County oil proposal would help fund water system consolidations

Yahoo

15-03-2025

Local water systems on the brink of failure would receive assistance totaling tens of millions of dollars per year from an unlikely source as part of a proposal being floated by Kern government to resolve a series of lawsuits that have held up county oil permitting for more than two years.
The plan unveiled Friday would set up a fund to help struggling drinking water systems link up with larger, stronger peers nearby. The county estimates the fund — supported entirely by fees of $9,732 per new oil well — would receive an average of $17.3 million, and up to $25.9 million, per year for what are called system consolidations and related efforts.
If approved by the county Board of Supervisors later this year, and assuming California's 5th District Court of Appeal signs off on Kern's broader permitting proposal, the plan would offer a new source of grant funding for local water systems at a time when existing financial support appears at risk from state budget vulnerabilities.
Individual residential wells and those serving agricultural interests, as well as local groundwater sustainability agencies, would not be eligible for money under the proposal because the county's idea has been to assist disadvantaged communities that may be impacted by the oil industry's water use. The plan's architect, Director Lorelei Oviatt of Kern's Planning and Natural Resources Department, said the county wanted to help as many people as possible.
"This seemed like an area that is a bigger result — more people being benefited in the disadvantaged communities," Oviatt said Friday. "It's clearly a need."
Support for local water systems took on a degree of urgency for the county, and by extension the oil industry, after the appellate court ruled in March 2023 that Kern's massive environmental review undergirding a local permitting ordinance was insufficient in three respects. One of them was a finding that more must be done to address local oil production's impacts on poor, disadvantaged communities.
By the county's estimate, the local oil industry consumes a little more than 11,760 acre-feet of water per year.
The proposed Disadvantaged Communities Water Relief Fund would be administered by the county Public Health department in coordination with Oviatt's department. Water systems, or organizations serving them, would need to apply and undergo a qualification review before they could receive grant money.
Oviatt said some of the support for water system consolidations could be conditioned on some level of support from the state or other sources, though details remain to be worked out.
It is expected that a primary recipient of grants could be Visalia-based Self-Help Enterprises, which is like a first-responder agency helping people whose wells have gone dry or whose water has become contaminated.
While Self-Help offers assistance to individuals suffering from water well problems, it also helps entire systems consolidate with neighboring districts.
Money for such work now largely flows from the State Water Resources Control Board, whose spokesman said the agency was not in a position Friday to comment on the county's proposal. But as Self-Help President and CEO Tom Collishaw explained, there is concern the board's financial support could be limited in the years to come.
Collishaw, who said he was aware of the county's proposal but not deeply familiar with it, welcomed the idea that oil industry money could help support his organization's mission.
He added that the nonprofit has been hoping a new source of funding would arise now that state support appears to be in jeopardy, "so, from that standpoint, this is really exciting to us."
The state board's website for water system consolidations shows a list of projects awaiting action, including several in the valley portion of Kern County, where the proposed fund would focus. The list is available online at https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/drinking_water/programs/compliance/.
Oviatt said the need for such work is "pent-up" and so "there needs to be other sources of funding."
Such work can involve drilling new wells, installing water storage tanks, putting in pumps, laying pipelines and expanding water treatment facilities — all of which may be paid for by the proposed fund, Oviatt said.
She estimated that the cost of a full consolidation at between $600,000 and $1 million per consolidation.
Another possible use of the money, she added, could be helping an organization like Self-Help hire new engineers to meet the needs of struggling local water systems.