solutions in some areas remain a decade or more away. Commissioners asked for follow-up information, including additional calendar-year data and graphical displays to compare multi-year permit trends.
The commission did not take formal action on the drought report during the meeting.
The commission noted an upcoming local workshop unrelated to the county report: a Merced/Kaweah (identified in the meeting as the "MLRP") workshop for landowners about land repurposing on June 10 from 4 to 7 p.m. at the International Ag Center conference room, 4500 South La Spina near Tulare, for stakeholders interested in solutions after implementation of Sigma (SGMA implementation).
