Check which records your farm has.
Review the records a proposed orchard project would need and what is still missing. This check does not estimate a reduction and does not establish eligibility, a water benefit or a payment. The proposed method and its deductions are described below.
Records ready for review
- Metered wells, 3 or more years of pumping records, a known allocation and an orchard crop the program is set up for. Final eligibility would depend on the accepted project method, the source records and any required baseline.
A benchmark comparison needs a full year of water applied from all irrigation sources, compared with a published benchmark on the same basis. This check does not establish eligibility, a water benefit or a payment.
No reduction estimate on this page.
A reduction cannot be estimated until your source records, baseline and accounting method have been reviewed. This check shows which records you have and what is missing.
Baseline needs reviewA project baseline needs a review of your source records. Pumping and the GSA allocation must first use the same accounting basis.
Any measured figure would come from your own well meters over monitored seasons. Nothing here promises a payment.
3.00 acre-feet per acre, 1.00 below the published benchmark.
Benchmark comparison: the farm's own full-season water figure, labeled measured or estimated, against a published estimate on the same basis. A performance comparison, not a reduction.
Applied water of 3.00 acre-feet per acre is 1.00 acre-feet per acre below the published applied water benchmark of 4.00 for Almonds & Pistachios (DWR crop category) in Madera (estimated).
Figures entered here have not been checked against farm records. A comparison with a published estimate does not establish a reduction.
Benchmark row dwr-aw-madera-almonds-pistachios: Almonds & Pistachios (DWR crop category), Madera, 4.00 acre-feet per acre, applied water. Source: Statewide Agricultural Water Use Data 2016-2020 (Excel application tool), county sheets Regional_AW_Unit_County and Regional_ETc_Unit_County (California Department of Water Resources, 2024). Every row is on the method page.
No sponsor pricing is set and no sponsor has signed.
Any grower payment, permitted costs and payment basis would be set in signed agreements. Any payment would depend on sponsor funding and the signed agreement. Measurement alone does not create a payment obligation. For benchmark sponsorship, any grower payment follows the signed per-acre agreement and does not require a validated volume.
The method and the deductions
- Baseline: the baseline, uncertainty treatment and accounting quantity remain under review. A reduction assessment would use the accepted project method and your source records, either admissible historical pumping or a prospective measured period.
- Counted, if accepted: reduced withdrawal below an accepted baseline, with its measurement basis stated. Pumping cuts your GSA already requires do not count.
- Deductions, proposed: a conservative deduction of 23 percent is our starting proposal; its final size would follow the uncertainty assessment and the independent review.
- Optional adjustment, proposed: a consumptive-use factor of about 0.80, if the accepted method counts consumptive use rather than withdrawal.
- Commitments, as proposed: during the agreed claim period, the water or allocation behind a sponsor-used recorded reduction would not be sold or transferred, or used to irrigate newly planted acreage. Proposed project controls screen GSA transfers, carryover and later pumping.
- Stem water potential (SWP) readings document tree water status through the season; they do not measure pumped volume.
The proposed project method remains subject to technical and independent review. The full conditions are on the program page; the three record types and the benchmark sources are on the method page.
Ask whether your farm could fit
We would review your records and explain the next steps. Any funding or installation would depend on signed agreements. We reply by email. Sending this form does not commit you to anything; this page describes a program, not an offer or a contract.
How a proposed orchard project would be assessed, on the program page.
The evidence checklist.
- A site boundary file for the enrolled acres: shapefile, KML, or the GSA parcel map.
- Well meter logs, or dated photos of each meter face.
- Pump energy bills for the assessment period and the prior seasons.
- Weather: the CIMIS station we pair the farm with.
- Sensor data from the probes on the blocks.
- Photos of the irrigation equipment: pumps, filters, emitters.
- The assessment period, with its start and end dates.
- Written commitments for the agreed claim period: no sale or transfer of the water or allocation behind a sponsor-used recorded reduction, and no use of it to irrigate newly planted acreage.
You keep your raw data. Any proposed public statement by a sponsor would need supporting records and the reviews required for that project.
AgWaterAI shows orchard growers their water use against their groundwater allocation each week. On Platform, your own Certified Crop Adviser or adviser makes the call. On Managed, our Certified Crop Adviser does.