The SGMA Weekly · Jun 29, 2026 · Friant-Kern's $200M Hits the Ground

The SGMA Weekly · Jun 29, 2026 · Friant-Kern's $200M Hits the Ground

After years of slow restoration, federal dollars are about to meet dirt on the Friant-Kern Canal. This week's SGMA Weekly covers four Must Knows and three Trends from the past week of California water-agency board action. In this episode: • Friant Water Authority locks in a real groundbreaking date for the $200M Friant-Kern Canal subsidence fix — Phase 2A bid period July–August, October construction start, formal groundbreaking the week of August 17 • Five districts update their long-range water outlooks — the coast comes in flush (Carpinteria selling $840K of surplus state water with Cachuma at 94%, Amador with a 10–12K AF surplus), the valley sharpens (SSJID facing up to 26% dry-year shortfalls, San Benito's 2045 deficit driven by water quality not supply) • Cross Valley Canal expansion comes down to a tough choice — a parallel canal that keeps 500 CFS flowing during construction, or a widened channel that demands a 140-day shutdown • Golden mussel response moves from emergency awareness to month-by-month operations across the connected canals — Dudek evaluating chlorine dioxide and sodium hypochlorite for the Cross Valley Canal Plus three Trends: 2027 demand-management triggers getting drafted (Colusa, Arroyo Seco, Vina each picking their own logic), GSP five-year periodic evaluations opening public comment windows this summer, and Kern locking in dedicated capital funds for its 50-year-old conveyance assets. Read the full briefings at WaterOne.ai [http://WaterOne.ai]. Try Chat GSA for instant answers about your district.

Subsidence Goalposts, Sites Reservoir at $1.36B, $200K Basin Fee — Jun 22, 2026

This week the Department of Water Resources is treating subsidence as "irreparable harm" requiring immediate action — a stance shift surfaced at three different boards this week (Chowchilla, North Kern, Omochumne Hartnell). The California Water Commission lifted Sites Reservoir's conditional funding ceiling to $1.36 billion as a September water-rights decision looms. The State Water Board is floating a $200,000 application fee just to request a basin exclusion — comments due July 10. Plus: Pajaro Valley and Desert Water Agency rate decisions hitting binding action, San Antonio Basin enforcement letters going out, the Tulare Lake sub-basin consolidating to a single state liaison, federal "One Big Beautiful Bill" money landing on Delta-Mendota Canal repairs, and conjunctive-use recharge gaining momentum across three different boards. 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.

Indian Wells Goes to Trial, Kern Tightens Subsidence Rules — Jun 15, 2026

A California court enters Phase 2 of the Indian Wells Valley safe-yield trial — testing how a court-adjudicated number will line up against a GSA's SGMA sustainable-yield. Kern Subbasin moves to a stricter "critical head" subsidence standard tied to DWR's January 2026 BMPs. Plus: Tule advances a 20-year land repurposing program, Salinas weighs a deep-aquifer pumping moratorium, and the well-registration enforcement era gets real across multiple basins. 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.

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.