Document Details

Tehachapi-Cummings County Water District (TCCWD) v. Armstrong et al

Jay R. Ballantyne | February 25th, 1972


From An Evaluation of California’s Adjudicated Groundwater Basins by Langridge et al, UC Davis (2016):

“Tehachapi Basin (1, 2) , Cummings Basin, and Brite Basin are three small groundwater basins in Kern County. Although the basins were adjudicated separately, a single entity, The Tehachapi-Cummings County Water District (TCCWD) serves as Watermaster over the three distinct groundwater basins. An interesting finding is that the Cummings adjudication was never completed. Because of this, its users rely on overlying rights with voluntary agreements, and there is no regulated curtailment of withdrawals. There are only a few big users so it is able to track its water use with relative accuracy, but the basin has significant overdraft. Two of its major users (Stallion Springs and Bear Valley) pump water from the basin that is delivered to offsite users, and they offset the export with imported water. Two-thirds of the residents within Cummings Basin are inmates at the California Correctional Institute.”

Keywords

adjudicated basins, Groundwater Exchange, groundwater pumping impacts, water rights