GSA Committee Meeting 11/10/2026

The Madera County Groundwater Sustainability Agency Committee met on November 10, 2026. The committee approved, by 2–0 votes, continuation of the existing Rapalis Financial Consultants agreement, which has a not-to-exceed amount of $500,000 and a reported remaining balance of $358,341.64, and an extension of GEI Consultants’ contract through December 31, 2028; staff said the GEI contract still had funds available. The committee also approved, 2–0, a three-year David’s Engineering, Inc. scope to prepare Chowchilla Subbasin groundwater sustainability plan annual reports for water years 2026–2028, at a total cost of $267,500 shared among four parties.

The committee approved, 2–0, removing the 30-year well-age cutoff from the domestic well mitigation program. The existing $35,000-per-property assistance cap and professional well assessments remain, so eligibility will focus on the likely cause of failure rather than age alone. Discussion highlighted delays and transparency concerns: staff reported about 80 applicants in process, a separate pool of 75 applicants, no wells drilled to date, and a $4.7 million cash balance. The committee requested a detailed program and financial report at a future meeting. Other informational items covered California emergency stream-work notifications and website accessibility; no related purchasing action was taken.