Catch up on the latest GSA board meeting recaps anytime—at home, on the road, or on your tractor.
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EKI identified calibration weaknesses in the Tulare Lake groundwater model and will await its 2026 update. Staff said overdue GEARS reports from either reporting period face 25% monthly penalties beginning February 1, 2027. Staff plans to seek a county bridge loan pending Prop 218 revenue and bring budgets to the next board meeting. A Prop 26 extraction fee would follow a separate agenda process; no fee or loan was approved. The November and December meetings are planned to be combined on a date to be determined.
State officials intend to make $10 million in budgeted grant funds available for MAGSA’s expansion project; an agreement amendment is still planned, and lower financing costs are possible, not assured. The board approved the form of a W.M. Lyles construction contract and authorized its execution, with two members recused. It also set a November 4 hearing on a proposed Resolution of Necessity for project easements.
The Executive Committee opposed adding DWR and Riverside County LAFCO meetings as standing compensable events and did not support adding a ticketed Desert Hot Springs wellness retreat. The October 20 board agenda includes an already-budgeted Environmental Compliance Coordinator position that must be added to the salary chart before it is filled, plus a proposed sale of part of a Whitewater Mutual easement.
The board rejected Alternative 3’s package of minimum thresholds 40 feet below objectives and early-warning levels 15 feet below them outside Chico, 2–3. It sent threshold options, early-warning language and the non-dry-year condition to its advisory committee. In a separate 4–1 vote, it directed staff to draft removal of that condition; no plan amendment was adopted. Residents described wells under strain. The board approved a Davids Engineering agreement.
The board discussed a possible sales program for unused Nacimiento water, but buyer costs and contract terms remain unsettled and may be unaffordable for growers. Lee reported that the county considers El Niño present and is preparing for possible heavy rain, although storms are not assured. Members discussed on-farm stormwater capture and possible educational outreach with a local resource conservation district.
