EASTSIDE

WATER DISTRICT

ABOUT THE DISTRICT

The Eastside Water District (District) is comprised of about 54,000 acres in Merced and Stanislaus Counties farming high value, non-subsidized crops that are irrigated by highly efficient methods. Most of the land within District is agricultural and is irrigated with groundwater. The only other source of supply is a very limited amount of surface water from purchases in wet years from the Turlock and Merced Irrigation District’s canals lying adjacent to District and from riparian water rights along the Tuolumne and Merced Rivers. The groundwater within District apparently is declining at about two feet per year which is creating an average annual deficit of about 80,000 acre-feet.

The District was formed in 1985, after about twenty years of struggle, in recognition that if the overdraft was allowed to continue unabated there could come a time when pumping groundwater for irrigation would no longer be economic, or the quality of water pumped would not be satisfactory for irrigation. The District was formed, by election of landowners within the District, under California Law, as a legal body to address water needs of the area. The District is governed by a five person Board of Directors elected to serve alternating four year terms.

In the late 1980’s the District retained the services of Boyle Engineering Corp. to conduct studies and make recommendations. An Irrigation Water Master Plan was completed in 1990. In 1994, the District completed a Groundwater Management Plan under California Assembly Bill 3030. The Plan identifies nineteen tasks to: monitor groundwater levels and quality, reduce pumping through improved conservation and further development of surface water/groundwater conjunctive use programs, and search for water supplies and methods to recharge the groundwater. In years 1995 through 1998 the District developed and funded an incentive program to encourage irrigators to use available wet year water from the Turlock and Merced Irrigation Districts.

The District has joined other agencies who pump water from the common Turlock Groundwater Basin in developing and adopting a Basin-wide Groundwater Management Plan with the objective of coordination and joint efforts to stabilize groundwater levels.

In 1997 the District constructed a Pilot Recharge Basin near Monte Vista Avenue and very successfully operated it during the irrigation seasons of 1998, 1999 and 2000. See Recharge Investigations for more details.

The District is planning to expand its studies by constructing an enlarged pilot recharge basin at the Monte Vista Site and a new pilot recharge basin near the Turlock Airport. Also it is planning to undertake a Groundwater and Multiple Resources Integration Planning Study. Anthony Barkett, Attorney and Psomas (engineering consultants) have recently been retained to assist in the preparation and submission of applications for grants to enable continued exploration of solutions to remedy the groundwater overdraft.