Two water storage projects in Kern and Tulare counties received $34 million in federal grants through the Bureau of Reclamation’s Small Storage Grant Program, according to an announcement Thursday.  The lion’s share of that funding, about $25 million, will go to the Kern Fan Project, a 1,300-acre groundwater banking project with an environmental “twist” that has been under construction since 2024. Specifically, this latest federal grant will help pay for a canal within the Kern Fan Project to bring excess water off the California Aqueduct in wet years into the bank. … The remainder of the recent Bureau of Reclamation grant funding, about $9.28 million, will help repurpose an old gravel mine in Tulare County to develop a 235-acre reservoir.

Other water systems and infrastructure news:

• KRCR (Redding, Calif.): Newsom announces Sites Reservoir moves closer to construction ahead of key permit vote
• Gov. Gavin Newsom: News release: California’s largest new water storage project takes a major step forward
• SJV Water (Bakersfield, Calif.): Madera County residents plagued by dry wells surprised, and hopeful, that new recharge basin will help in dry times
• Santa Monica Daily Press (Calif.): Santa Monica backs plan to pipe purified wastewater into tap water as self-sufficiency goal slips
• The Sacramento Bee (Calif.): Opinion: How one man kept the water flowing in the Yolo County community of Madison