The SGMA Weekly · Jun 29, 2026 · Friant-Kern's $200M Hits the Ground

After years of slow restoration, federal dollars are about to meet dirt on the Friant-Kern Canal. This week's SGMA Weekly covers four Must Knows and three Trends from the past week of California water-agency board action. In this episode: • Friant Water Authority locks in a real groundbreaking date for the $200M Friant-Kern Canal subsidence fix — Phase 2A bid period July–August, October construction start, formal groundbreaking the week of August 17 • Five districts update their long-range water outlooks — the coast comes in flush (Carpinteria selling $840K of surplus state water with Cachuma at 94%, Amador with a 10–12K AF surplus), the valley sharpens (SSJID facing up to 26% dry-year shortfalls, San Benito's 2045 deficit driven by water quality not supply) • Cross Valley Canal expansion comes down to a tough choice — a parallel canal that keeps 500 CFS flowing during construction, or a widened channel that demands a 140-day shutdown • Golden mussel response moves from emergency awareness to month-by-month operations across the connected canals — Dudek evaluating chlorine dioxide and sodium hypochlorite for the Cross Valley Canal Plus three Trends: 2027 demand-management triggers getting drafted (Colusa, Arroyo Seco, Vina each picking their own logic), GSP five-year periodic evaluations opening public comment windows this summer, and Kern locking in dedicated capital funds for its 50-year-old conveyance assets. Read the full briefings at WaterOne.ai. Try Chat GSA for instant answers about your district.