• Attachment A Carollo Brackish Water Study May 2010
• Attachment B PRA response from Water District October 19, 2022
• Attachment C 2019 TAC Slide Re Import Project Costs
• Attachment D Shallow Well Power Point October 2022
• Attachment E September 30, 2014 letter to Kern County Board of Supervisors

On October 4, 2022, the Indian Wells Valley Water District hosted a public workshop to share findings from community interviews and surveys conducted by Stantec, a neutral third-party facilitator working on behalf of DWR in the Indian Wells Valley basin.

From July through September 2022, Stantec staff conducted a stakeholder assessment consisting of a series of interviews (20 total) and an online, community-side survey. The interviews and surveys provided an opportunity for members of the community to share feedback on the local groundwater management challenges being faced and provide input on the potential options the basin should consider moving forward.

The purpose of the public workshop was to share the high-level findings from the interviews and surveys, gather feedback from community members on their observations, and discuss the next steps based on the assessment results. The PowerPoint presentations and the meeting recording can be found by accessing the links below:

Update: June 14, 2022

Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, California

Coso Operating Company LLC has joined a DWR Facilitation Stakeholder Group together with the Ridgecrest Area Association of Realtors and the IWV Economic Development Corporation.

For more information:

Coso Geothermal in Play With Just the Facts (UPDATE JUNE 14, 2022: Coso Geothermal Joins DWR Facilitation Stakeholder Group)

Approximately 50 residents, Council members and Board Members gathered for a public meeting introducing the DWR to the Ridgecrest City Council and the Indian Wells Valley.

Paul Gosselin, Deputy Director of SGMA’s Implentation Program was accompanied by a facilitator named Lisa from Stantec’s SGMA Facilitation Team.

Stakeholders often don’t reach consensus. The Facilitation program is meant to iron out disagreements and to create dialog in the community. A professional, neutral party is helpful to build bridges and have some frank discussions.

Paul Gosselin, Department of Water Resources

The Facilitation Plan Includes the Valley’s Five Largest Pumpers

The meeting and facilitation effort will be conducted by DWR and Stantec, a firm providing SGMA’s Facilitation Services program.

The Facilitation Plan includes the valley’s five large pumpers. All residents are impacted by GSP and all five have indicated an intent to participate actively in the DWR facilitation process. They are,

• Indian Wells Valley Water District
• U.S. Navy
• Mojave Pistachios
• Searles Valley
• Meadowbrook

Other Stakeholders in the basin will also be participants in the facilitation plan. They will be determined after a DWR and Stantec assessment and will be brought into the facilitation process at the appropriate time.

Any discussion should begin with SGMA and the GSP and the intended actions needed to bring the basin into sustainability

Four Factors:

The IWV basin 6-54 is a High Priority, critically over-drafted basin.

IWV has 25,000 acre feet of pumping.

The Replenishment Fee is charged for every acre foot of water over and above the current recharge of 7,650 acre feet of water per year.

Replenishment fee is to be used to purchase imported water.

Jim Worth, IWVWD Attorney

Submission of the GSP to DWR and the resulting implementation actions proposed by the GA resulted in the filing of seven lawsuits to date, challenging the GSP, the implementation actions and some of them are requesting a court declaration binding water rights for everybody in the valley.

As a result of the lawsuits, the IWVWD made the decision to file for a comprehensive adjudication with two intentions:

1. To bring long term certainty.

2. To bring a final and binding court determination as to the water rights in the basin. The GA lacks the authority to determine water rights. The only person that can do that is the judge. It’s why the Water District filed the adjudication.

Jim Worth, IWVWD Attorney

Water District attorney Jim Worth explained how the facilitation plan came about:

On July 16th DWR sent a letter to all Stakeholders in the basin offering facilitation support to bring the Stakeholders together to address the challenges facing the basin with SGMA, the GSP and related lawsuits.

The GA was intended to be the lead agency for the facilitation and they declined for reasons they can speak to.

Fortunately, DWR did not stop there. They contacted the Water District to see if the district was interested in taking over as the lead agency and trying to move the facilitation forward. Much to the reluctance of legal counsel, the District board instructed staff to work with DWR and Stantec to go ahead and see we were able to make the facilitation work.

The facilitation services offered by DWR include 9 specific categories, so it took a couple of months working with DWR and Stantec to jointly prepare a work plan.

Jim Worth, IWVWD Attorney, 5/17/22 DWR Facilitation Public Meeting

Last July, although the GSP hadn’t been approved, DWR reached out to all Stakeholders in the basin offering Facilitation knowing that the IWVGA and community are divided while the GSP was the subject of seven lawsuits.

Continuing on, while recognizing the many issues with a Groundwater Sustainability Plan that was submitted over 2 years ago with unresolved data gaps critical to an evaluation of our basin overdraft, recharge and water in storage. DWR approved the plan while issuing numerous corrective actions that will be resolved with additional Manaagment Actions and potential alternative projects, for another evaluation by DWR no later than January 2025.

Jim Worth, IWVWD Attorney