State supreme court declines to hear groundwater case out of Kings County

• Editor’s note: Monserrat Solis covers Kings County water issues for SJV Water through the California Local News Fellowship initiative. 

The California Supreme Court denied a petition by the Kings County Farm Bureau to review whether the Fifth District Court of Appeal properly reversed a preliminary injunction against the state last year.

Despite the set back, the Farm Bureau vowed to continue with its underlying lawsuit.

“The Supreme Court’s decision narrows the causes of action, but it does not end the case,” Executive Director of the Farm Bureau, Dusty Ference said in a statement issued following the denial on Thursday.

A Water Board spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.

The Farm Bureau sued the state Water Resources Control board in May 2024 after the Water Board placed the Tulare Lake subbasin, which covers most of Kings County, on probation for lacking an adequate groundwater plan as required per the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA).

Under probation, Kings County farmers are required to meter and register their wells at $300 each, report extractions and pay the state a $20-per-acre-foot fee.

A Kings County Superior Judge issued preliminary injunction holding off those sanctions in Sept. 2024, saying the state’s actions had been capricious and lacked transparency. The Water Board appealed and, in October 2025, the 5th District reversed the injunction.

The appellate court, however, did leave several causes of action alive.

Those include that the Water Board may have exceeded its authority and imposed sanctions improperly.

Appellate justices also said the Water Board failed to exempt two groundwater agencies from probation under the so-called “good actor clause,” meaning they were in compliance with the SGMA, which requires overdrafted regions to come into balance by 2040.

Those two agencies are the Tri-County Water Authority and Southwest Kings Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA).

Justices also found that the Water Board should have reviewed the Tulare Lake subbasin GSAs individually, instead of lumping the agencies into one.

Those issues will return to the Kings County Superior Court, though no date has been set.

“The central questions about the (Water) Board’s authority and the legality of its actions are still before the Superior Court. We will continue to pursue those claims through the proper legal channels,” Ference said.

Kings County farmers are expected to begin reporting  groundwater extractions to the statestarting May 1. Fees of $20-per-acre-foot will follow.

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