Measured groundwater reduction

Sponsors fund the sensors on your orchard. You get a share for the groundwater you don’t pump.

A company that wants to fund measured water stewardship pays for the sensors on your orchard and for the evidence. The evidence is your own wells: how much you pumped against your own past seasons, adjusted for the weather, checked against the crop’s stress limits with our readings. You keep your allocation and your water rights. You get 50% of what the sponsor pays, net of validation costs. Nothing is promised to anyone until a sponsor signs.

You can qualify two ways: by already using less water than farms like yours, or by pumping less than your own past seasons. Either way the evidence comes from your own wells.

Check if my farm fits Read the conditions

How it works

From your wells to a sponsor payment, in five steps.

Your wells
Metered pumping on your own wells. Where there is no meter, logged pump run-time, with that basis stated on the record, until one goes in.
Our sensors and readings
Soil probes on your blocks, pressure chamber readings by our crew on the monitoring plan’s schedule, and CIMIS weather.
Signed record
Probe reading summaries are signed into a tamper-evident record. Each issued order is kept with the readings behind it. Each record states whether a value is measured, calculated, estimated or agency-reported.
Independent check
The three numbers are computed and labelled. A validator reviews before anyone claims a volumetric benefit.
Sponsor payment
The sponsor pays for the sensors and the evidence. You receive your share, 50% of the net. Nothing is paid until a sponsor signs.

The three numbers, the benchmark sources and the deductions are on the method page.

How the number is checked

Every acre-foot will be checked five ways.

Your pumping recordsHistorical pumping records may support a baseline where coverage and flow evidence are adequate. Otherwise, a prospective measured baseline may be required. Final eligibility and baseline rules are established project by project.
Checked in the orchardPressure chamber readings document how the trees are doing through the season. They do not measure pumped volume.
Independently reviewedA third party reviews AgWaterAI’s volume calculation, following the Volumetric Water Benefit Accounting guidance (VWBA 2.0), before any validated volume is reported.
Reconciled with your GSAThe volume is checked against your GSA account and your allocation.
ProtectedThe water behind a recorded reduction is not sold, transferred or used to plant more acres, so the same water is not counted twice.

The program, step by step

Five steps, in order.

Eligibility check and baseline
We check whether your farm fits, then propose a baseline from admissible historical pumping evidence where coverage and flow documentation are adequate. Blocks without a defensible historical volume may need a prospective measured baseline. Weather adjustment, the treatment of your GSA allocation and the baseline cutoff remain subject to technical and assurance review.
Sensors installed by our field team
Our field team installs the sensors. The sponsor’s funding pays for the sensors and the install.
Monitored seasons
We monitor through the season with pressure chamber readings, and comparison blocks where the accepted protocol requires them. Your adviser keeps making the irrigation calls.
Third-party validation
AgWaterAI or an appointed technical adviser quantifies the reduced withdrawal, following the Volumetric Water Benefit Accounting (VWBA 2.0) guidance; an independent third party reviews the method, the evidence and the result.
A sponsor funds the validated volume
You receive 50% of the net sponsor payment for your farm’s validated volume. Net means after third-party validation and registry costs.

The conditions, plainly

Read these before you sign up.

Nothing is paid until a sponsor signs and the volume is validated.
Our proposed baseline will use admissible site-specific historical pumping evidence where coverage and flow documentation are adequate. Blocks without a defensible historical volume may require a prospective measured baseline. Weather adjustment, the treatment of the GSA allocation and the final baseline cutoff remain subject to technical and assurance review. Reduced withdrawal below an accepted baseline may qualify if the indicator, eligibility, attribution and GSA accounting requirements are met. Pumping cuts your GSA already requires never count, and we do not count estimated changes in crop water use.
You agree in writing not to sell or transfer the water behind a recorded reduction, and not to use it to plant more acres.
Proposed project controls will screen GSA transfers, carryover, later pumping, regulatory obligations and overlapping funded activities to prevent double counting or overstatement. Final treatment will follow the accepted project method and the applicable GSA account rules.
A sponsor may claim the share of the final volumetric water benefit expressly attributed to it under the project agreement and supported by the applicable assurance statement. The same attributed volume is not sold or claimed twice.
Your own adviser stays in charge of irrigation decisions.
Terms are set in a written agreement.

Who fits

The farms this works for.

A mature almond, pistachio or citrus orchard
Your own wells with flow meters
Pumping records: meter readings, run hours or power bills
Drip or microsprinkler irrigation

Not sure about one of these? Sign up anyway and tell us in the notes. We will say plainly whether your farm fits.

Want a planning figure before you sign up? Use the water potential check. It stays on this device until you send the form.

We reply by email. Sending this form does not commit you to anything. This page describes a program, not an offer or a contract.