1. City of Tulare Groundwater Crisis Demands Urgent Joint Action The district's Urban Strategic Plan has revealed that the City of Tulare's wells are creating a growing cone of depression in the lower aquifer that worsens regardless of wet or dry cycles. If the city must abandon the lower aquifer due to declining levels, it would be forced into the contaminated upper aquifer, which its treatment facilities are not equipped to handle. General Manager Aaron Fukuda outlined several near-term strategies being developed in partnership with the city, including a wastewater exchange program, a paid fallow program where the city would compensate growers on the city's edge to stop pumping and leave fields unirrigated (with TID redirecting that surface water for recharge near the city), and potential groundwater injection wells near Cart Mill and Mooney Boulevard. Growers on the city fringe should be aware that these programs may present both operational changes and financial opportunities in the coming 12 months.
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