Meeting notes: Residents in Kern County desert groundwater basin need to represent their own water interests in ongoing court action
The basin depends on 7,650 acre feet of natural inflow each year but users pump out nearly 28,000 acre feet annually, creating a severe overdraft. As the Authority has worked to comply with the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) to bring the basin into balance numerous legal actions have erupted. The Authority restricted pumping for most users. The U.S. Navy, which operates the China Lake Navale Weapons Base in the basin, got the lion’s share of pumping. While agricultural users, such as Mojave Pistachios, which started planting in the high desert around 2010, received zero pumping allocation.