The SGMA Weekly

McMullin's $56M Vote, $176M Federal Awards, and a Brewing Aqueduct Cost Fight — Jun 8, 2026

McMullin Area GSA's Proposition 218 election just passed in a landslide to fund a $56M flood capture expansion. The Bureau of Reclamation announced $176M in fresh Aging Infrastructure awards for the Delta-Mendota Canal and O'Neill Pumping Plant, with a $37.5M Kiewit contract approved to start the first canal subsidence fix. And a federal letter to DWR just opened up the larger ~$3B California Aqueduct Subsidence Program cost-share fight. Plus: White Wolf sharpens subsidence rules along the Aqueduct, Salinas Valley faces an August DWR deadline on a controversial brackish project, snowpack collapses to 6% of normal, and federal grant paperwork lags the cash. Read the full recaps at waterone.ai [http://waterone.ai] | Try Chat GSA for instant answers about your district --- AI can make mistakes. Check important info. WaterOne.ai [http://WaterOne.ai] (Mizu Analytics, Inc.) strives to provide timely, accurate, and reliable coverage of water, agriculture, and related issues. However, no guarantee is made as to the accuracy, completeness, or timeliness of the information presented. All content is provided for general informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as legal, financial, or professional advice. Users are solely responsible for any actions taken based on the information provided, and WaterOne disclaims all liability for errors, omissions, or outcomes resulting from the use of this site. The opinions expressed are those of the authors.

Federal Canal Money, Snowpack Collapse, and Oakley's Data-Center Pause — Jun 1, 2026

Federal canal-repair money just hit California in a big way: $200M to Friant-Kern, $235M to Delta-Mendota, and $50M to the San Luis Canal — totaling $485M+ in OBBB / Bureau of Reclamation investments discussed across this week's board meetings. Meanwhile, the snowpack supplying it all just collapsed to 3.5% of normal in the Tuolumne basin — a depth-of-collapse not seen since 1977. And Oakley extended its data-center moratorium another 10½ months, landing right inside Diablo Water District's service area. Read the full recaps at waterone.ai [http://waterone.ai] | Try Chat GSA for instant answers about your district --- AI can make mistakes. Check important info.

Allocations Climb, Storage Slips, and Southwest Kings Closes Loopholes — May 24, 2026

DWR raised the State Water Project allocation from 30% to 45% on May 15 and Reclamation lifted the CVP South-of-Delta agricultural allocation from 20% to 25% — but statewide groundwater storage still declined by roughly 1.5 million acre-feet in Water Year 2025, with 83% of extractions concentrated in the San Joaquin Valley. Pajaro Valley, Omochumne Hartnell, and Mound Basin all surfaced selective cost-relief signals for ratepayers this week, while Southwest Kings GSA stayed implementation of its allocation policy to close out-of-county and carryover loopholes ahead of a coordinated Tulare Lake single-GSP push targeting Q1 2027. Plus the Prop 4 Climate Bond ($368M statewide, no local match) starts driving real grant-prep across agencies, and the next wave of SGMA fee adoptions and Prop 218 hearings rolls through Yolo, Wyandotte Creek, Mound Basin, Desert Water Agency, Pajaro Valley, and South Fork Kings. Read the full recaps at waterone.ai [http://waterone.ai] | Try Chat GSA for instant answers about your district --- AI can make mistakes. Check important info. WaterOne.ai [http://WaterOne.ai] (Mizu Analytics, Inc.) strives to provide timely, accurate, and reliable coverage of water, agriculture, and related issues. However, no guarantee is made as to the accuracy, completeness, or timeliness of the information presented. All content is provided for general informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as legal, financial, or professional advice. Users are solely responsible for any actions taken based on the information provided, and WaterOne disclaims all liability for errors, omissions, or outcomes resulting from the use of this site. The opinions expressed are those of the authors.

Tule Interim Plan by the Board, Metropolitan Banking Deal, Karla to ACWA — May 18, 2026

The State Water Board's Tule interim plan is taking shape — staff revealed it could limit allocations to native safe yield only (under 0.25 AF/acre) with a 2-mile pumping moratorium and $20/AF probationary fees. Plus: four Valley GSAs hired Ewell Group to formalize a ~100,000 AF banking deal with the Metropolitan Water District; DWR Director Karla Nemeth departs July 2 to run ACWA; and golden mussels hit peak spawning with Arvin-Edison's Phase 1 copper treatment killing >90% at ~$3M. Trends: AB 2447 (nitrogen-limits bill) held in Appropriations, snowpack collapse compresses delivery windows, and Prop 4 funding prep moves from awareness to project lists. Read the full recaps at waterone.ai [http://waterone.ai] | Try Chat GSA for instant answers about your district --- AI can make mistakes. Check important info. WaterOne.ai [http://WaterOne.ai] (Mizu Analytics, Inc.) strives to provide timely, accurate, and reliable coverage of water, agriculture, and related issues. However, no guarantee is made as to the accuracy, completeness, or timeliness of the information presented. All content is provided for general informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as legal, financial, or professional advice. Users are solely responsible for any actions taken based on the information provided, and WaterOne disclaims all liability for errors, omissions, or outcomes resulting from the use of this site. The opinions expressed are those of the authors.

Tule Allocation Math Under Audit, GEARS Bug, Prop 4 Push — May 11, 2026

The State Water Board's denial of the remaining Tule Subbasin exclusion requests is opening into a deeper audit — state officials are now questioning local agencies' 34-year rolling precipitation averages, native sustainable yield calculations, and recharge-credit treatment, which could force structural changes to Basin Safe accounting in coming years. Porterville staff also reported the state is backing off the May 1 GEARS penalty after acknowledging a platform bug that doubled extraction totals for many manual filers (no formal State Water Board notice yet — sourced to PID staff). Plus: Kings and Kaweah growers face a compressed irrigation season with Kings River runoff in the mid-40% range, Mid-Kaweah pushes mandatory well registration with an October 31 target deadline, and the Prop 4 funding cycle starts pulling agencies into project-list mode while modeling and consulting costs become budget pressure points across subbasins. Read the full recaps at waterone.ai [http://waterone.ai] | Try Chat GSA for instant answers about your district --- AI can make mistakes. Check important info. WaterOne.ai [http://WaterOne.ai] (Mizu Analytics, Inc.) strives to provide timely, accurate, and reliable coverage of water, agriculture, and related issues. However, no guarantee is made as to the accuracy, completeness, or timeliness of the information presented. All content is provided for general informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as legal, financial, or professional advice. Users are solely responsible for any actions taken based on the information provided, and WaterOne disclaims all liability for errors, omissions, or outcomes resulting from the use of this site. The opinions expressed are those of the authors.