Presentations

This paper provides an overview of the Water Supply Enhancement Project (Project) for the Poso Creek Integrated Regional Water Management (IRWM) Region (Region). The Project involves implementation of both non-structural and structural measures identified in the Poso Creek IRWM Plan. A combination of local, private, state, and federal funding sources are being utilized to fund the implementation measures. The Region is located in north Kern County and southern Tulare County of the Southern San Joaquin Valley, California, and contains predominately agricultural districts with 347,000 irrigated acres out of 500,000 gross acres. The managed water supplies for districts within the Region include: Local: Kern River, Poso Creek, and the common groundwater basin; State: State Water Project (SWP) via the California Aqueduct; Federal: Central Valley Project (CVP) via the California Aqueduct and the Friant-Kern Canal. Court-ordered actions and hydrologic droughts in California are causing a decrease in available surface supplies to agricultural, urban, and environmental water users. Implementation of the Project is needed to off-set existing and projected losses to surface supply reliability and to conserve groundwater. Since the Region is located at the crossroads of the California Aqueduct, Friant-Kern Canal, and the Kern River, it is an ideal location for conjunctive management