Since 1991 the City has owned a potable water system that has 1,650 connections and serves the northerly portion of the City. The main source of supply since 1997 has been Water Well No. 1. To use the Well, the City has 1,914 acre-feet of Groundwater Pumping Rights in the Central Basin Groundwater Basin pursuant to a Court Adjudication of the Basin.
The City Water System uses approximately 1,140 acre-feet annually of those rights. The City has generally leased out annually the unused rights along with any carryover from the previous year with an outside water agency in the Central Basin Groundwater Basin with revenue going to the City Water Fund. The leasing can only be with other pumpers in the Central Basin.
For water year 2019-2020, the City will have approximately 750-acre feet of unused rights and for water years 2020-2021 and 2021-2022, the City will have approximately 750 acre-feet of unused rights. Staff solicited the leasing rights to thirteen (13) water agencies with pumping rights in the Central Basin Groundwater Basin and received one (1) offer as follows:
Staff contacted several agencies that have submitted offers in the past and all pumpers responded that they have surplus water and do not need to purchase additional water rights.