Clear skies. Low 54F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph..

Clear skies. Low 54F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph.

Two Tulare County Supervisors have taken the State Water Resources Control Board to task when it comes to their slow response in providing funding for desperately needed water projects in rural areas of Tulare County.

In an op-ed they wrote, Fifth District Supervisor Dennis Townsend and First District Supervisor Larry Micari accused the board of not understanding how serious the situation is in the San Joaquin Valley.

“It seems that everyone but the people at California’s State Water Resources Control Board (State Board) understands the gravity of the Central San Joaquin Valley drought emergency,” Townsend and Micari wrote.

Particularly catching Townsend's and Micari's ire was the state board's emphasis on its Racial Equity Action Plan, describing it as “mission creep.”

“When we talk to our constituents and the local Community Water Systems about their water needs, they talk about the need for adequate water storage and supply and highlight how the state is diverting water flows away from the Valley,” Townsend and Micari wrote. “They understand the need to ensure that their wells and infrastructure are up to date and that crumbling wells are replaced and properly capped.

“Not once has racism come up in the conversation.”

Townsend and Micari also referred to a state audit done earlier this year that was heavily critical of the board.

“The State Board has recently been in the news for its poor handling of grant fund accountability, its slow application review processes, and its overreach of authority on water rights, as revealed by its loss in a significant court case regarding its ability to curtail river diversions during a drought,” Townsend and Micari wrote.

Townsend and Micari was referring to a recent court decision that upheld a 2015 ruling against the board's action to oder “junior” pre-1914 water rights holders to stop diverting water because available flows were needed for more senior pre-1914 water rights holders.

“It is not racial inequity that has kept our communities in perpetual water insecurity, being served by hauled water deliveries for nearly a decade while their water projects linger in a limbo of government bureaucracy. The bureaucracy itself is the culprit,” Townsend and Micari wrote.

Townsend and Micari wrote the state board set the Racial Equity Action Plan as a priority and secondary to normal duties. The plan is to be presented to the state board in 2023 with a more comprehensive plan to be presented in 2024.

“The State Board is the state agency tasked with administering water rights, and this looks a lot like mission creep at a time when the State Board already struggles to achieve its mission,” Townsend and Micari wrote.

In using the term “mission creep,” Townsend and Micari accused the board of taking on other missions when it hasn't fulfilled its main missions. This “mission creep” leads to “often resulting in unplanned projects, commitments, and an inability to fully achieve” the board's main missions, Townsend and Micari wrote.

Townsend and Micari referred to the State Audit Report stating the state board lacks urgency in funding improvements for contaminated water systems and noted the report stated the state board took 33 months on average for the entire process from application to funds being received to be completed. They noted the State Auditor stated that amount of time has nearly doubled in just four years.

Townsend and Micari also referred to the state's complicated way of managing water referring to the California Department of Water Resources allocating all of its 2021-2022 community drought funding within months and that the agency will likely allocate all of that funding in 2022-2023 in three months “proving that State agencies can fund projects effectively and efficiently if they chose.”

Townsend and Micari also wrote: “The State Board’s own website describes their principles and values this way, “The State Water Resources Control Board…{is}dedicated to a single vision: abundant clean water for human uses and environmental protection to sustain California's future.”

“While the State Board decides to focus on something other than their stated mission, our constituents, many of whom are disadvantaged and underserved populations, go without clean or readily available drinking water.”

Townsend and Micari wrote local agencies are working together to put forth the projects needed but without the state board finalizing them, “solutions cannot be implemented.

“We respectfully ask the State Water Resources Control Board to concentrate their efforts on delivering clean and reliable drinking water to all Californians, particularly to communities with an immediate need. Please, focus on the mission that is right in front of you.”

The county has referred to the state's board dragging its feet for numerous needed projects including in East Orosi and Seville and the effort to hook up the community of Tooleville to Exeter's water system. As a demonstration of Townsend's and Micari's point, the State Department of Water Resources recently allocated $7.2 million to Tooleville from its community drought relief program.

The county has noted all funding conditions for a $9.6 million project in Seville have been met. The county stated the water board stated the funding agreement would be completed by the end of the year. The county stated when it asked for the agreement to be expedited, it was told by the board they “will issue it when they issue it.”

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