Publisher’s Note: “It was a very good day for the IWV Water District, the Technical Working Group and the people living in the Indian Wells Valley.”

June 10th, 2026, Updated June 11th, 2026

Indian Wells Valley, California

At the same time that two hydrogeologists were giving testimony in the Phase 2 trial of the IWV’s comprehensive adjudication lawsuit, Steve Johnson of Stetson Engineers was defending himself at the GA monthly meeting. You’ll hear the public comments and Johnson’s statements at the beginning of the meeting.

Here are my notes from the testimony given by expert witnesses Timothy Parker and Lauren Wicks of the IWV Technical Working Group from yesterday’s testimony:

*DAY THREE UPDATE Wednesday June 10th, 2026:

It was a very good day for the IWV Water District and their technical experts, Timothy Parker and Lauren Wicks. Please refer to the TWG Trial Brief (download .pdf below) for their backgrounds. Both expert witnesses were well-prepared to answer questions by the attorneys and the judge, who was keenly interested in the science and their testimony.

The Technical Working Group was formed in 2022 and met every 2 weeks for 2 years. Both Tim Parker and Lauren Wicks were very involved in gathering available information from years of documentation on the hydrogeology in the basin. When asked whether GA TAC was involved in the determination and validation of the safe yield while on the TAC, as stated yesterday by GA water manager Steve Johnson of Stetson, Parker called it ‘hogwash’.

Parker’s testimony included questions about the Basin Control Model developed by the USGS as well as the Geophysical model used by SkyTem and their Aerial Electromagnetic survey. He also described what he called errors in the GA’s well mitigation analysis where over 90 wells were estimated to fail, calling that figure highly overstated as only a couple of well owners in the IWV have sought mitigation from the GA.

The USGS Basin Characterization Model was one of the methodologies used by the TWG in determining the recharge, along with the Thiessen Polygon method, were used to determine the recharge. Parker also testified that the GA TAC had “substantial disagreement” in both the determination of groundwater in storage and the safe yield.

Hydrogeologist Lauren Wicks appeared to master the art of making complex hydrology simple to understand. She preferred the “Change in Storage Method” which uses multiple water level data sets in determining the safe yield. Judge Claster followed along with great interest, asking questions for clarification as needed.

At the end of the day, Wicks was confident in stating that the safe yield in the IWV Groundwater Basin was “comfortably 15,400 acre-feet per year”.

After testimony was over for the day, GA Attorney Kyle Brochard indicated that he may make a motion on Friday for a referee from the State Water Board to be brought in to help the judge interpret the science. Judge Claster said he was comfortable with what he was learning and indicated it wouldn’t be necessary.

The GA attorneys filed an Ex Parte Application late yesterday afternoon.

The trial resumes on Monday at 9:00 a.m.

Comments at the GA meeting, June 10th, 2026

Note: Steve Johnson spoke during public comments defending the safe yield number of 7,650 acre feet per year.

The safe yield “was technically evaluated over time” by the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) and others. He further stated that “The suggestion that it’s an assumption is just not true”. – Steve Johnson, June 10th, 2026, GA meeting.

Publisher’s Comments:

I don’t think any of you will disagree when I say that the last 8 years have been extremely controversial and divisive for the people living in Ridgecrest, Inyokern and Trona. The Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Sustainability Agency was created December 8th, 2016.

SGMA created over 160 GSA’s that were intended to have “local control”. Governor Jerry Brown called this “Democracy in action” at the 10 year anniversary of SGMA conference in Sacramento.

This GSA certainly has no local control and it’s not representative democracy in action. The IWV Groundwater Authority is run by attorneys, outside contractors, a supervisor’s staff member from San Bernardino County, an attorney from Inyo County, a Kern County supervisor from Bakersfield, a city attorney from Ridgecrest who lives in Los Angeles, and a ‘water manager’ from San Rafael.
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Stetson Engineers was hired in the Fall of 2017. The IWV’s Groundwater Sustainability Plan was approved in January 2020. With all due respect to Jean Moran, a hydrogeologist and employee of Stetson Engineers, the GSP was rushed, the Safe Yield was never scientifically validated by the TAC, and the GSP, authored by Steve Johnson, should never have been approved by DWR in the first place.

In yesterday’s testimony at the Phase 2 comprehensive adjudication trial, Johnson was evasive and forgetful, and back in 2019 when members of the TAC and the public submitted extensive comments and concerns about the GSP, he dismissed many if not most of them with a “so noted” reply.

The members of the TAC weren’t given access to the original DRI model, their concerns were ignored and as Johnson testified yesterday, the “safe yield” was fixed, never to be changed again.

The GSP was a rush job. Steve Johnson was unwilling to take responsibility for the science, passing it off to Miss Moran, and he never asked DRI for access to the model. Today, we know that the original DRI model was never produced, the “safe yield” of 7,650 AFY was fixed by a consensus of the TAC, and that was the number used to calibrate the groundwater flow with the model’s calculations.

The 2020 GSP approval letter from DWR delineated 7 issues that needed to be addressed (exh. 359 DWR Approval letter). The 2025 five-year periodic review of the GSP was filed late with only 2 weeks given for the large pumper’s expert review of a 2,000-page document.

As far Stetson’s testimony that the Safe Yield was agreed to by a consensus of experts on the TAC, today we heard Tim Parker, the IWV Water District’s expert witness, call that assertion “hogwash”. The TAC wasn’t given the opportunity to establish a safe yield.

Regardless of the outcome of the Phase 2 trial, change is certainly coming to the IWV Groundwater Authority and the City of Ridgecrest. Councilman Scott Hayman will be vacating his seat on the council and will step down as the chair of the Authority at the end of this year.

Multiple business and economic organizations are lining up in opposition to the Groundwater Authority and SGMA in Ridgecrest, including the Realtors, the Chamber of Commerce, the IWV Economic Development Corporation and the newly formed “Taxpayers for Accountability for Our Groundwater”.

The Indian Wells Valley Water District and the ratepayers in the district have suffered damages approaching $20,000,000 in the form of “Replenishment and Extraction” fees, and Searles Valley Minerals is shutting down over half its operations with over half of their employees to be fired. The GA hasn’t completed the design of the AVEK pipeline, no “Table A” water has been purchased, and you don’t know what you’re going to do with the water if it ever gets imported here.

Last but not least, you’ve been getting bad legal advice, you sponsored bad legislation in secret called AB 1413, and you have no measureable results identifying or mitigating any alleged “undesirable results” from groundwater pumping in the IWV.

Change is coming to the GA and the City of Ridgecrest whether your attorneys or your consultants like it or not.

Thank you.